Peter Berger, In Memoriam (Leighton Ford)

Peter Berger is dead at 88.

So the New York Times reported this week, about the influential sociologist who half a century ago and since so powerfully opposed the “God is Dead” theology, and argued that faith is actually growing in most of the non-Western world.

Professor Berger wrote his book A Rumor of Angels: Modern Society and the Rediscovery of the Supernatural,  published in 1969, arguing, that the skepticism of the atheist was as questionable as blind faith, and that while secularism (then) was on the rise, people could find “signals of transcendence” in their everyday life – a mother’s assurance to a frightened child, hope in the face of death, the ability to confront monstrous evil suggesting belief in a moral universe, as well as the way laughter and play affirm beauty over destruction.

I have heard “a rumor of angels” that Dr. Berger has relocated, but is very much alive!

Leighton Ford