Peter L. Berger and Arnold Gehlen : secularization, institutions and social order

For sociologists of my generation, our introduction to undergraduate sociology was typically through Peter L. Berger’s Invitation to Sociology (1963). I still possess my Penguin paperback copy, which I bought while at the University of Leeds in 1968. The Invitation is well written and packed with illustrations that an average student could understand and remember. The basic theory behind the book is somewhat hidden, and few students would have taken much notice of the limited references in the footnotes to the German sociologist Arnold Gehlen (1904–1976), who in many ways is the theoretical backbone of the book. Gehlen’s sociology is complex and challenging, but the basic idea is that animals are driven and determined by their instincts, while humans also have instincts, their lives are determined and guided by...

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