Many Altars, ix

Peter Berger's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Many-Altars-Modernity-Pluralist/dp/1614517509">The Many Altars of Modernity: Toward a Paradigm for Religion in a Pluralist Age</a>

     Secularization theory, based on the idea that modernity necessarily brings about a decline of religion, has for a time served as a paradigm for the study of religion. It can no longer be maintained in the face of the empirical evidence. A new paradigm is needed. I think that it must be based on the many implications of the phenomenon of pluralism. I propose that a new paradigm should be able to deal with two pluralisms—the co-existence of different religions and the coexistence of religious and secular discourses. This co-existence occurs both in the minds of individuals and in social space. I intend this book to be a step toward such a paradigm for the understanding of modernity and religion. (ix)