“The organism—in isolation nothing but a separate pole of "meaningless" subjective processes—becomes a Self by embarking with others upon the construction of an "objective" and moral universe of meaning. Thereby the organization transcends its biological nature.
It is in keeping with an elementary sense of the concept of religion to call the transcendence of biological nature by the human organism a religious phenomenon. As we have tried to show, this phenomenon rests upon the functional relation of Self and society. We may, therefore, regard the social processes that lead to the formation of Self as fundamentally religious.”
Source: The invisible religion, 1967, p. 48
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Thomas Luckmann 4
American-Austrian sociologist 1927–2016Related quotes
Source: The Functions of the Executive (1938), p. 11
Source: The Functions of the Executive (1938), p. vii
Source: The Principles of Organization, 1947, p. 94-95; as cited in: Albert Lepawsky (1949), Administration, p. 251-252

Source: Introduction to Systems Philosophy (1972), p. 79.

The New Divinity (1964)
Context: The entire cosmos is made out of one and the same world-stuff, operated by the same energy as we ourselves. "Mind" and "matter" appears as two aspects of our unitary mind-bodies. There is no separate supernatural realm: all phenomena are part of one natural process of evolution. There is no basic cleavage between science and religion; they are both organs of evolving humanity.
Source: The Functions of the Executive (1938), p. 282
[describing the historical causes of the modern tendency to make intellect the servant of alien interests]
The Integrity of the Intellect (July 1920)