ABSTRACT
The slow and uneven development of theory and methods in the general field of sociology affected the development of the sociology of religion, but the latter has also benefited from increasing precision and scientific validity in the general field of sociology. When the sociology of religion first got started, substantive definitions were prevalent; later—particularly with the debate on secularization—functional approaches became more influential. For Luckmann it is not religious practices that have primary sociological significance but rather "symbolic universes," which "are objectivated meaning-systems that relate the experiences of everyday life to a 'transcendent' layer of reality. In particular, Luckmann insists: The transcendence of biological nature by human organisms is a fundamentally religious process. The function of religion for Niklas Luhmann is to reduce uncertainty and complexity, to determine that which seems to be indeterminate, and to make accessible what seems to be inaccessible.
