Tasamuh: Jurnal Komunikasi dan Pengembangan Masyarakat Islam
Vol. 24 No. 1 (2026): Innovative Da'wah for Sustainable Muslim Societies

REREADING PETER L. BERGER'S SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION IN THE FRAGMENTATION OF DIGITAL RELIGIOUS AUTHORITY

Nazar Naamy (Universitas Islam Negeri Mataram)
Ishak Hariyanto (Universitas Islam Negeri Mataram)
Muhammad Azhari (Universitas Islam Negeri Mataram)



Article Info

Publish Date
27 Jun 2026

Abstract

This paper reviews Peter L. Berger's social construction in the context of the fragmentation of religious authority in digital era. Berger emphasized that social reality is the result of human construction through the process of externalization, objectification, and internalization. Externalization in which humans express themselves and create a social world through daily activities. Objectivity is a social product of human beings to be an objective reality that is recognized by all, such as norms, laws, religions. Meanwhile, internalization is the process of reabsorbing the objective reality into consciousness, so that it is considered natural and taken for granted. However, in the digital era, this process is disrupted because religious authorities are no longer single and stable, but are fragmented by discourse competition between traditional clerics, the state, academics, and digital actors. This fragmentation shows that the legitimacy of authority is not solely determined by religious institutions, but also by the logic of media, symbolic capital, and virtual interaction. This paper proposes a critique that the social construction of religious authority in Indonesia is not sufficiently understood in a classical framework that presupposes the stability of meaning, but needs to be approached through the dynamics of digital contestation and identity politics. This article emphasizes the importance of reconstructing Berger's theory to be relevant to explain the changes in religious authority in an increasingly plural and digitized society.

Copyrights © 2026






Journal Info

Abbrev

tasamuh

Publisher

Subject

Religion Humanities Languange, Linguistic, Communication & Media Library & Information Science Social Sciences

Description

Tasamuh dengan nomor registrasi ISSN 1829-6483 (Cetak) dan ISSN 2614-1736 (Online), merupakan jurnal peer-reviewed dan merupakan jurnal open access yang diterbitkan dua kali dalam setahun (Juni - Desember) oleh Fakultas Dakwah dan Komunikasi Studi, Universitas Islam Negeri (UIN) Mataram. Tasamuh ...