It's been ages since I last read Peter Berger's The Social Construction of Reality in college as a sociology major. I was glad to find this, his newer book, on the shelf in our public library recently. Surprisingly, it is light reading, yet highly relevant for our time. The main idea of the book: Between the polarity of fundamentalism and relativism, the best position to take is the golden mean, the ethic of moderation. But then again, is it too obvious and simple a view to have been derived from two great thinkers, one an expert in the field of sociology of religion and the other a European scholar with dual doctorates in sociology and philosophy? Or, is our human condition in such dire straits that academics have to come out and in very layman terms, appeal to our sense of reason and evoke our innate human desire to seek peace and harmony? I believe this is the time that calls for such a simple mind-set, and these two authors have very succinctly presented the value of the middle ground.

Of course, one has to argue that laying out such a conceptual framework is the easy part, the difficult part is in the actual practice of it in our government, our economy, and society as a whole, down to our own personal ethics and moral choices in our daily human interactions. As Rodney King asked in a few simple words: how "can we all get along?" But then again, these two are thinkers. They offer us what they know best. So in that sense, the book is a brief and informative account of intellectual and religious history outlining the root of fundamentalism and the postmodern perspective of relativism. The argument towards a moderate stand is a sensible choice to avoid the two extremes. To their credit, the book is written in down-to-earth, layman language, with splashes of humor even, yet still stimulating and insightful. An enjoyable read.