Peter L. Berger, an influential, and contrarian, Protestant theologian and sociologist who, in the face of the “God is dead” movement of the 1960s, argued that faith can indeed flourish in modern society if people learn to recognize the transcendent and supernatural in ordinary experiences, died on Tuesday at his home in Brookline, Mass. He was 88.

His death was announced by the Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs, which he founded at Boston University in 1985 and directed until 2009. His son Thomas said the cause was heart failure.

Professor Berger, who was born in Austria, was the author of a shelf-full of books. He was known for his work in what is called the sociology of knowledge — understanding how humans experience everyday reality.

One of his two dozen volumes, “The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge,” which he wrote in 1966 with Thomas Luckmann, was honored by the International Sociological Association as one of the 20th century’s five most influential sociology books.