Modern theodicy and functional differentiation - An analysis of historical semantics on the sociology of knowledge of modern society

The problem of theodicy is a specific phenomenon of the modern age. Though when Max Weber introduced the term in a much broader sense into sociology and based his sociology of religion on it, the actual empirical phenomenon got concealed. Considering the historical importance of theodicy for the emergence of modern society, a sociological analysis is overdue. By means of an analysis of historical semantics the paper shows the connection of theodicy with the change of society's primary form of differentiation to functional differentiation.