Theoretical Schizophrenia or Theoretical Rescue? Re-Reading Thomas Luckmann’s Invisible Religion from an African Perspective

Abstract Thomas Luckmann’s The Invisible Religion (1967) represents a seminal intervention in the sociology of religion, challenging ecclesiastical-centred conceptions of religious practice in Western societies. While the theory has generated considerable scholarly engagement in Euro-American contexts, its reception within African universities – particularly in departments of religious studies and sociology – remains underexamined and uncertain. This article interrogates the promise and perils of applying the invisible religion paradigm to the African religious field. The uncertainty surrounding Luckmann’s reception in Africa is not incidental but structural. Since initial contact with European traders, travellers, exiles, Christian missionaries, anthropologists, and colonial administrators, African intellectual traditions have been subjected to externally imposed theoretical frameworks and worldviews that categorised African realities and lived experiences according to foreign epistemologies, concepts and ideologies. Africa thus became a testing ground for Western-generated theories, with its diverse peoples, cultures, and practices moulded to fit alien conceptual schemes. This colonial epistemological legacy continues to shape contemporary theoretical engagements with African religious practices. Against this backdrop, the article critically examines whether Luckmann’s framework can illuminate African religious phenomena without reproducing the very epistemic violence it seeks to move beyond. It identifies both the analytical possibilities the invisible religion paradigm offers for understanding non-institutionalised religious expressions in Africa, and the conceptual risks inherent in applying a Western-derived theory to a context shaped by different historical and cultural logics. Ultimately, the article argues for a reflexive approach that acknowledges the theory’s limitations while exploring its potential for decolonising sociological understandings of African religious lifeforms, lifeworlds, and lifestyles.