Bio: (1942-2022) British sociologist. James Beckford is a professor at the University of Warwick and the founder of the Study Group for the Sociology of Religion at the British Sociological Association. In his doctoral study, The Trumpet of Prophecy (1975), he researched the religious organization Jehovah's Witnesses. This study was one of the first thorough sociological studies of this religion and still represents a standard work on this topic. Beckford, however, is best known for his studies of new religious movements, as well as social and media reactions to them. He believes that it is difficult to say for any religious movement to completely reject the outside world because the very survival of that movement depends on economic ties with the wider society. Beckford is skeptical of Giddens' view that religion will flourish in the age of high modernity. He studied the interpersonal connections that are made between members of the movement, as well as their connections with the rest of society. He also dealt with the problems of deviance, social movements, as well as environmental issues.

Main works

Religious Organization (1974);

The Trumpet of Prophecy (1975);

Cult Controversies: Societal Responses to New Religious Movements (1985);

New Religious Movements and Rapid Social Change (1986);

Religion and Advanced Industrial Society (1989);

The Changing Face of Religion (1989);

Religion in Prison. Equal Rites in a Multi-Faith Society (1998);

Social Theory and Religion (2003);

Muslims in Prison: Challenge and Change in Britain and France (2005);

Theorising Religion: Classical and Contemporary Debates (2006);

Challenging Religion (2015).