[2] He was professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Warwick and a Fellow of the British Academy.
[3][5] Apart from general writings on the sociology of religion, Beckford has been a prolific author of books and articles on new religious movements and society's responses to them.
[9] Beckford's doctoral thesis was the first major sociological study of the Jehovah's Witnesses, The Trumpet of Prophecy (1975), which has remained an important reference work on the group.
[2] His research focus then shifted to cults and new religious movements and the responses they provoke from wider society.
[2] Beckford has called for sociologists of religion to end their isolation from other sociological disciplines, arguing in Religion and Advanced Industrial Society (1989) that this might return religious studies to their former position of prominence, and has explored various adjacent sociological fields himself in his writings.