WILSON, Bryan R(onald) 1926-2004

OBITUARY NOTICE— See index for CA sketch: Born June 25, 1926, in Leeds, England; died of heart failure October 9, 2004, in Middleton Stoney, Oxfordshire, England. Sociologist, educator, and author. Wilson, who was long associated with All Souls' College, Oxford, was considered the founder of the discipline of the sociology of religion. He served in the British Army near the end of World War II, before attending the University College of Leicester, where he graduated in 1952. A Ph.D. at the London School of Economics was followed by his first teaching job as a lecturer in sociology at the University of Leeds in 1955. He taught there until 1962, and was warden of Sadler Hall from 1959 to 1962. Wilson then joined the Oxford University faculty as a reader in sociology and, beginning the next year, fellow at All Souls'. Here he also served as sub-warden from 1988 to 1990 and as domestic bursar from 1989 to 1993. Wilson's interest in the sociological aspects of religion first gained attention with the publication of his Sects and Society (1961), which was adapted from his doctoral dissertation. Although not a religious man himself, he was fascinated by the influence of religions on society, and he examined such topics as minority religions, religious movements, sects, and the decline of religious influence on an increasingly sectarian society. A central figure in this new discipline, he was also highly involved in training and nurturing the younger generation of scholars that followed him. Among his other works are Religion in Secular Society (1966), Magic and the Millennium (1973), Religion in Sociological Perspective (1982), and The Social Dimensions of Sectarianism (1990). A former president of the International Society for the Sociology of Religion who also served as honorary president from 1991 to 2004, Wilson was elected a fellow of the British Academy in 1994. He retired from teaching in 1993, with the last few years of his life troubled by Parkinson's disease.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

periodicals

Daily Telegraph (London, England), October 19, 2004.

Guardian (London, England), November 2, 2004, p. 27.

Independent (London, England), October 26, 2004, p. 35.

Times (London, England), October 29, 2004, p. 74.