Bio: (1941-) American sociologist. David Bromley received his Ph.D. degree in sociology from Duke University. He lectured at University of Virginia, University of Texas at Arlington, and the University of Hartford, and currently serves as Professor of Sociology and Religious Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. He served as Editor of the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.

Bromley's early work was concentrated in deviant behavior and social construction of deviance, political sociology, conflict theory, and urban sociology. He applied resource mobilization theory in the analysis of the development and growth of new religious movements in the books "Moonies" in America: Cult, Church and Crusade (1979) and  The Future of New Religious Movements (1987). Bromley paid special attention to the "anti-cult movement" and topics related to it, such as accusations of cult brainwashing, satanism, and other atrocities, deprogramming, and governmental regulations of cults (see Bromley’s works (1979), (1980), (1981), (1984a), (1984b)). He links anti-cult and anti-Satanism campaigns to broader structural tensions in society, particularly the growing contradictions between contractual and covenantal forms of social relationships. Contractual relations are typically based on formal agreements and individual choice, while covenantal relations emphasize moral commitment, collective identity, and enduring obligations.

Bromley also examined the relation between institutional religion and religious social movements. He argues that responses to the long-standing tension between contractual and covenantal social arrangements can be seen not only in the emergence of marginal or alternative religious groups but also in reforms and organizational innovations within mainstream churches.

Main works

"Atrocity Tales, the Unification Church, and the Social Construction of Evil", in Journal of Communication (1979);

"Moonies" in America: Cult, Church and Crusade (1979);

The New Vigilantes: Deprogrammers, Anti-Cultists, and the New Religions (1980); 

Strange Gods: The Great American Cult Scare (1981);

The Anti-Cult Movement in America: A Bibliography and Historical Survey (1984a);

The Brainwashing/Deprogramming Controversy (1984b);

New Christian Politics (1984c);

"The Economic Structure of the Unificationist Movement", in Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (1985);

The Future of New Religious Movements (1987);

"Deprogramming as a Mode of Exit from New Religious Movements," in D. G. Bromley (ed.). Falling from the Faith (1988);

The Satanism Scare (1991);

"The Role of Government in Regulating New and Unconventional Religions" in J. Wood (ed.). Governmental Monitoring of Religion (1992);

The Handbook on Cults and Sects in America (1993);

Anti-Cult Movements in Cross-Cultural Perspective (1994).

"A Sociological Narrative of Crisis Episodes, Collective Action, Culture Workers, and Countermovements", in Sociology of Religion (1997);

The Politics of Religious Apostasy: The Role of Apostates in the Transformation of Religious Movements  (1998);

“A Tale of two Theories: Brainwashing and Conversion as Competing Political Narratives”, in Benjamin Zablocki and Thomas Robbins (eds.). Misunderstanding Cults: Searching for Objectivity in a Controversial Field (2001);

Toward Reflexive Ethnography. Volume 9: Religion and the Social Order (2001);

Cults, Religion, and Violence (2002);

Cults and New Religions: A Brief History (2007).