Linda Woodhead is Professor of Sociology of Religion at Lancaster University (Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion).

She is interested in all aspects of contemporary religion, and is actively involved in empirical research (i.e. nosing around). She has carried out research in Britain, the USA, India and parts of Europe.

Between 2007-2013 she is Director of the £12m UK research programme on ‘Religion and Society’, which involves 75 separate research projects, and is updating our knowledge about religion past and present. It is funded by two research councils, the AHRC and ESRC.

In her current work she argues that we have entered a ‘post-Reformation’ era, in which religion becomes less doctrinal, centralised and priestly. Instead, it has to do with anchoring a sense of personal identity, reaching out to higher power(s), and actively securing meaning and significance in daily life. We are witnessing a return of magic.