James R. Lewis (scholar)

James Roger Lewis (November 3, 1949 – October 11, 2022) was an American philosophy professor at Wuhan University. He was a religious studies scholar, sociologist of religion, and writer, who specialized in the academic study of new religious movements, and New Age. Lewis received his B.A. in Philosophy and Religious Studies from Appalachian State University, going on to study at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he received a master's degree. He received a PhD in religious studies from the University of Wales, Lampeter in 2003.

Lewis formed the academic association AWARE in 1992, which he dissolved in 1995 over concerns from its advisory board. He was an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee from 2003 to 2009, and was associate professor of religious studies at the University of Tromsø from 2010 to 2013, before becoming a professor at Wuhan University. He was on the editorial boards of, among others, the journals Marburg Journal of Religion and the Journal of Religion and Violence. Lewis authored and edited several books, particularly ones about religious topics, including new religious movements, Scientology, Satanism, and other religious studies topics, but also terrorism and radicalization.