The Church of Scientology: A History of a New Religion

The Church of Scientology: A History of a New Religion

by Hugh B. Urban
ISBN-10:
069114608X
ISBN-13:
9780691146089
Pub. Date:
08/22/2011
Publisher:
Princeton University Press
ISBN-10:
069114608X
ISBN-13:
9780691146089
Pub. Date:
08/22/2011
Publisher:
Princeton University Press
The Church of Scientology: A History of a New Religion

The Church of Scientology: A History of a New Religion

by Hugh B. Urban
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Overview

Scientology's long and complex journey to recognition as a religion

Scientology is one of the wealthiest and most powerful new religions to emerge in the past century. To its detractors, L. Ron Hubbard's space-age mysticism is a moneymaking scam and sinister brainwashing cult. But to its adherents, it is humanity's brightest hope. Few religious movements have been subject to public scrutiny like Scientology, yet much of what is written about the church is sensationalist and inaccurate. Here for the first time is the story of Scientology's protracted and turbulent journey to recognition as a religion in the postwar American landscape.

Hugh Urban tells the real story of Scientology from its cold war-era beginnings in the 1950s to its prominence today as the religion of Hollywood's celebrity elite. Urban paints a vivid portrait of Hubbard, the enigmatic founder who once commanded his own private fleet and an intelligence apparatus rivaling that of the U.S. government. One FBI agent described him as "a mental case," but to his followers he is the man who "solved the riddle of the human mind." Urban details Scientology's decades-long war with the IRS, which ended with the church winning tax-exempt status as a religion; the rancorous cult wars of the 1970s and 1980s; as well as the latest challenges confronting Scientology, from attacks by the Internet group Anonymous to the church's efforts to suppress the online dissemination of its esoteric teachings.

The Church of Scientology demonstrates how Scientology has reflected the broader anxieties and obsessions of postwar America, and raises profound questions about how religion is defined and who gets to define it.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780691146089
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Publication date: 08/22/2011
Pages: 280
Product dimensions: 6.40(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Hugh B. Urban is professor of religious studies at Ohio State University. His books include Magia Sexualis: Sex, Magic, and Liberation in Modern Western Esotericism and Tantra: Sex, Secrecy, Politics, and Power in the Study of Religion.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations vii

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: The World's Most Controversial New Religion and Why No One Writes About It 1

Chapter One: L. Ron Hubbard: American Entrepreneur, Spiritual Bricoleur 26

Chapter To: Scientology, Inc.: Becoming a "Religion" in the 1950s 57

Chapter Tree: Cold War Religion: Scientology, Secrecy, and Security n the 1950s and 60s 89

Chapter Four: Thee "Cult of All Cults"? Scientology and the Cult Wars of the 1970s and 80s 118

Chapter Five: "The War" and the Triumph of Scientology: Becoming a Tax-Exempt Religion in the 1990s 155

Chapter Six: Secrets, Security, and Cyberspace: Scientology's New Wars of Information on the Internet 178

Conclusion: New Religions, Freedom, and Privacy in the Post-9/11 World 201

Appendix: A Timeline of Major Events in Scientology's Complex Journey to Becoming a "Religion" 217

Notes 221

Selected Bibliography 257

Index 265

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Hugh Urban has written an engaging book that tells the story of Scientology more thoroughly and in a more balanced way than any other treatment of the topic thus far. Were that not enough, this is also a book with much to say about the central question that has come to be debated among contemporary scholars of religion: What, after all, is this thing we call religion?"—Robert Wuthnow, Princeton University

"Urban's compelling book provides a critical but balanced assessment of this very controversial new religion, highlighting the ways Hubbard and his church reflect the fear and suspicion, yet also the boundless national optimism, so characteristic of cold war America. This book will become the source for reliable information on Scientology."—Lorne L. Dawson, University of Waterloo, author of Comprehending Cults

"Until now there was no extensive scholarship on the Church of Scientology in existence. With the appearance of Urban's powerful and provocative new book, we are without question on radically new historical and theoretical ground with respect to the study of Scientology and, I dare say, new American religious movements in general. In every way, this is a major achievement."—Jeffrey J. Kripal, Rice University, author of Mutants and Mystics: Science Fiction, Superhero Comics, and the Paranormal

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