Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Notes on contributors
- Introduction
- 1 Scientology, scripture, and sacred tradition
- 2 “He may be lying but what he says is true”: the sacred tradition of don Juan as reported by Carlos Castaneda, anthropologist, trickster, guru, allegorist
- 3 The invention of sacred tradition: Mormonism
- 4 Antisemitism, conspiracy culture, Christianity, and Islam: the history and contemporary religious significance of the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion
- 5 The invention of a counter-tradition: the case of the North American anti-cult movement
- 6 “Heavenly deception”? Sun Myung Moon and Divine Principle
- 7 “Forgery” in the New Testament
- 8 Three phases of inventing Rosicrucian tradition in the seventeenth century
- 9 A name for all and no one: Zoroaster as a figure of authorization and a screen of ascription
- 10 The peculiar sleep: receiving The Urantia Book
- 11 Ontology of the past and its materialization in Tibetan treasures
- 12 Pseudo-Dionysius: the mediation of sacred traditions
- 13 Spurious attribution in the Hebrew Bible
- 14 Inventing Paganisms: making nature
- Index
- References
1 - Scientology, scripture, and sacred tradition
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Notes on contributors
- Introduction
- 1 Scientology, scripture, and sacred tradition
- 2 “He may be lying but what he says is true”: the sacred tradition of don Juan as reported by Carlos Castaneda, anthropologist, trickster, guru, allegorist
- 3 The invention of sacred tradition: Mormonism
- 4 Antisemitism, conspiracy culture, Christianity, and Islam: the history and contemporary religious significance of the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion
- 5 The invention of a counter-tradition: the case of the North American anti-cult movement
- 6 “Heavenly deception”? Sun Myung Moon and Divine Principle
- 7 “Forgery” in the New Testament
- 8 Three phases of inventing Rosicrucian tradition in the seventeenth century
- 9 A name for all and no one: Zoroaster as a figure of authorization and a screen of ascription
- 10 The peculiar sleep: receiving The Urantia Book
- 11 Ontology of the past and its materialization in Tibetan treasures
- 12 Pseudo-Dionysius: the mediation of sacred traditions
- 13 Spurious attribution in the Hebrew Bible
- 14 Inventing Paganisms: making nature
- Index
- References
Summary
INTRODUCTION: EMIC AND ETIC?
Ever since the foundation of the Church of Scientology (or simply Scientology) in 1954, the honesty and credibility of that organization have been questioned. A remarkable spectrum of allegations has been invoked, and Scientology has developed a strategy of defense and counter-strike. One dimension in that strategy has been to call upon the scholarly community in order to obtain objective assessments. Above everything else, Scientology wishes to be recognized as a genuine or “bona fide” religion. Sometimes, however, the ideological criticism of the anti-cultists coincides with the academic, analytical criticism put forth by the historian of religions. This is, for instance, the case with Scientology's sacred texts: anti-cultists and scholars will agree that the emic evaluation of the texts is historically incorrect. Scientology will always and without hesitation insist that the texts are written by the founder of the religion, L. Ron Hubbard (see below), and that no alterations have been made over the years. This, however, is questionable to say the least. To the anti-cultists and hostile former members of the religion, Scientology's claim is a proof of the organization's malignant nature. To the historian of religions, who understands that religious texts are produced and altered in complicated cultural processes, the fact that Scientology does the very same thing as all other traditions with a textual corpus is not particularly alarming.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Invention of Sacred Tradition , pp. 18 - 37Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007
References
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