Free Zone Scientology

Contesting the Boundaries of a New Religion

Aled Thomas (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

200 Seiten

2022
Bloomsbury Academic (Verlag)
978-1-350-23299-0 (ISBN)

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In this novel academic study, Aled Thomas analyses modern issues surrounding boundaries and fluidity in contemporary Scientology. By using the Scientologist practice of ‘auditing’ as a case study, this book explores the ways in which new types of ‘Scientologies’ can emerge. The notion of Free Zone Scientology is characterised by its horizontal structure, in contrast to the vertical-hierarchy of the institutional Church of Scientology. With this in mind, Thomas explores the Free Zone as an example of a developing and fluid religion, directly addressing questions concerning authority, leadership and material objects.

This book, by maintaining a double-focus on the top-down hierarchy of the Church of Scientology and the horizontal-fluid nature of the Free Zone, breaks away from previous research on new religions, which have tended to focus either on new religions as indices of broad social processes, such as secularization or globalization, or as exemplars of exotic processes, such as charismatic authority and brainwashing. Instead, Thomas adopts auditing as a method of providing an in-depth case study of a new religion in transition and transformation in the 21st century. This opens the study of contemporary and new religions to a series of new questions around hybrid religions (sacred and secular), and acts as a framework for the study of similar movements formed in recent decades.

Aled Thomas is a Lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Wolverhampton, UK, Visiting Fellow at the Open University, UK and co-founder of alt-ac.uk.

Preface
1. Introduction: Researching ‘Scientologies’
Part 1: From Scientology to Scientologies
2. The Church of Scientology and the ‘Free Zone’: A Complex Relationship
3. Auditing and the ‘Tech’: The Basics
4. ‘You are YOU in a body’: Negotiating the Self in Scientology
Part 2: Fluidity and Boundaries
5. Authenticity and Innovation: The ‘True Tech’ and ‘Mistakes by Hubbard’
6. ‘Doing Scientology’: E-Meters, Objects, and Material Culture
7. Moving Forward: Reflections on Free Zone Scientology and the Wider Study of Religions
8. Conclusion
Appendix A
Appendix B
Notes
References
Index

Erscheinungsdatum	06.10.2022
Reihe/Serie	Bloomsbury Advances in Religious Studies
Zusatzinfo	10 bw illus
Verlagsort	London
Sprache	englisch
Maße	156 x 234 mm
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Weitere Religionen
Themenwelt	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
ISBN-10	1-350-23299-8 / 1350232998
ISBN-13	978-1-350-23299-0 / 9781350232990
Zustand	Neuware