Description:
The Church of Scientology is one of the most recognizable American-born new religions, but perhaps the least understood. With academic and popular interest on the rise, many books have been written about Scientology and surely more will follow. Although academics have begun to pay more attention to Scientology, the subject has received remarkably little qualitative attention. Indeed, no work has systematically addressed such questions as: what do Scientologists themselves have to say about their religion's history, theology, and practices? How does Scientology act as a religion for them? What does "lived religion" look like for a Scientologist? This is not so much a book about the Church of Scientology, its leaders, or its controversies, as it is a compilation of narratives and histories based on the largely unheard or ignored perspectives of Scientologists themselves. Drawing on six years of interviews, fieldwork, and research conducted among members of the Church of Scientology, this groundbreaking work examines features of the new religion's history, theology, and praxis in ways that move discussion beyond apostate-driven and expos� accounts.
Review Quotes:
"Westbrook's brilliant book is a long overdue study of ordinary Scientologists. Not the leaders of the Church, the Hollywood stars, the artists, the lawyers. They are all interesting, but do not explain why Scientology, sixty years of controversies notwithstanding, has become and remains a stable feature of the global religious landscape. The ordinary Scientologist explains this, the crucial figure who remained in the shadow until Westbrook's study finally dealt with her."--Massimo Introvigne, Managing Director, Center for Studies of New Religion (CESNUR), Torino, Italy
"There have been scores of books written about Scientology, but this one is different. Dr Westbrook managed to go where no non-Scientological scholar has gone before and has written a unique and fascinating account of what Scientologists believe--they believe it works!"--Eileen Barker, Professor Emeritus of Sociology of Religion, London School of Economics
"In its seventy-five years of existence, Scientology has grown to become a global faith. In his new history of the Church of Scientology, Among the Scientologists, scholar Donald Westbrook provides new insights into this fascinating movement by shifting the focus away from the popular concern with the church's several controversies in an attempt to understand the church's attraction for its hundreds-of-thousands of members, the very real appeal of its esoteric beliefs and practices, and the rationale behind its obvious success in reaching a worldwide audience."--J. Gordon Melton, Distinguished Professor of American Religious History, Baylor University