Acknowledgements
Introduction: Methods and Means of Researching Scientology and
Scientologists
1. Preliminary Conclusions from Interviews and Fieldwork
2. Before the Religion: Episodes from the Advent of Dianetics and
Scientology
3. "Keeping Scientology Working": Features of Systematic
Theology
4. "We Come Back": Past and Present of the Sea Organization
5. "Build a Better Bridge!": From LRH to COB and Beyond
Conclusion: Reflections on the Future of Scientology and its
Academic Study
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Donald A. Westbrook (Ph.D. Claremont Graduate University) has taught at UCLA, Cal State Fullerton, Fuller Seminary, and is affiliated with the Faculty for the Comparative Study of Religion and Humanism (FVG) in Antwerp, Belgium.
"Westbrook's work is not only engaging but provides incredible
illumination on the lived religious experience of Scientologists
and most definitely achieves its aims. I recommend this outstanding
work to any researcher who wishes to understand Scientology and to
separate its history, theology and praxis from its controversial
quagmire." -- Alana Louise Bowden, University of Sydney, Fieldwork
in Religion
"Among the Scientologists is, in many ways, a groundbreaking work.
In the academic study of Scientology, it is likely to become a
standard reference..." -- Fredrik Gregorius, Linköping University,
International Journal for the Study of New Religions
"This book is a first-rate introduction to Scientology, making its
convoluted tenets and history remarkably clear and accessible." --
Clement William Grene, Reviews in Religion and Theology
"[T]his book is a valuable addition to the historical record of
Scientology, clearly written, expressing some diversity of views
within the population of current members, and connecting to the
wider scholarly literature." -- William Sims Bainbridge, Sociology
of Religion
"As for Donald Westbrook, he has entered the ranks of those
scholars who have produced laudable scholarship their first time
out. This book is a magnificent testimony to his years of labor. It
should be required reading for anyone approaching Scientology for
research purposes, but it is also very accessible and would provide
the casually interested reader with hours of discovery about
Scientology. If any of my students want a better understanding
of
Scientology, I will direct them to this volume." -- W. Michael
Ashcraft, Nova Religio
"Westbrook has crafted a book that is informative, insightful, and
accessible. It is a book to which I will refer interested students,
and it is a book that sets the stage for further academic studies
on Scientology as a young and growing religious movement." -- Kipp
Gilmore-Clough, Religion
"Thankfully for scholars of religion, Donald Westbrook's Among the
Scientologists takes a different path and asks a question that all
the many exposés seem to ignore" -- Brian Collins, Religious
Studies Review
"Westbrook has produced a seriously important book that should be
mandatory reading for all interested in the Church of Scientology,
and new religious movements generally. It is highly recommended."
-- Carole M. Cusack, University of Sydney, Alternative Spirituality
and Religion Review
"Among the Scientologists excels in clarity, treading the fine line
between offering an in-depth study of the CoS [Church of
Scientology] for scholars of Scientology on the one hand, and
providing an accessible (yet detailed) introduction to those new to
the subject on the other" -- Aled J. Ll. Thomas, Correspondences:
Journal for the Study of Esotericism
"Scientology has been the subject of little academic study...Donald
A. Westbrook's Among the Scientologists: History, Theology, and
Praxis is therefore a much-needed contribution to the scholarly
study of Scientology...[This book] will hopefully encourage other
scholars to also turn their attention to Scientology as a topic for
study." -- Aled J. Ll. Thomas, Correspondences: Journal for the
Study of Esotericism
"Among the Scientologists will supersede previous works on the
church (including my own) and provide the new foundation for future
explorations of what has become one of the most successful
expressions of Western Gnostic Esotericism." -- J. Gordon Melton ,
The Journal of CESNUR
"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
"Westbrook's treatment raises Scientology studies to an entirely
new level." -- Temenos: Nordic Journal of Comparative Religion
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