Scientology-Fakten.de

Scientology A New Religion

My name is Herbert Richardson. I have been a professor of religious studies at the University of Toronto since 1968. Before that time, I was a professor of theology and church history at Harvard University (1963-1968). I hold a Ph.D. degree in the history and philosophy of religion from Harvard University (1963).

I am an ordained minister of the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. and have served parishes in Natick, Massachusetts and Cattaraugas, New York. In addition, I have been a chaplain to university students at Radcliffe College/Harvard University and Bucknell University. My published books include:

Toward an American Theology (Harper & Row, 1967)

The Terrible Choice: The Abortion Dilemma (Bantam, 1968)

Transcendence (Beacon Press, 1969)

Nun, Witch, Playmate: The Americanization of Sex (Harper & Row, 1971)

Religion and Political Society (Harper & Row, 1974)

Anselm of Canterbury (SCM, 1974)

A Time for Consideration (The Edwin Mellon Press, 1978)

New Religions and Mental Health (The Edwin Mellon Press, 190)

In addition, I have given invited lectures at over 50 American colleges and universities and have been a visiting professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, The University of Iowa, The University of Quebec, The University of Tübingen (Germany), St. Louis University, lliff and Drew.

Since 1916, I have been engaged in research, publication, and university teaching focusing on those groups called "new religions." This has involved extensive reading, interviews with members and visits to the centers of new religions, organizing seminars for cooperation among scholars in this field (in Asia, Europe, and North America), and editing scholarly volumes.

One of the religious groups to which I have devoted study is the Church of Scientology. I have examined the works of L. Ron Hubbard and other publications of the Church of Scientology. I have visited Scientology centers and observe programs in Los Angeles, Fort Lauderdale, Toronto, E. Grinstead (England), and Frankfurt (Germany). I have direct knowledge of the activities of the ministers of the Church of Scientology who give auditing and training.

In my discussion of the Church of Scientology, which follows, I shall emphasize how it resembles more the traditional, or established, churches than it does the groups called 'new religions.' Scientology, in the language of sociologists, is more a 'church' than a 'sect.' The following specific characteristics of churches and sects might be noted:

CHURCH:

Institutionalization of leadership involving separation of group from personal founder.

Ritualization and formalization of religious activity.

Members maintain their relations to the secular world. (Members have secular jobs; group acknowledges 'world" as realm to influence.)

Creation of internal bureaucracy to handle finances, pensions, real estate, training of clergy, and to develop and administer ecclesiastical law.

Development of theology to relate to other intellectual and social disciplines ("apologetic thinking").

SECT:

Personal, charismatic, leader-founder.

Spontaneity and variety in religious activity.

Members withdraw from, even condemn, the secular world.

Fusion of religious and practical leadership functions.

Sharp separation of religious teachings from other sciences and disciplines.

On all the above points which typically distinguish churches and sects, the Church of Scientology can be seen more to resemble the "church" type of religions. This is partly because the original founder and charismatic leader of the Church of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard, removed himself from day-to-day personal leadership of the group in the 1960s and thereby facilitated the emergence of a "second generation" organizational type. In the Church of Scientology today one finds institutionalized corporate leadership, internal church management an bureaucracy, the creation of an "Office of Special Affairs" as a buffer between the religious life of the church and the outside world, and the formalization of training for the ministry. All of these institutional arrangements have developed since the 1960s in the Church of Scientology so that today, the relation of the Church to its former resembles that of a second generation organization to its founder.