• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
Download
 
i. I
 NTRODUCTION
I am currently self-employed as awriter, editor, lecturer and consultant inthe fields of theology and religion. I alsoserve as Adjunct Professor in ReligiousStudies at Washington University, St.Louis, Missouri.I hold a Bachelor of Arts degree inPhilosophy (1962) from QuincyUniversity, Quincy, Illinois; a Bachelorof Divinity degree (1966),
magna cumlaude,
from Harvard Divinity School,Cambridge, Massachusetts; and a Ph.D.in Special Religious Studies (1981) fromthe University of St. Michael’s College,Toronto School of Theology, Toronto,Ontario. I have also done advancedstudy at Harvard University, the Uni-versity of Heidelberg, Germany, and theUniversity of Pennsylvania. At theUniversity of Heidelberg, I was aFulbright Fellow in Philosophy andAncient Near Eastern Religions, 1966-67.
147
APPENDIX THREE
Scientology
s
The Marksof  Religion
Frank K. Flinn, Ph.D.
Adjunct Professor in Religious StudiesWashington UniversitySaint Louis, Missouri, U.S.A.
 
At the University of Pennsylvania, I wasa National Defense Foreign LanguageFellow, Title VI, in Semitic languages,1968-69.Since 1962 I have devoted intensestudy to religious sectarian movements,ancient and modern. A portion of mydoctoral studies was focused specificallyon the rise of new religious movements inthe United States and abroad sinceWorld War II. That study included theinvestigation of new religions in terms of their belief systems, lifestyles, use of reli-gious language, leadership, motivationand sincerity, and the material conditionsof their existence. At WashingtonUniversity I regularly teach a course enti-tled
The North American ReligiousExperience,
which contains a section onnew religious movements. Besides ascholarly interest in religions I have hadlong-standing personal experience withthe religious life.From 1958 to 1964 Iwasa member of the Order of Friars Minor,popularly known as the Franciscans.During this period I lived under solemnvows of poverty, chastity, and obedienceand, thus, experienced many of the disci-plines typical of the religious life.Prior to my present position, I taughtat Maryville College, St. Louis, Missouri,1980-81; St. Louis University, St. Louis,Missouri, 1977-79, where I was GraduateDirector of the Masters Program inReligion and Education; the University of Toronto, Ontario, 1976-77, where I wasTutor in Comparative Religion; St. John’sCollege, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1970-75,where I was Tutor in the Great BooksProgram; LaSalle College, Philadelphia,Pennsylvania, Summers 1969-73, where Iwas Lecturer in Biblical Studies and theAnthropology of Religion; BostonCollege, Boston, Massachusetts, 1967-68,where I was Lecturer in Biblical Studies;and Newton College of the Sacred Heart, Newton, Massachusetts, where I wasLecturer in Biblical Studies.
I am a member in good standing of theAmerican Academy of Religion. I am apracticing Roman Catholic at All SaintsChurch, University City, Missouri.
Since 1968 I have lectured and writtenabout various new religious movementswhich have arisen in the 19th and 20thcenturies in North America and else-where. In my lecture courses Anthro-pology of Religion (LaSalle College),Comparative Religion (University of Toronto), The American ReligiousExperience (St. Louis University) andThe North American Religious Experience(Washington University), I have dealtwith such religious phenomena as theGreat Awakening, Shakerism, Mormon,Seventh-day Adventism, Jehovah’sWitness, New Harmony, Oneida, BrookFarm, Unification, Scientology, HareKrishna and others.I have published several articles andbeen general editor of books on thetopic of new religions. It is my policynot to testify about a living religiousgroup unless I have long-term, first-hand knowledge of that group. I havetestified on various aspects of the newreligions before the U.S. Congress, theOhio Legislature, the New YorkAssembly, the Illinois Legislature, andthe Kansas Legislature. I have deliv-ered lectures on the topic of the newreligions at colleges, universities andconferences in the United States,Canada, Japan, the Republic of Chinaand Europe.
Churchof Scientology
148
 
I have studied the Church of Scientology in depth since 1976. I havesufficiently sampled the vast literature of Scientology (its scriptures) to help formthe opinions expressed herein.I have visited Scientology Churchesin Toronto; St. Louis; Portland, Oregon;Clearwater, Florida; Los Angeles andParis, where I have familiarized myself with the day-to-day workings of theChurch. I have also conducted numer-ous interviews with members of theChurch of Scientology. I am also famil-iar with most of the literature writtenabout Scientology, ranging fromobjective scholarship to journalisticaccounts, both favorable and unfavor-able.
As a comparative scholar of religion, Imaintain that for a movement to be a reli-gion and for a group to constitute achurch, it needs to manifest three charac-teristics, or marks, which are discerniblein religions around the world. Below, Idefine these three characteristics:
(a) First, a religion must possess a sys-tem of beliefs or doctrines whichrelate the believers to the ulti-mate meaning of life (God, theSupreme Being, the Inner Light,the Infinite, etc.).(b) Secondly, the system of beliefsmust issue into religious practiceswhich can be divided into 1)norms for behavior (positivecommands and negative prohibi-tions or taboos) and 2) rites andceremonies, acts and other obser-vances (sacraments, initiations,ordinations, sermons, prayers,funerals for the dead, marriages,meditation, purifications, scrip-tural study, blessings, etc.).(c) Thirdly, the system of beliefs andpractices must unite a body of believers or members so as to con-stitute an identifiable
community
which is either hierarchical orcongregational in polity andwhich possesses a spiritual way of life in harmony with the ultimatemeaning of life as perceived bythe adherents. Not all religionswill emphasize each of these char-acteristics to the same degree orin the same manner, but all willpossess them in a perceptible way.On the basis of these three markersand of my research into the Church of Scientology, I can state without hesita-tion that the Church of Scientology con-stitutes a bona fide religion. It possessesall the essential marks of religions knownaround the world: (1) a well-definedbelief system, (2) which issues into reli-gious practices (positive and negativenorms for behavior, religious rites andceremonies, acts and observances) and(3) which sustain a body of believers inan identifiable religious community, dis-tinguishable from other religious com-munities.
ii. S
YSTEMOF
B
ELIEFS
In terms of the Scientology belief sys-tem, there exists a vast amount of reli-gious material through which the scholarmust wend her or his way. Furthermore,the scholar needs to be sensitive to thefact that Scientology, like every otherreligious tradition in history, is organicand has undergone and is undergoing an
Appendix Three
149
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...