76 International Journal of Cultic Studies ■ Vol. 9, 2018
Scientology in Popular Culture: Influences and Struggles for Legitimacy
By Stephen A. Kent and Susan Raine (Editors)
Reviewed by Sarah Lonelodge
Westport, CT: Praeger. 2017. ISBN-10:
1440832498 ISBN13: 978-1440832499
(hardcover). 373 pages. $58.00 (Amazon.com
barnesandnoble.com) $46.40, Kindle
(Amazon.com).
A resonating examination of The Church of
Scientology’s contemporary religious impact,
Scientology in Popular Culture: Influences and
Struggles for Legitimacy, edited by Stephen A.
Kent and Susan Raine, provides an in-depth
analysis of the modern impacts of the Church of
Scientology. This complex and extensive
compilation invites questions on Scientology’s
validity and rise to prominence but also moves
beyond these questions to consider the complex
relationship between this organization and
modern society. As such, scholars from a wide
range of fields and readers beyond the academy
will likely find the discussions illuminating as
each chapter works to unravel a few of the
intricacies and eccentricities of Scientology’s
garnering for validity in contemporary culture.
To explicate this notion, nine authors provide
readers with 12 distinct chapters that delve into
the relationship of Scientology and popular
culture through discussions of Scientology
founder L. Ron Hubbard’s science-fiction
writing the role and impact of celebrity
Scientologists the media’s complicated
relationship with Scientology and, in a new area
of analysis, the art and music associated with the
Church of Scientology.
Hubbard’s Science Fiction
The first three chapters, written by Susan Raine,
Hugh B. Urban, and Stefano Bigliardi,
respectively, center on Hubbard the science-
fiction writer. Each author carefully unfolds a
piece of the Scientology tapestry to reveal an
intricately laid foundation. Raine discusses
Hubbard’s reciprocating relationship with
science fiction and how these concepts streamed
into his larger ideologies by analyzing the
“connections between ‘real world’ masculinity,
religion, and empire, their subsequent usage in
the SF genre, and their incorporations in both
forms into Hubbard’s ideologies” (p. 18). Thus,
Raine guides readers through Hubbard’s
“colonial aims” regarding “terra incognita”—or
his goal of voyaging into the “unexplored
territory” (p. 1) of the human mind that allowed
him to establish the individual footholds of an
empire.
Urban’s chapter extends the discussion of
Scientology foundations through an intensive
look at broader contextualizations of
Scientology mythology, noting that “Hubbard
compared the author of fiction to a godlike being
who can create myriad new universes out of his
imagination, manipulating them at will” (p. 34).
Urban’s discussion leads to a “deeper
understanding of the links between Hubbard’s
fiction and his Scientology writings” (p. 35) and
offers new perspectives on common questions
surrounding Hubbard’s own beliefs in his
created mythology.
Bigliardi also delves into the mythology of
Scientology in the chapter that follows, through
an intensive analysis of Hubbard’s book
Battlefield Earth and novel series Mission Earth.
Bigliardi’s discussion focuses on how
worldviews are articulated in the books through
his analysis of how knowledge and technology
“are conceptualized in their narratives and how
they are related to the power relationships
among characters” (p. 54). The first three
chapters, then, present the audience with an in-
depth, objective, yet critical reading of
Hubbard’s science fiction as a central aspect for
the foundation of Scientology mythology.
Celebrity Scientologists
Following this discussion, Kent offers three
chapters himself on the relationship between the
Church of Scientology and celebrities. First,
Kent discusses how celebrities are recruited by
examining “the actual Scientology policies and
procedures that Hubbard and others formulated,
Scientology in Popular Culture: Influences and Struggles for Legitimacy
By Stephen A. Kent and Susan Raine (Editors)
Reviewed by Sarah Lonelodge
Westport, CT: Praeger. 2017. ISBN-10:
1440832498 ISBN13: 978-1440832499
(hardcover). 373 pages. $58.00 (Amazon.com
barnesandnoble.com) $46.40, Kindle
(Amazon.com).
A resonating examination of The Church of
Scientology’s contemporary religious impact,
Scientology in Popular Culture: Influences and
Struggles for Legitimacy, edited by Stephen A.
Kent and Susan Raine, provides an in-depth
analysis of the modern impacts of the Church of
Scientology. This complex and extensive
compilation invites questions on Scientology’s
validity and rise to prominence but also moves
beyond these questions to consider the complex
relationship between this organization and
modern society. As such, scholars from a wide
range of fields and readers beyond the academy
will likely find the discussions illuminating as
each chapter works to unravel a few of the
intricacies and eccentricities of Scientology’s
garnering for validity in contemporary culture.
To explicate this notion, nine authors provide
readers with 12 distinct chapters that delve into
the relationship of Scientology and popular
culture through discussions of Scientology
founder L. Ron Hubbard’s science-fiction
writing the role and impact of celebrity
Scientologists the media’s complicated
relationship with Scientology and, in a new area
of analysis, the art and music associated with the
Church of Scientology.
Hubbard’s Science Fiction
The first three chapters, written by Susan Raine,
Hugh B. Urban, and Stefano Bigliardi,
respectively, center on Hubbard the science-
fiction writer. Each author carefully unfolds a
piece of the Scientology tapestry to reveal an
intricately laid foundation. Raine discusses
Hubbard’s reciprocating relationship with
science fiction and how these concepts streamed
into his larger ideologies by analyzing the
“connections between ‘real world’ masculinity,
religion, and empire, their subsequent usage in
the SF genre, and their incorporations in both
forms into Hubbard’s ideologies” (p. 18). Thus,
Raine guides readers through Hubbard’s
“colonial aims” regarding “terra incognita”—or
his goal of voyaging into the “unexplored
territory” (p. 1) of the human mind that allowed
him to establish the individual footholds of an
empire.
Urban’s chapter extends the discussion of
Scientology foundations through an intensive
look at broader contextualizations of
Scientology mythology, noting that “Hubbard
compared the author of fiction to a godlike being
who can create myriad new universes out of his
imagination, manipulating them at will” (p. 34).
Urban’s discussion leads to a “deeper
understanding of the links between Hubbard’s
fiction and his Scientology writings” (p. 35) and
offers new perspectives on common questions
surrounding Hubbard’s own beliefs in his
created mythology.
Bigliardi also delves into the mythology of
Scientology in the chapter that follows, through
an intensive analysis of Hubbard’s book
Battlefield Earth and novel series Mission Earth.
Bigliardi’s discussion focuses on how
worldviews are articulated in the books through
his analysis of how knowledge and technology
“are conceptualized in their narratives and how
they are related to the power relationships
among characters” (p. 54). The first three
chapters, then, present the audience with an in-
depth, objective, yet critical reading of
Hubbard’s science fiction as a central aspect for
the foundation of Scientology mythology.
Celebrity Scientologists
Following this discussion, Kent offers three
chapters himself on the relationship between the
Church of Scientology and celebrities. First,
Kent discusses how celebrities are recruited by
examining “the actual Scientology policies and
procedures that Hubbard and others formulated,
