The Study of Scientology is Trapped in the Closet: Deterritorializing Religious Studies

Scientology is arguably the quintessential modern American religion; however, there is a serious lack of discourse surrounding Scientology within religious studies, and the academic study of Scientology tends to be heavily biased for or against this religion. The primary question driving this paper is: why has this esoteric, modern, American religion been neglected in the academic study of religion? The response may lie in Timothy Fitzgerald’s assertion that the term “religion” frequently distorts rather than clarifies religious phenomena due to the immense Judeo-Christian theological baggage the discipline carries. In this respect, what is considered religion is always compared against what we know to be religion, which is itself predicated on Christianity. I argue that this baggage promotes an excessive mirroring of non-academic representations of Scientology within religious studies; these non-academic representations are often acutely negative and hyperbolic, such as the South Park episode, “Trapped in the Closet,” or Lawrence Wright’s, “Going Clear.” By analyzing the history of Scientology and various academic and non-academic representations, I use Scientology as a heuristic lens through which to examine religious studies. I posit a methodology I classify as “the continual deterritorialization of religion,” that, similarly to Deleuze and Guattari’s notion of deterritorialization from their work, “Anti-Oedipus,” seeks to develop a study of religion by proliferation, juxtaposition, and disjunction rather than, subdivision and pyramidal hierarchization. Furthermore, I contest the claims of Fitzgerald, who proposes “religion” to be an analytically redundant concept that ought to be merged into “culture.” I maintain that religious studies serves the Humanities best by remaining a distinct discipline, and by “deterritorializing religion,” scholars of religion can avoid becoming unintentionally enamored with power and replicating hegemonic, Western notions of religion; instead, we should understand religion to be a mobile, nomadic arrangement of phenomenon rather than a static, sedentary system.

The Study of Scientology is Trapped in the Closet