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Scientology and Catholicism Do Mix: A Note on Teaching New Religions in a Catholic Classroom
Author(s) -
Schmalz Mathew N.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
teaching theology and religion
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.165
H-Index - 11
eISSN - 1467-9647
pISSN - 1368-4868
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9647.2006.00258.x
Subject(s) - cult , liberal arts education , context (archaeology) , sociology , focus (optics) , section (typography) , the arts , pedagogy , mathematics education , psychology , law , history , political science , higher education , archaeology , physics , optics , business , advertising
. This note from the classroom explores teaching new or alternative religions within the context of a Roman Catholic Liberal Arts College. The essay will specifically focus on a section of a course entitled “Modern Religious Movements” in which students were asked to consider different methodological approaches to the teaching and study of Scientology and the Catholic cult of the Virgin Mary. This note from the classroom details how this rather unexpected comparison prompted students to reconsider the category cult and argues that encouraging self‐reflexivity in a largely Catholic classroom can become a crucial means for engaging a broader discussion of new religions, cult discourse, and the academic study of religion itself.