13AR18-03
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Apologia Report 18:3 (1,139)
January 16, 2013
Subject: The high cost of investigating Scientology
In this issue:
LEWIS, C.S. - new biography from Alister McGrath includes a "concentration on Lewis' role in apologetics" and the development of his intellectual life
ORIGINS - an atheist's memoir resulting from a decade of attending creationist conferences
NEW TESTAMENT TRANSLATION - adding "ten new books" to the text?
SCIENTOLOGY - two different accounts by investigative reporters who dared to target this group
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LEWIS, CLIVE STAPLES
C. S. Lewis: A Life: Eccentric Genius, Reluctant Prophet, by Alister E. McGrath [1] -- "Christian theologian McGrath ... dissects the life of C.S. Lewis 50 years after the author's death, focusing on how his life was impacted by theology and vice versa. In this chronological account, McGrath splits Lewis' life into sections, beginning with childhood and then moving through his many years at Oxford, his time at Cambridge, and then his death and posthumous popularity. An entire section is also devoted to the Chronicles of Narnia [2] and its religious meaning, conception and popularity. Based almost completely on Lewis' letters, the biography is rich with information but short on the sort of anecdotes that make author biographies so colorful. McGrath focuses mainly on Lewis' religious development, with a secondary theme of the relationships that affected his work. This concentration on Lewis' role in apologetics may be due to the fact that McGrath himself is an apologist and finds common ground with Lewis in this area. ... Dense for general readers but an excellent scholarly read encompassing new ideas for Lewis devotees or those interested in religious argument." Kirkus, Jan #1 '13.
Also from McGrath, and due in May, The Intellectual World of C.S. Lewis [3]. The Amazon blurb tells us that McGrath looks at "the key themes at the centre" of Lewis’ theological life and work such as "Lewis’ intellectual development, the uses of images in literature and theology, the place of myth in modern thought, the role of the imagination in making sense of the world, the celebrated 'argument from desire', and Lewis’ place as an Anglican thinker and a Christian theologian."
ORIGINS
Among the Creationists: Dispatches from the Anti-Evolutionist Front Line, by Jason Rosenhouse [4] -- a book note explains that the author "is a mathematician who developed a strong interest in evolution and creationism and started attending creationist conferences. This book is in part an anecdotal memoir of his experiences socializing for a decade with creationists [people with views vastly different from his own], an explication of their beliefs and attitudes, and a discussion of certain questions about science and religion that arose as a result." Skeptical Inquirer, Jan/Feb '13, p59.
NEW TESTAMENT TRANSLATION
A New New Testament: A Bible for the 21st Century Combining Traditional and Newly Discovered Texts, edited with commentary by Hal Taussig [5] -- with nothing new under the sun, some folks just can't quit trying. Taussig is a founding member of the Jesus Seminar, a pastor, professor of biblical literature and early Christianity, and author. He teaches at Union Theological Seminary in New York and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College.
The book's ad copy tells us: "Over the past century, numerous lost scriptures have been discovered, authenticated, translated, debated, [and] celebrated. Many of these documents were as important to shaping early-Christian communities and beliefs as what we have come to call the New Testament; these were not the work of shunned sects or rebel apostles, not alternative histories or doctrines, but part of the vibrant conversations that sparked the rise of Christianity. Yet these scriptures are rarely read in contemporary churches; they are discussed nearly only by scholars or within a context only of gnostic gospels. Why should these books be set aside? Why should they continue to be lost to most of us? And don't we have a great deal to gain by placing them back into contact with the twenty-seven books of the traditional New Testament—by hearing, finally, the full range of voices that formed the early chorus of Christians?
"To create this New New Testament, Hal Taussig called together a council of scholars and spiritual leaders to discuss and reconsider which books belong in the New Testament. They talked about these recently found documents, the lessons therein, and how they inform the previously bound books. They voted on which should be added, choosing ten new books to include in A New New Testament. Reading the traditional scriptures alongside these new texts - the Gospel of Luke with the Gospel of Mary, Paul's letters with The Letter of Peter to Philip, The Revelation to John with The Secret Revelation to John - offers the exciting possibility of understanding both the new and the old better. This new reading, and the accompanying commentary in this volume, promises to reinvigorate a centuries-old conversation and to bring new relevance to a dynamic tradition."
Religion blogger Bruce Reyes-Chow lists some of the book's collaborators, who include such "scholars, theologians and cultural icons" as John Dominic Crossan, Bishop Alfred Johnson, Karen King, Margaret Aymer Oget, and Barbara Brown Taylor <www.ow.ly/gQEVB>.
You can watch a video of Taussig and his colleagues explaining the book's origins and controversial objectives at <www.ow.ly/gQEXv>.
SCIENTOLOGY
"The Tip of the Spear" by Joel Sappell -- in June of 1990, the Los Angeles Times published a six-day series on Scientology. It was "one of the most comprehensive pieces on Scientology ever undertaken by an American news organization. In 24 stories based on thousands of documents and hundreds of interviews, [the authors, Sappell and Bob Welkos] tackled everything from Hubbard's bogus biographical claims to the organization's high-pressure sales techniques to the intimidating tactics employed against perceived adversaries...."
Ever wonder what the authors experienced afterwards? Sappell, "the onetime investigative reporter investigates what happened to him." He writes that "The usual rules of journalistic engagement didn’t apply. Hubbard was both guru and general to his worshippers, lacing his writings on theological affairs with militant directives on how to blunt enemies. 'If attacked on some vulnerable point by anyone or anything or any organization, always find or manufacture enough threat against them to cause them to sue for peace,' Hubbard told his flock. 'Don't ever tamely submit to an investigation of us. Make it rough, rough on attackers all the way.'" Sappell adds: "Over many years I'd dug into everything from corruption in the Los Angeles Police Department to the stranglehold of the Mob in New York's Little Italy to the fishy financial dealings of L.A. mayor Tom Bradley during his final months in office. But no story had prepared me for how difficult our investigation of the Church of Scientology would prove to be...." While this piece contains considerable profanity, it will likely build respect for anybody willing to take on a similar assignment. Los Angeles Magazine, Dec 18 '12. <www.ow.ly/gLh2V>
(You'll find the complete text of the original L.A. Times series at <www.ow.ly/gQF4k>.)
With much the same sentiment, Paul Elie reviews Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief, by Lawrence Wright [6], explaining: "The book's power lies not so much in the presentation of appalling revelations (though there are dozens of them) as in our awed recognition that Mr. Wright spent years of his life on this story - that he interviewed dozens of odd or compromised or fearful people, assembled the intricate edifice of Scientology's beliefs, mapped the territory of its empire, and traced its ill effects...."
In February 2011, The New Yorker published a 25,000-word article <www.tinyurl.com/64arvj7> written by Wright that "painted Scientology as corrupt and cultish." The following August, The New York Times <www.tinyurl.com/3dsqof6>, noted the extremes to which Scientology went in response. No doubt Wright fills in the blanks with his new book.
Elie concludes: "The surprise isn't that Mr. Wright presents Scientology as a perplexing and alarming organization. The surprise is that he has managed to tell its story at all." Wall Street Journal, Jan 12 '12, pC5. <www.ow.ly/gLiR8>
Of related interest: "What Happens When Publishing Takes on Scientology" by Roger Tagholm <www.ow.ly/gQFde>.
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SOURCES: Monographs
1 - C. S. Lewis: A Life: Eccentric Genius, Reluctant Prophet, by Alister E. McGrath (Tyndale, 2012, hardcover, 350 pages)
2 - The Chronicles of Narnia Boxed Set, by C. S. Lewis (HarperCollins, 1994, paperback) <www.tinyurl.com/2dadxjl>
3 - The Intellectual World of C. S. Lewis, by Alister E. McGrath
(Wiley-Blackwell, May 2013, paperback, 208 pages) <www.ow.ly/gM9wf>
4 - Among the Creationists: Dispatches from the Anti-Evolutionist Front Line, by Jason Rosenhouse (Oxford Univ Prs, April 2012, hardcover, 272 pages) <www.tinyurl.com/8y8v32t>
5 - A New New Testament: A Bible for the 21st Century Combining Traditional and Newly Discovered Texts, edited with commentary by Hal Taussig (Houghton Mifflin, March 2013, hardcover, 640 pages) <www.ow.ly/gLi8r>
6 - Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief, by Lawrence Wright (Knopf, 2013, hardcover, 448 pages) <www.ow.ly/gLiKS>
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