Abstract

How L. Ron Hubbard’s his views on Christianity, Buddhism and other religions develop and how do they relate to popular and academic knowledge in the 1940s and 1950s? The idea Hubbard only for economic or public relation reasons defined Scientology as a religion is a serious biographic mistake, as a survey of his earlier statements can show. Hubbard only had limited knowledge on the historic religions, however. But he seriously tried to find a place for Scientology in the history of religions, as can be seen from texts like the Phoenix lectures, his most elaborate discussion of how the other religions relate to Scientology. The article discusses both Hubbard´s ideas on religious history and his possible sources.