Hugh Urban

Hugh Urban is a professor of religious studies at Ohio State Universities Department of Comparative Studies and author of eight books and several academic articles, including a 2012 Princeton University Press-published book about the Church of Scientology.

Early life, education and family

Urban is the son of a psychologist and was raised in a religious Episcopal family, received his PhD in history of religions from the University of Chicago and is married to Ohio State University lecturer Nancy Jesser^[1] with their having one child.<ref name=urban3>"Profile: Hugh Urban". Ohio State University.</ref><ref name=urban>Ortega, Tony (15 September 2011). "Hugh Urban: An Interview With the Professor Who Took on Scientology". The Village Voice (villagevoice.com). Retrieved 20 April 2016.</ref> He is an avid mycophile.

Academic pursuit

Urban's academic focus began with the religions of India and expanded to his studies of new religious movements in both the United States and Europe, with his stating that the knowledge and power used by religions to keep information hidden from others had always fascinated him<ref name=urban /> and of which he has written many academic books and articles about.<ref name=urban3 />

Church of Scientology book

As the Church of Scientology had filed numerous lawsuits against anyone writing negatively about them (the most famous being the 2001 US$416 lawsuit filed by them against Time magazine), Urban’s 2006 article published in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion (published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Academy of Religion) titled Fair Game: Secrecy, Security, and the Church of Scientology in Cold War America^[2] became noteworthy due to its being the first major exposé of this new religious movement not litigated.

By 2011, Urban had expanded his research into the practices of the Church of Scientology, incorporating his information into a new book titled The Church of Scientology: A History of a New Religion<ref name=urban1>Urban, Hugh (2012). Scientology A History of a New Religion. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-1-4008-3943-8.</ref> (published by Princeton University Press) which received praise:

• Michael Shermer of Scientific American called Urban's book the most scholarly treatment of the organization to date.<ref name=urban1 />
• Rachel Aviv of the London Review of Books said that Urban’s book chronicles the way Hubbard reacted to legal and political challenges to his authority by attempting (largely successfully) to conceal his theories from the public.<ref name=urban2>"Additional Reviews". Princeton University Press.</ref>
• Kirkus Reviews called the book a fascinating and oftentimes mind-bending account of how penny-a-word sci-fi writer L. Ron Hubbard doggedly pursued the religion angle in his quest to create the worldwide Church of Scientology.<ref name=urban2 />

In this book too, Urban asserted^[3] that Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard formed many of his theories from those previously written about by the early to mid 20th century astral projection pioneer Sylvan Muldoon in his (Muldoon's) 1951 book The Phenomena of Astral Projection^[4] co-written with Hereward Carrington.

Bibliography

• Songs of Ecstasy: Tantric and Devotional Songs from Bengal (2001) (New York: Oxford University Press)<ref name=urban3 />
• The Economics of Ecstasy: Tantra, Secrecy and Power in Colonial Bengal (2001) (New York: Oxford University Press)<ref name=urban3 />
• Tantra: Sex, Secrecy, Politics and Power in the Study of Religion (2003) (University of California Press)<ref name=urban3 />
• Magia Sexualis: Sex, Magic and Liberation in Modern Western Esotericism (2006) (University of California Press)<ref name=urban3 />
• The Secrets of the Kingdom: Religion and Concealment in the Bush Administration (2007) (Rowman & Littlefield)<ref name=urban3 />
• The Power of Tantra: Religion, Sexuality and the Politics of South Asian Studies (2009) (I.B. Tauris/ Palgrave MacMillan)<ref name=urban3 />
• The Church of Scientology: A History of a New Religion (2011) (Princeton University Press)<ref name=urban3 />
• In Progress Secrecy: The Adornment of Silence, the Vestment of Power. Comparative Studies in Esoteric Religions (Under advanced contract with University of Chicago Press)<ref name=urban3 />

See also

References

1. "Profile: Nancy Jesser". Ohio State University.
2. Urban, Hugh (2 June 2006). "Fair Game: Secrecy, Security, and the Church of Scientology in Cold War America" (PDF). Journal of the American Academy of Religion (Oxford University Press) 74 (2): 356–389. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
3. Urban, Hugh (2012). Scientology A History of a New Religion. Google Books: Princeton University Press. p. 77. ISBN 978-1-4008-3943-8.
4. Muldoon, Sylvan (1951). The Phenomena of Astral Projection. Amazon: Rider. ASIN B0000CHX60.