Copyrighting God
Ownership of the Sacred in American Religion

By using copyright in sacred texts, American religious organizations help to create, manage, and control emerging spiritual communities.

Andrew Ventimiglia (Author)

9781108420518, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 6 December 2018

254 pages
23.5 x 15.7 x 1.7 cm, 0.47 kg

'This book marks an exciting addition to scholarship on religion, law, and media, and will appeal to anyone interested in the organization and regulation of American religious life.' Isaac Weiner, Journal Religious Studies Review

Copyrighting God provides the first detailed account of how American religious organizations used copyright in sacred texts not simply for economic gain but also for social organization and control. Including chapters on the angelic authorship of The Urantia Book, Mary Baker Eddy's use of copyright to construct the Christian Science Church, interdenominational disputes in the Worldwide Church of God, and the Church of Scientology's landmark lawsuits against Internet service providers, this book examines how religious copyright owners mobilized the law in order to organize communities, protect sacred goods, produce new forms of spiritual identity, and even enchant the material world. In doing so, this book demonstrates that these organizations all engaged in complex efforts to harmonize legal arguments and theological rationales in order to care for and protect religious media, thereby coming to a nuanced understanding of secular law as a resource for, and obstacle to, their unique spiritual objectives.

Introduction: owning the sacred
Part I. The Angelic Author and the Sacred Work: 1. Spirited possessions
2. The angels' share
Part II. The Doctrines of Religion and Law: 3. Authorship and authority in intellectual property
4. A market in prophecy
5. Digital liability and the Church of Scientology
Conclusion: the afterlife of intellectual property.

Subject Areas: Intellectual property law [LNR], Legal history [LAZ], Sociology [JHB], Cultural studies [JFC]