Roy Wallis

Roy Wallis (1945–1990^[1]) was a sociologist and Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences at the Queen's University Belfast. He is mostly known for his creation of the seven signs that differentiate a religious congregation from a sectarian church, which he created while researching the Church of Scientology. He introduced the distinction between world-affirming and world-rejecting new religious movements.^[2]

After publishing his book The Road to Total Freedom (1976), an in-depth analysis of the sociology of Scientology, he was harassed by the church both legally and personally.^[3]^[4] Forged letters, apparently from Wallis, were sent to his colleagues implicating him in various scandalous activities.^[5]

Publications

Roy Wallis (1975) Sectarianism: Analyses of Religious and Non-Religious Sects, London: Peter Owen & New York: John Wiley, ISBN 0470919108
Roy Wallis (1976) The Road to Total Freedom: A Sociological Analysis of Scientology, London: Heinemann. ISBN 0-435-82916-5. US edition published 1977 by Columbia University Press, ISBN 0-231-04200-0
Roy Wallis and Peter Morley (1976) Marginal Medicine, New York: Free Press, ISBN 0029337402
Roy Wallis and Peter Morley (1978) Culture and Curing: Anthropological Perspectives on Traditional Medical Beliefs and Practices, Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, & London: Peter Owen, ISBN 0822953250
Roy Wallis (1979) On the Margins of Science: the Social Construction of Rejected Knowledge, Keele: University of Keele Press, ISBN 0904425061
Roy Wallis (1979) Salvation and Protest: Studies of Social and Religious Movements, New York: St. Martin's Press, ISBN 0312698348
Roy Wallis (1984) The Elementary Forms of the New Religious Life, London and Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, ISBN 0-7100-9890-1

References

^ Content Pages of the Encyclopedia of Religion and Social Science
^ Bromley, David NEW RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS in the Encyclopedia of Religion and Society edited by William H. Swatos, Jr. Editor [1]
^ Roy Wallis's The Road to Total Freedom, page 218-219
^ Roy Wallis (1977) "The Moral Career of the Research Project" in Colin Bell and Howard Newby (Eds) Doing Sociological Research London: Allen and Unwin. ISBN 0-02-902350-5
^ Stewart Lamont (1986) Religion Inc.: The Church of Scientology London: Harrap. ISBN 0-245-54334-1. page 87