University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 2009 Finding Confucianism in Scientology: A comparative analysis John Albert Kieffer University of South Florida Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the American Studies Commons Scholar Commons Citation Kieffer, John Albert, "Finding Confucianism in Scientology: A comparative analysis" (2009). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/2045 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Finding Confucianism In Scientology: A Comparative Analysis by John Albert Kieffer A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of Religious Studies College of Arts and Sciences University of South Florida Co-Major Professor: Wei Zhang, Ph.D. Co-Major Professor: Dell deChant, M.A. Danny Jorgensen, Ph. D. Date of Approval: July 15, 2009 Keywords: Scientology, Confucianism, Hubbard, Confucius, NRM © Copyright 2009 , John Albert Kieffer Dedication This study is dedicated to my mom, Elena Pellicciante Kieffer, and to my dad, Reinhardt J. Kieffer. From the beginning, they taught me to investigate things with sincerity. Acknowledgements I wish to acknowledge the late Dr. Gail M. Harley who enthusiastically was first to validate this project and generously offered to serve on my thesis committee. I believe that she would have been excited to see these results. I am grateful for Dr.