Copyrighting God Ownership of the Sacred in American Religion

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.

Copyrighting God provides the first detailed account of how American religious organizations - from Christian Science to the Church of Scientology - used copyright in sacred texts not simply for economic gain but also for social organization and control and, in doing so, sought to appropriate secular law for spiritual ends.

Andrew Ventimiglia is a Research Fellow in the University of Queensland TC Beirne School of Law. He works in the areas of legal history, religious studies, and media studies, with a research focus on the history and cultural effects of intellectual property law. Ventimiglia was awarded a Ph.D. in Cultural Studies from the University of California, Davis in 2015. He also holds an M.A. in Cinema Studies and a Certificate from the Culture and Media Program at New York University. Ventimiglia's work has appeared or is forthcoming in Cultural Critique and the Journal of the American Academy of Religion.