BIOGRAPHY
Christiaan Vonck, Ph.D., is rector, Faculty for Comparative Study of Religions (FVG) in Wilrijk, Antwerp (Belgium), board member of the European Observatory of Religion and Secularism, and founder and secretary of the World Congress of Faiths in Belgium. He has served as a Visiting Lecturer at Columbia International University (South Carolina, USA), Union of Arab Historians (Baghdad, Iraq), Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (Iran), and Silpakorn University (Thailand). He has written many articles on religion and theology and serves as editor of Acta Comparanda.
Expertise
Scientology and Religion
In this article from 1996, Dr. Christiaan Vonck analyzes the religious nature of Scientology on the basis of its teaching and practices. When examining Scientology, he sees points of comparison with other religious systems, including Christian Science, the Society of Friends (Quakers), Antoinism and Buddhism. “While it has characteristics in common with other religions,” explains Dr. Vonck, “Scientology itself is unique, with an extensive doctrine of its own, based on the writings...