Final thoughts on Powell's book

Well, I have finished Powell’s book.  I found the last couple of chapters rather heavy with praise.

Some final comments from my reading –

1. A  delightful tidbit from the account of the much loved story of John Salchow picking Mrs Eddy up in his arms to get here into her new home away from the reporters when she was transferring from Concord to Boston.  The newspapers reported that, “A huge Swede grabbed Mrs. Eddy and ran off with her” P. 232.      

2. Powell got my attention by using the phrase “God emeritus,” on page 233.  “She knew no God emeritus; and those with her were permitted to know none.” 

Dictionary.com gives this definition of the adjective: “Retired or honourably discharged from active professional duty, but retaining the title of one’s office or position.”  And for the noun it gives “professor emeritus; minister, etc.” 

Now, Christian Scientists are familiar with the term “pastor emeritus.”  It occurs in the Manual of The Mother Church and refers to Mrs. Eddy as she stands for all time as holding that office of The Mother Church (p. 10 and 64-70).

It seems strange to me that Powell would even think of putting those two words together – God and emeritus.

3. A quote from page 250 about advertising in The Christian Science Monitor in the 1930’s – “Last May the Monitor was singled out by Batten, Barton, Durstine, and Osborne for first place as a national advertising medium, with no other daily paper even a close second.”

4. A definition of “unpardonable sin” – “Unpardonable sin means one that we are never pardoned of – but taught through suffering that it is a sin.”

5. I have long been curious about “Mark Hopkins and the log.”  Robert Peel quotes Hopkins as someone very famous.  I looked him up on Wikipedia.

Mark Hopkins (February 4, 1802 – June 17, 1887) was an American educator and Congregationalist theologian, president of Williams College from 1836 to 1872. An epigram - widely attributed to President James A. Garfield, a student of Hopkins - defined an ideal college as "Mark Hopkins on one end of a log and a student on the other."

In the later judgment of university historian Frederick Rudolph, "no one can properly address himself to the question of higher education in the United States without paying homage in some way to the aphorism of the log and to Mark Hopkins.”

It does seem that the quote could have originally been “log cabin” but how much more memorable is the log.

Farewell for now Lyman Powell.

Joyce Voysey

Ed.

Maybe God emeritus refers to the concept of God as Jesus and therefore of a God who has now retired from active duty.