Historical musings

Nenneman positions his reader to see Eddy as a child of nineteenth century New England and impresses on us how she cherished family, her longing to see it manifest in her experience woven like a golden thread through her long life.

The third paragraph on page 33 seems important. The author here compares the Calvinist focus on a small portion of Scripture in regard to predestination, with Augustine’s late fourth century “emphasis on the alleged fall of man…and man’s inherent depravity”, an emphasis which he suggests altered the course of history.

The historical background regarding the Puritan immigration to the American colonies is most interesting. Nenneman suggests (p. 34) that the Puritans’ aim was to establish community life according to their – perhaps narrow – perception of Scriptural demands, rather than for “religious freedom”. However, the practical need for “cooperation and compromise” did indeed contribute to a live and let live spirit in the new colony.

Julie Swannell

Unremitting toil

June, 2016 Book.  Persistent Pilgrim: The Life of Mary Baker Eddy by Richard A. Nenneman

Amazingly, I do not have this book on my shelf.  However, it was on the shelf at our Reading Room, for sale.  Julie tells me I have read her copy, but I have no recollection of it.

The first thing that is different about this book is that the reproduction of a painting of Mary Baker Eddy by Max Bohm is loosely attached – almost “tipped on” as a printer might say.  Is this so that one can frame it?

The second thing is the Mary Baker Eddy quotes on page v.  They are so appropriate for the theme of the book –

Only by persistent, unremitting, straightforward toil; by turning neither to the right nor to the left, seeking no other pursuit or pleasure than that which cometh from God, can you win and wear the crown of the faithful.  Miscellaneous Writings 340:6

Whoever opens the way in Christian Science is a pilgrim and stranger, marking out the path for generations yet unborn.  Science and Health - 174:14

I found another quote with the word “toil” coupled with “unremitting” in Miscellaneous Writings:

The discovery and founding of Christian Science has cost more than thirty years of unremitting toil and unrest; but comparing those with the joy of knowing that the sinner and the sick are helped thereby, that time and eternity bear witness to this gift of God to the race, I am the debtor.  (382:6)

The word “unrest” stands out to me. 

And so on to the text. How about this for a motto: “First convince yourself and then you can convince others” (page 5), quoting Socrates' rule of teaching by questions and answers.

In her classes, Mrs. Eddy  was able to dissect the mind of the pupil “more critically than the body of a subject laid bare for anatomical examination” (page 4).

Isn’t it grand that Christian Science is also Moral Science, as first named by Mrs. Eddy? See p. 5. Really moving along, aren’t I?

Joyce Voysey

Rebellion against some theological notions

The 1997 book Persistent Pilgrim – The Life of Mary Baker Eddy by Richard Nenneman is a slim but substantial book written for today’s readers. The language is clear and helpful and the story line moves along at a pleasing pace. It offers frequent references to other historical characters and events, which helpfully place our protagonist in historical and geographical perspective.

A picture of the future discoverer and leader emerges as we witness her struggle with ill-health and her “rebellion” against some of the notions about God then (and still today) prevalent. She could not agree that her sisters and brothers could be predestined to suffer; nor could she countenance the idea that God causes human suffering. The independence of her thought was evident from the beginning. Nenneman points out that Eddy’s unique “approach to Christianity” developed from her search for health, which compelled her investigation of every known remedy then available.

Our author asserts that Eddy's life coincided with years “when Christianity was waning as a serious intellectual force in thinking people’s lives and when the new fields of psychology and psychiatry were just beginning to have some public familiarity” (p. 10). Concurrently, while there was a great underlying knowledge of the Bible and Biblical terms, there was a deep questioning of theological precepts. The stage was being set for a revolution.

Julie Swannell