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Monday, 6 October 2025

The flow of mainstream Christianity

Our book this month – The New Birth of Christianity: why religion persists in a scientific age –  was published in 1992. 

The world has surely moved along in the intervening 33 years. Is the book's message still relevant? What is the message? 

And who wrote this book? 

The author is Richard A. Nenneman. Blog readers may recall that Mr. Nenneman wrote a biography of Mary Baker Eddy titled Persistent Pilgrim: the life of Mary Baker Eddy (published 1997). Our book club read the book in 2016.

In a thoughtful tribute at the time of Nenneman's 2007 passing, The Christian Science Monitor's David Cook described the author and former Monitor editor-in-chief (1988-1992), as having

"a high-octane intellect and love of world affairs... The tall and refined Harvard graduate came to the paper after service as a US Army counter intelligence operative in Germany and an early career in banking." 

https://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1231/p08s01-cogn.html.

The Preface of our book indicates that the author's purpose was "an attempt to communicate where Christian Science stands vis-à-vis the historical Christian tradition" (p. viii). And contrary to what others might believe, Nenneman suggests that "Christian Science lies ... near the flow of mainstream Christianity" (p. vi).

So, let’s get reading.

Julie Swannell

For information: The Reading Room at Redcliffe has two copies of this book: one for sale and one in the lending library.

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