Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Tasted, Swallowed, or Chewed and Digested?

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.
Francis Bacon, from "Of Studies"

A reader inquired about the source of an MBE quote I used in a recent entry. It was from the so-called Blue Book, a collection of notes taken by a Divinity class student of Mrs. Eddy, some of her watches, letters, etc. It is available from The Bookmark. Quite possibly many (most?) Primary class teachers have proscribed this and like publications with a skull and crossbones, and if so their teaching should be respected. With these types of materials great care and wisdom should be employed in their use. Certainly avoid anything passed around clandestinely in a plain paper wrapper or samizdat-like documents.

Christian Scientists have all they need in the Bible and published writings of Mary Baker Eddy. The Bible lessons and periodicals also provide useful fodder for spiritual growth, though since circa 1980, or maybe post-Phinney (periodicals) and Fanning (Monitor), these have, for many, sadly wandered like little lost sheep. Often good articles from the past are much more helpful and inspiring, and I notice groups of them are being reprinted for sale by the Church. Save your money and instead go to a Reading Room, find the bound volumes, and make exciting discoveries of your own.

The Bookmark also has class papers of Samuel Greenwood, Martha Wilcox, and Dr. John Tutt, as well as some of others I am not familiar with. Many of these papers are splendid, though they may also be on many teachers' list of verboten temptations. The Bookmark also has useful, safe, and convenient collections of articles and/or lectures of stalwarts like Paul Stark Seeley, Dr. Tutt, and Milton Simon. Class-taught students should also have their own association papers, and they may be sufficient. None of this reading matter is a substitute, of course, for the Bible and published writings of Mrs. Eddy, but the best from past years can often beautifully illumine a student's study and prayer. Certainly not all official publications are worth one's while either, e.g., that decidedly homely maiden by Bliss Knapp, "The Destiny of the Mother Church", whose plain face only endeared itself to the Mother Church, contrary to denials, because of a lollapalooza of a dowry. Those who fail to read Destiny or Gill, to pick another favored child, will not be spiritually hamstrung by the omission.

Anything by Greenwood, Wilcox, Seeley, Simon, Gwalter, or Tutt, to name but a few, whether authorized or strictly forbidden, is guaranteed to be far more spiritually uplifting than yet another blitheringly sodden makeweight interview. "Who has time to read all these other wonderful materials when the Bible and writings of Mrs. Eddy are far from being fully digested, understood, and demonstrated?" one might reasonably ask. Another questioner might just as reasonably ask "Who has time to fritter away on a blog when better healing work would be far more beneficial to humanity?" Well, someday I might have a satisfactory answer to those questions--if they need one.

22 comments:

New England CS said...

You do put out very interesting blog posts, I must say. I'm with you on staying with the earlier powerhouses--after the Bible and our Leader's writings, of course.
Thanks!

W. R. said...

Thanks for all the helpful hints, blogger. Going to check some of these names out my next trip to the RR.

Anonymous said...

When it comes to the great metaphysical writers like Tutt, Greenwood, Wilcox et al, who cares if they're forbidden?! How dare anyone say we can't read these terrific thinkers, demonstrators of Truth?
Glad you're blogging,

Best from Ohio said...

I made the happy discovery of Samuel Greenwood when I served in our reading room some years back. Noticed he was published a lot in the Journals, and became quite a fan then. Can recommend his metaphysics along with some of those you mentioned. Well worth checking out.

Patrick said...

You're not my favorite blogger on CS for nothing. Really like your free spirit. You do think for yourself, and I think we need more of this in the movement today.

Jan said...

I recently gave up my subscription to the Sentinel, just too light for me, and now I'm happy staying with the Bible and Science and Health. Plenty for me to taste, swallow, chew and digest, as you put it.

Yorba Linda, CA said...

I myself am a Wilcox devotee as I once read she was told by Mrs. Eddy that by being in her household (our Leader's), those workers would get metaphysics that might take others 50 years. Whether or not this is true, I find Wilcox a very deep metaphysician.
Thanks much,

Greetings from Australia said...

Glad to see you're back on your horse, so to speak. Always get a bang out of your blogging.

Not far from Boston said...

Appreciate all the giving you are doing, to help us out here be better students of the Bible and the writing of Mary Baker Eddy.
Keep at it!

Hartford, CT said...

Really like the way you write about CS things. When I consider the "vastness" of CS as our Leader terms her discovery someplace, it's important for me to stay with what she has given us. I need to prove God's power much more than I have been doing.

Florida fan said...

Very well done as yours tend to be. It's good you are thinking about how to help followers of Christian Science be better students. I'm grateful for all your efforts.

A. S. (Tennessee) said...

So original and worth reading. Thanks for a refreshing website, whoever you may be. (Do tell us one of these days, ok?)

Oxford said...

Another fine essay, blogger. You do seem to turn them out consistently, and well crafted I might add.
Thanks much,

Stephen said...

Get a lot out of your unusual (for CS's) blog. Quite original, well worth my time to check you out.

Lafayette, LA said...

Do like your prose pieces, but think I prefer your poems. Will you present us with another one? I hope so.
Still think you're a professor English somewhere, the way you express yourself.

Anonymous said...

Dear Blogger,
You're doing good work and I hope you keep it up.
Thanks!

Thanks from Portland said...

good blog post. always (almost that is) a help to me in my pursuit of divine metaphysics.

Helen said...

I think you're to be congratulated on using your talents to further an understanding of Christian Science. To me, it shows in what high regard you hold the teachings of the Holy Bible and the inspired writings of our Leader.

Nancy said...

Why is it that comments to this blog nearly always call the blogger "Blogger"? He or she has stated that his or her nom de cyberplume is "Christian," after the protagonist of The Pilgrim's Progress? Out of respect for this excellent writer, who gives us so much, could we all call him/her by the name he or she has given him/herself?

That said, I would add to the list Rolf Witzsche, who was once a Journal-listed practitioner published several times in the CS periodicals. His interests range far beyond the CS church, however, but his work is valuable because it places CS within a history-of-ideas framework, and he writes science fiction. Some might dismiss him out of hand because he also espouses Lyndon LaRouche and Dave Robinson. Lots to read at http://www.rolf-witzsche.com/

Thanks from a regular viewer said...

You're so good at what you do! A pleasure reading material by someone who not only thinks deeply, loves our Cause, but is able to express things so clearly.

Oxford said...

This is to Lowlywise: since I'm a regular visitor to this site and have addressed the author of it as "blogger", will henceforth call him (or her), I think it's a him, don't you? as Christian.
Ok?

Anonymous said...

"A few books, however, which are based on this book, are useful."

(MBE, S&H preface x:9-10)

"Useful" to some readers of S&H, but possibly / probably not useful to all. It's a question of individual need and direction of spiritual progress.

And I'm certainly grateful it's up to the individual conscience to discern, rather than up to an ecclesiastical authority somewhere.