Christian Science Reading Room

image:5054_christian-science-reading-room-e.jpg, 400px, A typical storefront Christian Science Reading Room on the main street of a suburb of Boston. The window displays a lamp, a large Bible open to the current reading, and copies of '' Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures''.
A Christian Science Reading Room is a place operated as a public service by a Christian Science church in the community where that church exists. The local branches of The Mother Church ( The First Church of Christ, Scientist) in Boston, Massachusetts, maintains these rooms as a place where one may study and contemplate the Bible and Christian Science literature in a quiet atmosphere, similar to a library.

Literature and other items related to the study of Christian Science may be borrowed or purchased. There are approximately 2,000 Christian Science Reading Rooms worldwide.

Background and purpose

Reading Rooms were established in 1899 by a by-law in the '' Manual of The Mother Church'', the book which governs the Christian Science church. They were created to provide both a quiet place for reading, study and prayer and a means for the public to come into contact with Christian Science. They also offer Christian science books for sale.

Eleven years before the ''Manual'' by-law, there was an earlier concept of reading room and a dispensary of literature and services for those unable to afford to pay for Christian Science treatment or transportation to a Christian Science church. In Boston, these efforts were halted in 1894 to concentrate on building the original Mother Church.Stephen Gottschalk, ''Rolling Away The Stone'' (2006), pp. 230-232

Both library and bookstore, it is a "harbor of rest" for quiet meditation and prayer, where one may study or purchase the Bible and the church's denominational textbook, '' Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures'' written by Mary Baker Eddy, who is known as the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. Also available are the denomination's other main books, the King James Version of the Bible and '' Prose Works'', a volume of collected works also written by Eddy.''Prose Works'' is only published in English. In other languages, the individual books comprising ''Prose Works'' are published individually. The translated writings of Mary Baker Eddy are double in volume because they are published as bilingual books with the original English on the left, the translation on the right. Also available are the denomination’s religious periodicals: a monthly publication, ''The Christian Science Journal''; ''The Herald of Christian Science'', published for speakers of languages other than English; and the ''Christian Science Quarterly'', used worldwide to study the religion's Bible "lesson-sermons."

In addition, there are various religious pamphlets and audio recordings, as well as ''The Christian Science Monitor'', an international newspaper. Reading rooms in countries that speak other languages often have a limited stock of English-language reading material; those in large cities in anglophone countries usually stock books and periodicals in one or more foreign languages.

Reading rooms are often storefronts in a busy part of a city, though some are situated within the local church's building. Hours of business vary from reading room to reading room; some are open during regular retail business hours, others less frequently. The person working there is called a "librarian", indicative of the atmosphere to be found. Reading rooms are staffed by members of the local Christian Science church.

Jointly-maintained reading rooms (operated jointly by several Christian Science churches) operate in a number of locations, for example a jointly maintained room in John Street, New York City, is maintained by the Christian Science branch churches of New York, Connecticut and New Jersey.

Part of the American landscape

250px, A Christian Science Reading Room in New Bern, North Carolina, US
In many parts of the U.S., Christian Science Reading Rooms are ubiquitous parts of the downtown landscape. A book by Kristin Hahn speaks of "Breezing by the Christian Science Reading Rooms prominently centered on main streets all across America."

Novelists use them to characterize respectable-but-prosaic commercial districts. A mystery novel by Loren D. Estleman characterizes the location of a detective office by putting it among a beauty school, a plumbing supply store, "a hearing-aid shop, nda Christian Science reading room next to a medical supply outlet." A fictional cop in a novel by Peter Plate steers a patrol car "past Siegal's Tuxedo Shop, Queen's Shoes, Discoteca Latina, The Eggroll Express, The Christian Science Reading Room, and Duc Loi's Meat and Fish Company." The Simpsons' fictional town of Springfield contains one.Lisa the Skeptic
,' Simpsons episode 5F05, in which an anti-science mob attacks a Christian Science Reading Room

Notes

References

External links

Directory of Christian Science Reading Rooms

{{Christian Science

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