Comments

• Stu
  said on August 11, 2009 at 13:57…

  Hey guys, thanks for your thoughts. I really found the thought on what you said about Mary Baker Eddy telling her household in 1908 that her strength was perfected in weakness. An inspiration for us all. No matter how far down a wrong path we may go, there is always a way back to perfection.
• Chet asks:
  said on August 11, 2009 at 22:17…

  Is it really fair to portray Wilbur's biography as the "mirror opposite" of Milmine's? While Milmine had few if any credentials as a writer or reporter, Wilbur was actually a seasoned journalist and the articles she wrote about Mrs. Eddy that became the basis of her biography were well-researched and thought-provoking. My impression is that some people within The Mother Church worked to "sanitize" Wilbur's writing to craft a more "perfect" human story. Have you ever read the first edition of Wilbur's biography and subsequently the edition that was published with "help" from Church officials? I'm hoping that new scholarship can help to unearth the truth about both Milmine and Wilbur so we can judge how seriously their biographies should be taken. Thanks for any insight you can provide!
• Ian
  said on August 13, 2009 at 12:18…

  I really enjoy how this video is connected to this Week's Lesson on Soul. I was wondering if we could start a discussion of how this video is connected to the ideas in this weeks lesson.

  Any thoughts out there of how this discussion of MBE and the biographies written about her might apply to Sunday School and to the Lesson on Soul?
• Dana
  said on August 14, 2009 at 09:23…

  Ian,

  I think the second portion of the quote we read from Robert Peel's "Years of Authority" sums it up well: "As Mary Baker Eddy, I am the weakest of mortals, but as the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, I am the bone and sinew of the world" (Peel, "Authority," 326; from Emma Shipman's reminiscence).

  Identity is an attribute of God often associated with Soul. I don't think Mrs. Eddy would have wanted us to follow her blindly or view her as a perfect mortal without faults. She liked ice cream, she ate food, and sometimes she made jokes. I also don't think she would have wanted us to view her as a lier, a fake, or a fraud.

  I find that the biographies, especially Peel's trilogy, educate and enhance my view of Mrs. Eddy. As she wrote to Edward Kimball, a dear student, in 1893: "For the world to understand me in my true light, and life, would do more for our Cause than aught else could. This I learn from the fact that the enemy tries harder to hide these two things from the world than to win any other points" (L07433, Letter from Mrs. Eddy to Edward Kimball, 1893). Although that letter was written at a specific time to a specific person, I think it's message still holds great value today.
• judy
  said on August 14, 2009 at 15:26…

  Chet – You have some good questions here, and Mike and Dana have asked me to answer them. Is it really fair to call the Sybil Wilbur bio the “mirror opposite” of Milmine? Well, it’s a bit of a generalization, but it is essentially accurate. Georgine Milmine’s goal was to portray Mary Baker Eddy as completely dishonest and immoral, from childhood on. Wilbur consciously, deliberately worked to counteract Milmine, and in doing so she at times overemphasizes the good. And after all, Mary Baker Eddy was an honest, moral, upright person – qualities completely absent from the Milmine biography.

  You are certainly right that Georgine Milmine was not a competent writer, and Wilbur was. However, it’s also true that Milmine received a great deal of assistance from the staff of McClure’s magazine when her series was first published. In fact, the staff there essentially rewrote everything, so she had the benefit of the assistance of some of the best writers of her day, including Willa Cather, later to become one of our greatest novelists.

  At your urging, we looked at the first edition of Wilbur (published by Concord Publishing Company) and the later Publishing Society edition. They appear to be essentially the same – we saw no evidence of editing or “sanitizing” of any kind. The book has been edited quite a bit over the years – to correct numerous inaccuracies (too bad someone can’t do that to Milmine!) But the book’s reverential tone has not changed from its earliest editions.

  Judy Huenneke Senior Research Archivist, The Mary Baker Eddy Library
• Charlotte P. Jackson
  said on August 18, 2009 at 06:45…

  Dana said that Mary Baker Eddy healed hundreds. Does he know that at an Annual Meeting, it was announced that she had healed 3,000? It was also commented that to this should be added the number of people healed by just reading Science and Health. That is, thousands! I have the VHS tape that one day I finally got around to viewing, and was impressed at this announcement.
• Dana
  said on August 18, 2009 at 10:36…

  Charlotte,

  Thank you for posting. There is documentation for approximately 300 healings by Mrs. Eddy. Most of these can be found in Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer, by Yvonne von Fettweis and Robert Warneck.

  I certainly agree thousands (or more) have been healed by reading Science and Health.

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