Authorized Literature

MRS. EDDY’S STAND ON AUTHORIZED LITERATURE For many years members of the Christian Science Church have been instructed by their Board of Directors to read only material on Christian Science published by the Church. “Authorized Literature” was all that could be sold in the Reading Rooms, and it was all that the members would read, for the vast majority of Christian Scientists were obedient to this ruling. However, among the many changes taking place within the Christian Science field today is the slow breaking down of this blind obedience to a Church policy that belongs more to the Dark Ages than the twenty-first century. The ruling of “authorized literature” was totally contrary to Mrs. Eddy’s directions, for she felt that her students should use their own judgment as to what they should read. She once wrote, “I consider my students as capable, individually, of selecting their own reading matter and circulating it, as a committee would be which is chosen for this purpose.” This statement by Mrs. Eddy was on a card which she had inserted in The Christian Science Journal of July, 1891. It was intended to prevent the policy of “authorized literature” from developing in the Christian Science movement. In May of that year, the Journal announced the formation of a new group called the General Association for Dispensing Christian Science Literature. This Association was intended to be a highly organized national committee for selecting and distributing literature on Christian Science. Discerning in it the seeds of authorized literature, Mrs. Eddy wrote a letter to William G. Nixon, Editor of the Journal, reprimanding him for publishing this announcement and saying that she “had given [God’s] word to the world — not to a privileged monopoly to tyrannize over other writers.” (Mary Baker Eddy’s Six Days of Revelation) The July Journal had been printed and bound before Mrs. Eddy learned of the plan for this Association. She held up its distribution until she could include the card that warned against its formation. The card was printed as a single page and inserted just inside the front cover which accounts for the fact that it is now missing from many of the bound volumes in Christian Science Reading Rooms. The Association was disbanded, and no further attempt was made to censor the reading material of Christian Scientists so long as Mrs. Eddy was here. But in 1915, five years after her passing, the Christian Science Board of Directors initiated the policy of “authorized literature,” and the organization began to control the reading material of Church members. The Directors’ defiance of Mrs. Eddy’s stand regarding such censorship, brought about the very thing she tried to prevent — a monopoly that has tyrannized even the best writers in the Church. Over the years because of this monopoly some of the finest works on Christian Science have been suppressed, and Christian Scientists have been deprived of profound teachings that would have been invaluable to their healing work. Only in recent years has there been an awakening within the movement to the great harm that has come through a church policy that belongs more to the Dark Ages than to the twenty-first century. An increasing number of Christian Scientists are realizing that it has been a major factor in the decline of the Church. Although our Leader’s published writings represent her complete revelation, her more specific teachings on how to demonstrate Christian Science are often found in her letters, articles, and written instructions to students. We also find her inspired teachings in the records, writings, and memoirs of her students. So long as such powerful teaching was passed on to others through class teaching and associations, the movement prospered, and its healing works equaled those of early Christianity. But as the early teachers and their students left the scene, so did the dynamic teaching and healing that had brought prosperity to the movement. Fortunately, through the “unauthorized” writings of Mrs. Eddy, her students and others, these early teachings have been preserved. Today they are being published by independent Christian Scientists. The works of contemporary Scientists writing independently of the organization are also exploring the more profound aspects of Mrs. Eddy’s discovery. Based on Science and Health, they help us to understand better the whole of Christian Science, and how to demonstrate the full potential of its healing power.