Article November 10, 2008 Issue

MARY BAKER EDDY AN HONEST INVESTIGATOR

BY KIM SHIPPEY

THERE WASN'T A SEAT TO BE HAD IN THE Hall of Ideas on the evening of October 9 when The Mary Baker Eddy Library presented the third installment in its series "Arts and Sciences in 19th-Century America: The Cultural and Intellectual World of Mary Baker Eddy."

In this program, professors of history, science, and philosophy discussed the importance of science to 19th-century American thought and culture, with particular emphasis on the relationship between science and religion.

The scene was set by the moderator, Jonathon Eder. He observed that the topic was huge and multidimensional. He said that science was a source of great fascination to Americans in the 19th-century, though the experts in those days didn't think of themselves first and foremost as scientists but rather as naturalists or natural theologians.