Life in the Academic Community

Carl J. Welz

College life—where thoughts are formed, attitudes are molded, careers are begun, decisions that affect life patterns are made, discoveries that alter the course of civilization occur. What place does Christian Science have in such an experience? And what place do college activities and studies have in the life of a Christian Scientist? These and other questions will be considered in the ten-part series beginning in this issue.

That there should be a place for Christian Science on college campuses was determined when Mary Baker Eddy added Article XXIII, Section 8, to the Manual of The Mother Church. It begins, "Members in good standing with The Mother Church, who are members of the faculty, instructors, or students in any university or college, can form and conduct a Christian Science organization at such university or college, provided its rules so permit."

This provision by the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science has brought meaning into the experience of many thousands of college students the world over. In both undergraduate and graduate years the college organization makes the campus a kind of living laboratory. Classes, seminars, research projects, discussion sessions, challenge the students' thinking, demand that they take positions on vital topics, require each one to withstand pressures of professional logic as well as of personal persuasion and popular opinion. And regularly the members of the organization meet and share through readings of pertinent selections from the Bible and from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mrs. Eddy some of the truths of Christian Science particularly applicable to problems they are facing. Then they tell of their experiences in applying these truths. The college organization meeting is a return to home base where one's views of the week are in a sense tested or verified.

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