Letters to the Press

From Christian Science Committees on Publication

J. Don Fulton

The Oshawa Times

The Oshawa Times
Oshawa, Ontario, Canada

From time to time ... [a writer] has taken issue with the theology of Christian Science. While he has every right to his opinion, most of what he states is based on his own interpretation—or misinterpretation—of these teachings.

It would take more than a brief letter to clear up the several doctrinal points [the writer] refers to. But I would like to clarify one rather serious historical point. The statements about Christian Science history made by "the scholarly apologist" he refers to have not only been seriously questioned but have been specifically disproved by scholars who have explored them in detail.

The charge that Mrs. Eddy borrowed from a so-called Lieber-Hegel document, for instance, was thoroughly discredited by Conrad H. Moehlman in his book Ordeal by Concordance (New York, Longmans, Green and Co. 1955). The place of Quimby in Mrs. Eddy's early searchings is examined in considerable detail by Stephen Gottschalk in The Emergence of Christian Science in American Religious Life (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973) and the conclusions, which are quite contrary to [the writer's] assertions, might be of interest to you.

How helpful it would be if all Christians might agree to search for the points we have in common, rather than those on which we differ. There is so much that we can uphold together even in the face of our differences.

J. Don Fulton Committee on Publication

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