A special contribution to the academic community

The human intellect is stirring. The traditional concept of a university as a repository for the ideas and values that inform civilization is increasingly being complemented by a further responsibility—that of helping unveil a path to the future. Christian Scientists in an academic community have an important contribution to make in mankind's task of identifying and propagating the constituents of a thriving, peaceable civilization, adapted to meet the challenges of the coming centuries.

Some while ago I became aware of a particular quality that is present in the truly successful manifestation of creative intelligence. And I began to see that where art failed, where research degenerated into pedantry, where institutional processes collapsed and human relationships lost coherence, this quality was often missing. What is the quality? I didn't give it a name until one day a phrase by Mary Baker Eddy leaped from the pages of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: "the cement of civilization and progress." The complete statement by the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science is: "Chastity is the cement of civilization and progress. Without it there is no stability in society, and without it one cannot attain the Science of Life."  Science and Health, P. 57;

A powerful illustration of the nature of chastity is found in the story of Samson and Delilah. A statement of Mrs. Eddy's lends this story a special significance for Christian Scientists in the academic community. In Science and Health she writes, "Physical science (so-called) is human knowledge,—a law of mortal mind, a blind belief, a Samson shorn of his strength."  ibid., p. 124;

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The educated disciple
January 22, 1979
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