Article January 22, 1979 Issue

A special contribution to the academic community

LAURENCE STUART WRIGHT

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;}