Why does the Library publish Eddy’s correspondence?
(Updated September 21, 2023)
Since opening in 2002, The Mary Baker Eddy Library has published letters written by Mary Baker Eddy that had previously been unavailable to the public.
Questions have come up as to whether making Eddy’s correspondence accessible to patrons is in accordance with provisions in the Church Manual—in particular those letters marked “private.”
Those questions often involve Article XXII, Section 8, “Private Communications.” This states, “A strictly private communication from the Pastor Emeritus to a member of her Church shall not be made public without her written consent.” Authorization to act on Manual By-Laws requiring Eddy’s consent passed to the Christian Science Board of Directors after her death.1
In order to retain the copyright to Eddy’s previously unpublished letters through 2047, the Directors published the majority of these documents in 2002. Otherwise they would have passed unprotected into the public domain.2
Documents that Eddy and her secretaries marked as private or confidential were primarily concerned with time-sensitive plans that have long since been carried out. Letters that have been opened to the public are no longer considered sensitive. A few letters that are still considered sensitive have remained closed to the public. The Christian Science Board of Directors periodically reviews closed documents to determine their continuing status.
As is clear from Manual Article XXII, Sections 4–7, Eddy was very concerned that her letters and other communications not be misunderstood, misinterpreted, or misused. Keeping this in mind, the Library is not just focused on making these documents available; we work to provide context for every statement contained in them, so they can’t be misunderstood. However, the establishment of the Library did not mark the first time Eddy’s letters were published. For more than seven decades before the Library was formed, The Mother Church, keeping this By-Law in mind, published previously unpublished letters by Eddy in various places, including biographies such as Robert Peel’s trilogy on Eddy.3
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- For more on this, see the pamphlet Permanency of The Mother Church and Its Manual, Revised Edition (Boston: The Christian Science Publishing Society, 1954). https://jsh.christianscience.com/collections/1950s/permanency-of-the-mother-church-and-its-manual-revised-edition.
- See Stephen I. Danzansky, “Questions and Answers about the Library,” The Christian Science Journal, March 2002. https://journal.christianscience.com/shared/view/9az5c3eufm?s=e.
- For more information, visit the biographies tab on The Mary Baker Eddy Library’s website.