Join us from the comfort of your own home for our virtual lecture series. Whittier Birthplace Virtual Lectures will take place over Zoom. Prior registration is required.
Suggest donation: $10/household
Speaker: Michael Hamilton is executive manager of The Mary Baker Eddy Library. He came to the position following ten years in the Religion and Philosophy Department at Principia College in Elsah, Illinois. Prior to teaching, he served for 20 years as an active-duty US Navy chaplain, ministering to units in both the navy and marine corps. He holds a PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research and writing focus is on American religions.
Topic: Meeting of Mary Baker Eddy and John Greenleaf Whittier
Mary Baker Eddy (1821–1910) deeply admired John Greenleaf Whittier. For her, their meeting in 1868 was a signal event that made a lifelong impression. But in order for us to arrive at that nexus, it’s important to trace some of the common threads that drew the two of them together. Although she was from a Congregational background, Eddy developed deep friendships with several Quakers early in the early years she was establishing Christian Science, and traces of Quaker spiritual practices made their way into the new religion. Eddy was also a poet— an avid reader and composer of verse, including Whittier’s. As well, his advocacy of slavery’s abolition stirred and motivated her, perhaps encouraging her to write her own anti-slavery poetry. That Eddy was able to minister spiritually to Whittier at their 1868 meeting, helping to ease his suffering, was a privilege she never forgot.