Movement That Blends Bible Teachings With Power of Mind Marks Centenary

A religious movement that stressed the power of positive thinking long before Norman Vincent Peale and that publishes the oldest children’s magazine in America is celebrating its centennial this year by dedicating a new headquarters building and historic district.

The Unity School of Christianity, based here on a 1,400-acre incorporated municipality, is a nondenominational movement that seeks to combine the teachings of Jesus as presented in the Bible with the powers of the mind to help individuals lead positive, healthy and fulfilling lives.

The movement, founded in 1889 by Charles and Myrtle Fillmore, is based on principles developed by Emma Curtiss Hopkins, once a follower of Christian Science founder Mary Baker Eddy. Thought magazine, also founded by the Fillmores in 1889, was originally known as Christian Science Thought, but Unity was not a direct offshoot of Eddy’s movement.

A Generic Term

Phil White, editor of Unity magazine (which merged with Thought magazine in 1895), explains that in the late 19th Century “an awful lot of people who had similar ideas (to those of Eddy) simply called their ideas Christian science.”

Charles Fillmore described the movement as “practical Christianity.” While it was similar to “New Thought” movements of the 19th Century in its emphasis on the basic goodness of human beings, it differed from them in its focus on Christianity as taught in the Bible, White says.

“Unity’s co-authority is the Bible, the biblical tradition,” the editor stresses.

Over the years, Unity has developed into an organization that has a staff of more than 630 workers publishing materials for readers in 153 countries. It has a broadcast ministry called “The Word” that is on 564 radio stations and 603 television stations and a Unity School for Religious Studies that is attended by about 1,400 students each year.

2.6 Million Letters

The staff maintains a 24-hour, 365-day-a-year prayer vigil and responds to requests contained in about 700,000 telephone calls and 2.6 million letters a year, coming from people from many religious faiths and those of no faith.

Wee Wisdom, Unity’s children’s magazine, has been published for 96 years as a nondenominational periodical that offers messages of self-esteem. More recently, Unity has been recording audio tapes for parents to play while their children sleep.

Taped messages include such statements as “God loves you,” “Life is safe,” and “You are capable,” accompanied by special meditative music. A woman speaks on one side of the tape and a man on the other.

Although Unity is not a denomination, it has more than 500 churches or centers throughout the world. Women have played a prominent role from the beginning of the movement, and today they make up 53% of the ministerial ranks.