Reading Rooms Take Visitors Beyond Books

A Christian Science reading room may look like a bookstore or library, but regular visitors will tell you there is more to a reading room than books.

“It’s an oasis,” said Linda Ruthenbeck, a Christian Science practitioner. “It’s a quiet, private place where I can pray and think about God undisturbed.”

Reading rooms today are part bookstore, part library, part sanctuary. Shelves are stacked with the Bible, the Christian Science textbook Science and Health, current and back issues of the religion’s various publications and a number of Bible reference texts.

A small audio/video center stocks tapes and videos for adults and children.

Some have Internet capabilities, which can connect reading room patrons to the Christian Science home page.

They are modest rooms, with lounge chairs and work desks. And the volunteers who staff reading rooms say everyone is welcome.

“If people are moved to come in, we’re happy to talk to them,” said Norma Jenkins, a librarian at the Ventura reading room.

Jenkins said some patrons come in looking for answers to seemingly hopeless problems or want to discover some sense of spirituality in their lives.

“We want to give them comfort right then,” she said.

In those cases, she said, librarians will direct visitors to the Bible, Science and Health or the weekly Bible lesson.

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Christian Scientists also frequent the reading rooms to get help with their problems.

Beverly Donley read the weekly Bible lesson one afternoon recently after getting frazzled with her grandchildren earlier in the day.

“I’m here trying to gain my peace,” Donley said, adding that she felt better than when she walked in.

Robert L. Eichelberger, a practicing Christian Scientist, spends a few days a week at the Thousand Oaks reading room to learn about himself and his religion.

“It brings me what I need--joy and answers to my problems,” Eichelberger said.

Jim Waller of Thousand Oaks likes the extra time he spends with God during his weekly trip to his local reading room.

“I enjoy just coming to read the Bible,” Waller said. “I love the fact that we’re God’s personal concern.”

Some visitors are simply looking for a haven.

“We have people coming in who just like to sit and think for a while,” said Dale Thatcher, an Ojai reading room librarian.

Others take advantage of the texts without even entering the reading room. Two boxes of free Christian Science reading material that sit outside the Ventura reading room are refilled almost daily, Jenkins said.

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Founded by Mary Baker Eddy in 1879, the religion is grounded in spiritual healing. Church members believe that prayer and a close relationship with God give access to health and well-being.

Christian Scientists use the Bible and Science and Health as their primary texts to facilitate a stronger relationship with God.

“God only made perfection and good,” Ruthenbeck said. “If you know that, there’s nothing to be afraid of. Christian Science just raises you up and above all the fears. It shows you that nothing can harm you.”

When Eddy founded Christian Science, she insisted that each church sponsor a reading room. They were fashioned after the small shops incorporated into major publishing houses--a place to show off and sell new books.

“In some ways, you could think of Christian Science reading rooms as the first major chains,” said Tony Lobl, who manages three reading rooms in Boston and New York. “Reading itself was one of the main entertainments at the time.”

Publishers now peddle their wares through bigger booksellers, but Christian Science reading rooms are still a part of every church in the world.

Although their focus may be on religion, the church does not consider the rooms a place to convert patrons.

But Anne Condon, a librarian at the Thousand Oaks reading room, said she understands that some may be apprehensive about coming in on their own.

“I do think people probably think ‘That’s not for me,’ ” Condon said.

However, Christian Scientists consider the reading rooms a resource center for the community.

“The importance of reading rooms is that it is an opportunity to really dialogue with the public,” Lobl said.

During the past few years, the church has tried to increase that dialogue by taking the teachings of Christian Science out of the reading rooms and churches and into the community through such methods as information booths at fairs, Lobl said.

Increased attention to spirituality through new-age books like “The Celestine Prophecy” has made explaining the teachings of Christian Science easier.

“There’s a lot more common ground than there’s been in the past,” Lobl said.