Christian Science Reading Room draws crowds with displays.
By: David Campbell
The Christian Science Reading Room has occupied the same storefront space at 178 Nassau St. in downtown Princeton Borough for as far back as many can remember.
The reading room is run by the local congregation of the First Church of Christ, Scientist on Bayard Lane. It offers a full breadth of literature and talks on what adherents of Christian Science believe to be the deep truth about God and spiritual healing.
But for people on the street, the most familiar thing about the place may be the reading room’s storefront window. It has long been a kind of forum where the church has conducted a running dialogue with passersby on Nassau Street on the relevance of Christian Science to contemporary issues, from racism to the tsunami in South Asia.
And with the arrival of Donna Hunsberger as the reading room’s new librarian last June, that dialogue has been turned up several notches.
"We’re more active in what we’re doing in the windows," Ms. Hunsberger said. "We’re trying to talk with the community about issues we think would interest them."
One of the group’s more popular displays recently was the enlargement of one its periodicals with the headline, "How I pray about racism." Another recent display showed the headline: "What makes a woman beautiful?"
Ms. Hunsberger said staff at the reading room love nothing better than when one of the topics they tackle prompts someone on the street outside to stand at the window and read. And when people enter the reading room itself, the Christian Science practitioners like nothing better than a lively give-and-take of ideas and opinions.
"We love it," Ms. Hunsberger said. "We would invite anyone from the community to come in and ask their questions. In addition, we have literature, textbooks, Bibles, study materials. It’s there for the sharing, for anybody who’s interested in finding out more about our approach to spiritual concepts."
Christian Science is a religious denomination founded in 1879 near Boston by Mary Baker Eddy, author of the book containing the definitive statement of the church’s teachings, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." At the heart of the tradition is Jesus Christ’s example of performing miracles of healing.
Ms. Hunsberger is a practitioner of Christian Science nursing. She resides at Tenacre Foundation on The Great Road and has a diverse background in church activities. In addition to her librarian work at the reading room and her nursing at Tenacre, she does ministry work with prisoners in the state prison system, has taught Sunday school, even done her share of lawn and garden upkeep, among other things.
She also has a fine arts degree, which she puts to good use in her painting demonstrations for residents at Tenacre. But where that degree is perhaps most visible is in the window of the Nassau Street reading room, which not only stays current with contemporary issues, but does so in a most eye-catching way that draws people in.
Last summer, the staff put together a beach display promoting books on Christian Science as the perfect summer read, certainly more edifying than a paperback thriller. The display had a beach chair with soda and a pail piled high with the church’s religious publications.
"We work at it," Ms. Hunsberger said. "That was a very catchy window, a very pretty window. We’re interested in that sort of thing."
In the window exploring what constitutes female beauty, the display used a host of props related to the subject. The window put up after the tsunami tragedy included a striking art piece with a wave, and asked the challenging question: Does God send disasters? (The position of Christian Scientists is a resounding no, the librarian noted).
"We try to talk to the issues that are current," she said. "Everybody that mans the reading room is able to answer questions about God, about man, about the nature of good and evil. We just love the conversations."