Bible Study Aids at the Christian Science Reading Room

When Christian Science Reading Rooms started over a hundred years ago, they were typical of all publisher’s reading rooms – a place where publisher’s books were exhibited so the public could choose how many to buy, based on the discount schedule, since people would then sell the books to their friends and neighbors. Books were expensive (the basic version of Science and Health sold for about $60 in today’s currency) so the reading rooms added lending libraries. If people couldn’t afford to buy Science and Health, they could borrow it, find the value of owning it, and then come back to buy it.

Over time, reading rooms expanded from their original purpose as just one publisher’s bookstore to become Bookstores AND More! It’s the “and more” which really helped me, especially over the past 30 years as Bible study became more important to me. Reading rooms do sell Bibles and Bible study guides, but they typically have a much larger library of books than what they sell. And I couldn’t always afford to buy all the other translations, atlases, dictionaries, etc. that I wanted.

The Interpreter’s Study Bible has been a favorite of mine for decades – first the set of 13 from the 1950’s and now the new set from the late 1990’s. The reading room at Creve Coeur has both sets, and is open 48 hours a week for the public to come and use them. I always find something interesting when studying the Christian Science Bible Lesson Sermon in the Interpreter’s Bible. To me, it helps the Bible come alive and be even more meaningful in my life to study other translations, interpretations, word roots and definitions, as well as to learn of the history, geography, etc. of Bible times.

Linda