How We Pray: “You Have to Take Ownership of Faith.”
Christian Science: Part six of a semester-long series on student spirituality
Click on the slide show above to learn more about Christian Science.
On Sundays, they gather in Marsh Chapel for communal worship. Several times a day, they pray facing Mecca in a room at the George Sherman Union. On Fridays and Saturdays, they meet in Hillel House on Bay State Road, and when the seasons change, they celebrate on the lawn behind Marsh Plaza. They are the hundreds of students involved in spiritual life at Boston University, the former Methodist seminary that is now home to 29 religious groups that include students of all races, nationalities, and beliefs.
This semester, BU Today is talking to students about how and why prayer is a part of their daily lives on campus. In the slide show above, Rob Nofsinger (STH’09), a Christian Scientist, talks about how prayer gives him a better understanding of God, and thus a better understanding of himself as a being created in God’s image. Christian Science and the Church of Christ, Scientist, founded in 1879 by teacher Mary Baker Eddy, follow a system of spiritual, prayer-based healing for physical and emotional illness. Worship services include readings from the Bible and from Eddy’s interpretations of scripture, from a book called Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures.
Click here to see part one of the series, “Judaism: ‘Something Clicked, and Something Changed.’” Click here to see part two, “Islam: ‘Faith Is What Connects Me to My Creator.’” Click here to see part three, “Catholicism: ‘I Want My Life to Be a Prayer.’” Click here to see part four, "Wicca: ‘Self-Reflection Brought Me to My Faith.’" Click here to see part five, “Hinduism: “I Look for God’s Ways to Explain Things That I Cannot.”
Edward A. Brown can be reached at ebrown@bu.edu. Jessica Ullian can be reached at jullian@bu.edu.