Keith Collins previews his new book about the Monitor
The Christian Science Monitor has a fascinating history – and it’s been over 50 years since its history was recorded. Author Keith S. Collins, a graduate of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism as well as Columbia Business School, now living in Geneva, Switzerland, said he was compelled to write its history to make sense of the Monitor for himself — and to help illuminate its unique brand of journalism for people who know nothing about Christian Science.
After serving as editor of the Monitor’s daily religious article in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Collins says he was struck by the deeply religious mission of the newspaper. It’s not that the Monitor reports the news with a denominational agenda, says Collins, but that Mary Baker Eddy’s purpose for the paper, like everything she did, had a powerful spiritual impetus.
In this ten-minute video interview, Collins talks about his just-published book, The Christian Science Monitor: Its History, Mission, and People and how editors, writers and cartoonists from 1908 to the present day have grappled with the Monitor’s high expectations and standards and striven to put them into practice in a media climate rife with commercialism.
To learn more about Collins’ book or to order or download a copy, visit: www.MonitorHistory.com. This book was published by Nebadoon Press.
Posted on Tuesday, March 27th, 2012 at 5:00 pm | Follow responses with the RSS feedTopics: Mary Baker Eddy
The book can be purchased through the publisher at http://www.MonitorHistory.com.
Am wanting to purchase your book on the Monitor. Can’t find it in book form only kindle…any suggestions? B&N doesn’t list except as for Nook; Amazon only for Kindle. Help!
Thanks
I heard this guy give a talk the other day! He had some sweet stuff and a lot of light to shed on the Monitor’s history. I had no idea!
WOW! EXCELLENT! RIGHT ON! Collins captures exactly my sense of what TCSM should be…was always meant to be by MBE: healing, “religious” (in an underlying sense, without being denominational or prosletyzing), CS. “Practitioner journalists”–what a great phrase! And he quotes the core mission statement: “To spread undivided the Science that operates unspent.” One rarely sees/hears that mentioned by anyone in The Movement, at the Monitor, or at TMC.
Mr. Collins, do you realize, just as you alluded to the chemicalization that happened as a result of Monitor TV (I worked there for a year), that many at and affiliated with TCSM are still sheepish about/resist making it deeply CS, deeply religious, rather they are preoccupied wiht some notion of the Monitor needing to be a “real” newspaper, which I think means it should be like all the other well-intentioned, but worldly newspapers out there. Yes, it should be a “general interest” newspaper, but NOT like all the others–which doesn’t mean it wont be “real.” THANK YOU, Mr. Collins–and time4thinkers.com!
Great to see and hear you Keith!
Enjoyed greatly the substantive interview. Just finished reading a book with references to the Monitor’s beginning/founding. Between that and your interview, timing is perfect to learn more about this unique and enduring publication. SO looking forward to the book. Thank you so much.
This new book by Keith Collins is an extraordinary piece of work. I thought I knew all there was to know about the Monitor, but learned more about the fundamentals of Mrs. Eddy’s plan and thinking for the paper than I had ever known or thought about before. The book is very readable even with Keith’s solid research and interviews that never make it tedious. Thanks for having such a good posting with his own words.
I just ordered myself an e-copy.
I read Canhams’ book years ago.
I look forward to this read: but wasn’t there a book recently written about the pre cnn tv newschanel experiment? I’m sure you cover that in your book: yearning for some more behind the scenes insight into that especially.
Hi Keith!
What an excellent summary of the Monitor and its spiritual history! I had a great healing of resistance to the Monitor and now read and pray with it each day.
Just purchased a copy! Thanks for your great work, brother.