On the first floor of the Rotunda, there is a small room with homey couches and a plethora of books and magazines. On the window reads "Christian Science Reading Room." It is in this room where the Christian Scientists of the surrounding area go to participate in readings on the teachings of their faith.
Jerry Taylor, who heads the Reading Room and leads the Sunday School, said her faith is a science.
"The science and health book is a textbook, a book of rules," she said of Mary Baker Eddy's Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, which, along with the King James Bible, form the two main texts of the religion.
"If you obey the rules you can demonstrate it."
Mary Baker Eddy, affectionately called Ms. Eddy by her followers, founded Christian Science in 1879 in Massachusetts.
"Ms. Eddy dedicated this book to simple seekers of truth," Taylor said.
"Christ Jesus said you should know the truth and the truth should make you free. And the truth in my interpretation is the spiritual sense. That's the truth - having the spiritual sense of yourself. And you walk as some transparent thing of God."
The Reading Room is active Mondays through Fridays and a librarian is always on staff to help the people find Biblical passages and engage in discussion.
The main beliefs of Christian Scientists are that healing comes by spiritual means, creation is entirely spiritual and matter does not exist. For them, God is synonymous with principle, soul, mind, spirit, life, truth and love.
Christian scientists refer to God as "Father-Mother" rather than the traditional "Father" because they believe both men and women were created in God's image.
Spiritual healing, the central tenet of Christian Science, posits that one cannot receive outside aid for sicknesses.
Most members of the Christian Science faith reject medical help for their diseases. Some of the members even refuse to get vaccinated. However, it is not the church that tells them to do so.
"You can't effectively work both ways. You're either going to believe that life is material or you're going to believe it's spiritual. And it's hard to have the medical help because God created you in his image and likeness. And that image doesn't have problem that needs to be fixed," Taylor said.
Taylor has not received any medical attention for 50 years.
"I haven't had any help at all and I have gone through some hard times," she said.
The idea of spiritual healing might be cause for controversy at Hopkins, an institution with a top-ranked medical school, hospital and medical research facilities.
There are currently nine Hopkins students registered as Christian scientists with the Interfaith Center.
But Christian Scientists, and the First Church of Christ, Scientist, across from Homewood Field, have no problem being so close.
"We respect wholly the individual. We do not have a problem being so close to Hopkins," said Taylor.
Not all Christian Scientists follow such a strict spiritual healing regimen as Taylor.
"It's like any other religion, and it's on an individual basis. The church doesn't tell you want to do," Taylor said.
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, holds services every Sunday. The service begins with a hymn and then a scriptural selection. Afterwards the group does a silent prayer and than does a spiritual interpretation of the prayer. Then there is a subject of the lesson-sermon which is discussed and then a reading from the text. The service ends with a benediction.
Students and followers do a systematic study of the lessons leading up to the read on Sunday. By Sunday most of the church-goers have a through idea of what will be read.
"We've had some contact with Hopkins in the past, but not that much recently," Taylor said.
There is no central clergy in Christian Science, but rather different ministries.
Christian Science practitioners belong to the Healing Ministry. The practitioners determine whether or not "healing" has taken place in an individual.
Followers who have claimed that they have been healed have to be validated by an authentic Christian Science practitioner.
There is also another ministry, called the readers, who are elected every three years by the followers conducting the services.
Worldwide, the denomination claims between 150,000 and 400,000 followers.
"Christian Science is all over the world, in every country. It's been translated into 15 different languages," Taylor said.
"There isn't a big following here in Maryland, probably because of the medical institutions near by."
But Taylor and other Christian Scientists believe that Christian Science is truly a healing religion.
"We don't see God, we feel God and that's healing," Taylor said.
"When you feel good you're feeling God, and you build up this consciousness of the spiritual sense of things."
