3202.—The Emmanuel Movement
Please explain the Emmanuel Movement. When and by whom did it originate? What is its object and plan of work?
H. J. P. The name of the movement came from the Emmanuel Church in Boston, Mass., where in November, 1906, a class for the treatment of nervous disorders was organized. That grew out of the Emmanuel Church Tuberculosis Class, which sought the cure of consumptives in the slums, without removal from their homes, by approved medical methods "plus discipline, friendship, encouragement, and hope." As success seemed to attend that class, the rector of the church, Rev. Elwood Worcester, and others, after consultation with leading neurologists, or nerve doctors, determined to begin a similar work among the "nervous and morally diseased." At the head of that meeting was Dr. James J. Putnam of the Harvard Medical School, but who is not now associated with the movement. In a letter to the Boston Herald of November 20, 1908, he said, "While I have a high respect for the characters and purposes of its founders, I am convinced that the movement is a mistake." The fundamental principle formulated was this: "The effective cooperation of physician and minister is of value to many sick persons. Since character is an important factor in the care of many diseased conditions, especially of the nervous system, we believe that any one who can help guide, strengthen, and enlighten the patient by the influence of moral and religious teaching, will be of genuine assistance to the patient and to the physician in charge of the case. In rendering such assistance at the physician's request and with his cooperation, we believe the clergyman to be entirely upon his own ground, fulfilling in relation to the individual that time-honored office of ethical and spiritual instructor which in the past he has exercised chiefly at long range to congregations from the pulpit." The sick were therefore received only after examination by and on approval of a physician whose report was filed with the church records. No person was to be treated or referred to any specialist unless approved by a physician. It therefore rested wholly with the physicians to decide whether the patient should be referred to a neurologist or other specialist. Really all organic diseases were to be treated by physicians, but inorganic and nervous disorders by the minister in connection with physicians. Suggestion crept into it more or less, which smacked to some extent of hypnotism. Dr. James Putnam, before mentioned, said, "It is clear that clergymen without adequate preparation are assuming responsibilities of a kind that physicians are not qualified to assume until after years of study and training." The International Encyclopedia year-book 1908 says that "it is also admitted by the Emmanuelists that while 'the active agent in all so-called moral recoveries in faith,' they 'have made the freest use' not only of suggestion, but of subsidiary aids, such as electricity, massage, and, to some extent, chiefly with alcoholics, hypnotism." We have heard very little of it during the last year. It does not seem to have made great progress. If it had placed healing on the pure basis of faith, it might have made greater progress; but the element of faith seemed to have entered in only as a help to the patient, but not a power in healing.