A Christmas Mystery by Charles O. Boring
Oct. 2018
Published originally in 1896, A Christmas Mystery describes a utopian vision that comes to a Chicago commuter on his way home December 22, 1892. The vision is of Christmas Eve, December 24, 1949, far in the future, and describes a world where the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 and the concurrent Parliament of Religions has inspired a different world, a world where an impossibly beautiful, impossibly large, impossibly perfect in all aspects new church, the Church of the Redeemer, has been built on the Lake Michigan shoreline, replacing every other church and all various denominations and religions, and spread its message of reconciliation and peace around the globe.
The author, Charles O. Boring, was the first Sunday School Superintendent of the Emmanuel Methodist Episcopal Church of Evanston, officially completed in 1892 just in time for the aforementioned world’s fair. We can assume it was a time of great optimism and limitless aspirations for the people of Chicago.
The author, Charles O. Boring, was the first Sunday School Superintendent of the Emmanuel Methodist Episcopal Church of Evanston, officially completed in 1892 just in time for the aforementioned world’s fair. We can assume it was a time of great optimism and limitless aspirations for the people of Chicago.