Lewis L. Dunnington

Lewis Dunnington was a Methodist minister who adopted and promoted many New Thought beliefs. Charles Braden writes of him in Spirits in Rebellion, pp. 381-4. His best known books are Handles of Power, More Handles of Power and The Inner Splendor. Marcus Bach also writes of LL Dunnington in his Outreach newsletter, issue 212. This page is a placeholder for a future profile.

The following is an excerpt from The Inner Splendor, describing how a visit to Unity had helped his writing of Handles of Power:

Eleven years ago, I authored a book called Handles of Power. The chapters faced a series of life problems having to do with banishing fear, untangling human relations, shifting the load, overcoming evil, the attainment of radiance of personality and many others. Each chapter contained some great affirmations of faith, a psychologically sound spiritual technique for appropriating spiritual power.

That little book has traveled the world. Thousands of letters have come to my desk from ministers and laymen of all denominations expressing their gratitude for the Silent Communion method it advanced for bringing into manifestation the deepest longings of their hearts.

I am deeply indebted to the Unity School of Christianity at Lee’s Summit, Missouri, for my discovery of the great affirmations that work such wonders in human lives. As I was making my pastoral calls among the members of the congregation of the Endion Methodist Church in Duluth, I observed that a large number of them were regular readers of various Unity publications. They were convinced that they received more concrete help from the use of these great affirmations of faith than from any other source. I noted that they were among the most poised, integrated, and well balanced people in my parish. So, I took samples of the literature home with me for careful study. I then went to Kansas City and met the leaders of the Unity movement, including those two remarkable men, Charles and Lowell Fillmore. As I sat at lunch one day with Charles Fillmore, I was amazed to learn that he was ninety years of age, though he looked and acted like a man twenty-five years younger. The very next day he was to start on a long drive to California, and he told me that he would stop here and there en route to deliver lectures on the Unity movement. When I learned that both he and his wife, Myrtle Fillmore, had been near death’s door with fatal diseases half a century before that date, I knew that he had possession of a secret of healing power that few people know anything about.

I went through their giant institution and talked with many of the 500 employees. I was present when every wheel stopped in their huge printing establishment for all the workers to bow their heads in two minutes of silent prayer which was concluded by an affirmation of faith coming over a loud-speaker, so that all could join in making this statement of faith their own. I found a peace and harmony among these people that I had observed nowhere else. When we stopped at the large file that contains the names of tens of thousands of individuals across the world who have received help from Unity publications, I took a look at the card of Starr Daily. I had read his book, Love Can Open Prison Doors, and I already knew what a spiritual power this man had become through his writings and his lectures. How surprised I was to learn that when he first read a Unity publication he was a sour, disgruntled prisoner in a state institution! His use of the Silent Communion technique and of his absolute faith in the power of God had really opened prison doors and started him on a career of spiritual helpfulness that is almost without parallel in the annals of religious literature. Starr Daily is only one of the tens of thousands whose lives have been healed and integrated through the Unity movement in the last half-century. These people had the “how” of applied Christianity that I had been seeking. They had something that worked! It solved problems. It ennobled and beautified life. I was not surprised to learn that they had built up a constituency of more than two million souls in all countries of the world, and that they had done so through love offerings alone and not through high-powered campaigns for gifts of money. One of the things that I especially like about the Unity movement is that they never urge their followers to leave their own churches. Quite the contrary. They always suggest that the followers remain loyal members of their respective churches and work within them to bring greater health, peace, and harmony to all members.

I returned to Duluth and worked out a series of sermons that finally found their way into Handles of Power. All our people began an intensive test of this practical method of appropriating the riches of the Kingdom of Heaven that is within us. Wonderful things began to happen to all of us.