Editing Christian Science (section)

=== Metaphysical family ===
{{See also|Great Awakening}}
Several periods of [[Protestantism|Protestant Christian]] revival nurtured a proliferation of [[new religious movements in the United States]].<ref>[[William G. McLoughlin]], ''Revivals, Awakenings, and Reform'', Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980, pp.&nbsp;10–11, 16–17.{{pb}}
Roy M. Anker, "Revivalism, Religious Experience and the Birth of Mental Healing", ''Self-help and Popular Religion in Early American Culture: An Interpretive Guide'', Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Company, 1999(a), (pp.&nbsp;11–100), pp.&nbsp;8, 176ff.</ref> In the latter half of the 19th century, these included what came to be known as the [[Metaphysics (supernatural)|metaphysical]] family: groups such as Christian Science, [[Divine Science]], the [[Unity Church|Unity School of Christianity]], and (later) the [[United Church of Religious Science]].{{refn|group=n|name=Saliba2003p26|Dawn Hutchinson, 2014: "Scholars of American religious history have used the term "New Thought" to refer either to individuals and churches that officially joined the International New Thought Alliance (INTA) or to American metaphysical religions affiliated with Phineas Quimby, Mary Baker Eddy, and Emma Curtis Hopkins. New Thought writers shared the idea that God is Mind."<ref>Hutchinson, Dawn (November 2014). "New Thought's Prosperity Theology and Its Influence on American Ideas of Success", ''Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions'', 18(2), (pp.&nbsp;28–44), p.&nbsp;28. {{JSTOR|10.1525/nr.2014.18.2.28}}</ref>{{pb}}
[[John Saliba]], 2003: "The Christian Science–Metaphysical Family. This family, known also as 'New Thought' in academic literature, stresses the need to understand the functioning of the human mind in order to achieve the healing of all human ailments.&nbsp;... Metaphysics/New Thought is a nineteenth-century movement and is exemplified by such groups as the Unity School of Christianity, the United Church of Religious Science, Divine Science Federation International, and Christian Science."<ref>[[John Saliba|Saliba, John]] (2003). ''Understanding New Religious Movements''. Walnut Creek, California: Rowman Altamira. p.&nbsp;[https://books.google.com/books?id=EPfTWgerZN0C&pg=PA26 26] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221101115021/https://books.google.com/books?id=EPfTWgerZN0C&pg=PA26 |date=2022-11-01 }}.</ref>{{pb}}
[[James R. Lewis (scholar)|James R. Lewis]], 2003: "Groups in the metaphysical (Christian Science–New Thought) tradition&nbsp;... usually claim to have discovered spiritual laws which, if properly understood and applied, transform and improve the lives of ordinary individuals&nbsp;..."<ref>[[James R. Lewis (scholar)|Lewis, James R.]] (2003). ''Legitimating New Religions''. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. p.&nbsp;[https://books.google.com/books?id=hdYSdts1udcC&pg=PA94 94] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221101115020/https://books.google.com/books?id=hdYSdts1udcC&pg=PA94 |date=2022-11-01 }}.</ref>{{pb}}
John K. Simmons, 1995: "While members, past and present, of the Christian Science movement understandably claim Mrs. Eddy's truths to be part of a unique and final religious revelation, most outside observers place Christian Science in the metaphysical family of religious organizations&nbsp;..."<ref>Simmons, John K. (1995). "Christian Science and American Culture", in Timothy Miller (ed.). ''America's Alternative Religions'', New York: State University of New York Press. p.&nbsp;[https://books.google.com/books?id=og_u0Re1uwUC&pg=PA61 61] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221101115018/https://books.google.com/books?id=og_u0Re1uwUC&pg=PA61 |date=2022-11-01 }}.</ref>{{pb}}
[[Charles S. Braden]], 1963: "[I]t was in America that [mesmerism]&nbsp;... gave rise to a complex of religious faiths varying from one another in significant ways, but all agreeing upon the central fact that healing and for that matter every good thing is possible through a right relationship with the ultimate power in the Universe, Creative Mind—called God, Principle, Life, Wisdom&nbsp;...{{pb}}"This broad complex of religions is sometimes described by the rather general term 'metaphysical'&nbsp;... The general movement has proliferated in many directions. Two main streams seem most vigorous: one is called Christian Science; the other, which no single name adequately describes, has come rather generally to be known as New Thought."<ref>[[Charles S. Braden]], ''Spirits in Rebellion: The Rise and Development of New Thought'', Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1963, pp.&nbsp;4–5.</ref>}} From the 1890s, the liberal section of the movement became known as [[New Thought]], in part to distinguish it from the more authoritarian Christian Science.<ref>John S. Haller, ''The History of New Thought: From Mental Healing to Positive Thinking and the Prosperity Gospel'', West Chester, Pennsylvania: Swedenborg Foundation Press, 2012, pp.&nbsp;10–11.{{pb}}
[[Horatio W. Dresser]], ''A History of the New Thought Movement'', New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1919, pp.&nbsp;[https://archive.org/stream/historyofnewthou00dresuoft#page/152/mode/2up 152–153].{{pb}}
For early uses of ''New Thought'', William Henry Holcombe, ''Condensed Thoughts about Christian Science'' (pamphlet), Chicago: Purdy Publishing Company, 1887; Horatio W. Dresser, "The Metaphysical Movement" (from a statement issued by the Metaphysical Club, Boston, 1901), ''The Spirit of the New Thought'', New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1917, p.&nbsp;[https://archive.org/stream/spiritnewthough00dresgoog#page/n235/mode/1up 215].</ref>

The term ''metaphysical'' referred to the movement's philosophical [[idealism]], a belief in the primacy of the mental world.{{refn|group=n|John K. Simmons, 1995: "The broad descriptive term 'metaphysical' is not used in a manner common to the trained philosopher. Instead, it denotes the primacy of Mind as ''the'' controlling factor in human experience. At the heart of the metaphysical perspective is the theological/ontological affirmation that God is perfect Mind and human beings, in reality, exist in a state of eternal manifestation of that Divine Mind."<ref>Simmons 1995, p.&nbsp;61.</ref>}} Adherents believed that material phenomena were the result of mental states, a view expressed as "life is consciousness" and "God is mind." The supreme cause was referred to as [[Absolute (philosophy)|Divine Mind]], Truth, God, Love, Life, Spirit, Principle or Father–Mother, reflecting elements of [[Platonism|Plato]], [[Hindu idealism|Hinduism]], [[George Berkeley|Berkeley]], [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel|Hegel]], [[Emanuel Swedenborg|Swedenborg]], and [[transcendentalism]].<ref>Dell De Chant, "The American New Thought Movement", in Eugene Gallagher and Michael Ashcraft (eds.),  ''Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in America'', Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Company, 2007, pp.&nbsp;81–82.</ref><ref>[[William James]], ''[[The Varieties of Religious Experience]]'' (Gifford Lectures, Edinburgh), New York: Longmans, Green, & Co, 1902, pp.&nbsp;[https://books.google.com/books?id=2AezbiIYHssC&pg=PA75 75–76]; [https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/412169/New-Thought "New Thought"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150516030240/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/412169/New-Thought |date=2015-05-16 }}, ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 2014.</ref>

The metaphysical groups became known as the mind-cure movement because of their strong focus on healing.<ref>de Chant 2007, p.&nbsp;73.</ref>{{refn|group=n|[[William James]], 1902: "To my mind a current far more important and interesting religiously&nbsp;... I will give the title of the Mind-Cure movement. There are various sects of this 'New Thought'&nbsp;... but their agreements are so profound that their differences may be neglected for my present purposes&nbsp;..."<ref>James 1902, p.&nbsp;[https://archive.org/stream/varietiesofrelig00jameuoft#page/94/mode/1up 94].</ref> "Christian Science so-called, the sect of Mrs. Eddy, is the most radical branch of mind-cure in its dealings with evil."<ref>James 1902, p.&nbsp;[https://archive.org/stream/varietiesofrelig00jameuoft#page/106/mode/1up 106].</ref>}} Medical practice was in its infancy, and patients regularly fared better without it. This provided fertile soil for the mind-cure groups, who argued that sickness was an absence of "right thinking" or failure to connect to Divine Mind.<ref>{{harvnb|Stark|1998|pp=197–198, 211–212}}; de Chant 2007, p.&nbsp;67.</ref> The movement traced its roots in the United States to [[Phineas Parkhurst Quimby]] (1802–1866), a New England clockmaker turned mental healer. His advertising flyer, "To the Sick" included this explanation of his clairvoyant methodology: "he gives no medicines and makes no outward applications, but simply sits down by the patients, tells them their feelings and what they think is their disease. If the patients admit that he tells them their feelings, &c., then his explanation is the cure; and, if he succeeds in correcting their error, he changes the fluids of the system and establishes the truth, or health. The Truth is the Cure. This mode of practise applies to all cases. If no explanation is given, no charge is made, for no effect is produced."<ref name=Quimby>Wilson 1961, p.&nbsp;[https://books.google.com/books?id=1NWVP5kDBJcC&pg=PA135 135] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221101115020/https://books.google.com/books?id=1NWVP5kDBJcC&pg=PA135 |date=2022-11-01 }}; Braden 1963, p.&nbsp;62 (for "the truth is the cure"); McGuire 1988, p.&nbsp;[https://books.google.com/books?id=5iIBzoOVQecC&pg=PA79 79] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221101115034/https://books.google.com/books?id=5iIBzoOVQecC&pg=PA79 |date=2022-11-01 }}.{{pb}}
Also see [http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,788876,00.html "Religion: New Thought"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141220080303/http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,788876,00.html |date=2014-12-20 }}, ''Time'' magazine, 7 November 1938; [https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/487342/Phineas-Parkhurst-Quimby "Phineas Parkhurst Quimby"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141111231639/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/487342/Phineas-Parkhurst-Quimby |date=2014-11-11 }}, ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', September 9, 2013.</ref>{{refn|group=n|[[Philip Jenkins]], 2000: "Christian Science and New Thought both emerged from a common intellectual background in mid-nineteenth-century New England, and they shared many influences from an older mystical and magical fringe, including Swedenborgian teachings, Mesmerism, and Transcentalism. The central figure and prophet of the emerging synthesis was Phineas P. Quimby, 'the John the Baptist of Christian Science', whose faith-healing work began in 1838. Quimby and his followers taught the overwhelming importance of thought in shaping reality, a message that was crucial for healing. If disease existed only as thought, then only by curing the mind could the body be set right: disease was a matter of wrong belief."<ref>[[Philip Jenkins]], ''Mystics and Messiahs: Cults and New Religions in American History'', Oxford University Press, 2000, pp.&nbsp;[https://archive.org/details/mysticsmessiahsc00phil/page/53 53–54].</ref>}} [[Mary Baker Eddy]] had been a patient of his (1862–1865), [[#Eddy's debt to Quimby|leading to debate]] about how much of Christian Science was based on his ideas.<ref name=Simmons1995p64>Simmons 1995, p.&nbsp;[https://books.google.com/books?id=og_u0Re1uwUC&pg=PA64 64] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221101115019/https://books.google.com/books?id=og_u0Re1uwUC&pg=PA64 |date=2022-11-01 }}; Fuller 2013, pp.&nbsp;[https://books.google.com/books?id=-jAPOfbCpHwC&pg=PA212 212–213] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221101115036/https://books.google.com/books?id=-jAPOfbCpHwC&pg=PA212 |date=2022-11-01 }}, n.&nbsp;16.</ref>

New Thought and Christian Science differed in that Eddy saw her views as a unique and final [[revelation]].<ref>Wilson 1961, p.&nbsp;[https://books.google.com/books?id=1NWVP5kDBJcC&pg=PA156 156] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221101115020/https://books.google.com/books?id=1NWVP5kDBJcC&pg=PA156 |date=2022-11-01 }}; Braden 1963, pp.&nbsp;14, 16; Simmons 1995, p.&nbsp;[https://books.google.com/books?id=og_u0Re1uwUC&pg=PA61 61] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221101115018/https://books.google.com/books?id=og_u0Re1uwUC&pg=PA61 |date=2022-11-01 }}.</ref>{{refn|group=n|Meredith B. McGuire, 1988: "The most familiar offshoot of the metaphysical movement&nbsp;... is Christian Science, which was based upon a more extreme interpretation of metaphysical healing than that of the New Thought groups.&nbsp;... Christian Science is unlike New Thought and other metaphysical movements of that era in that Mary Baker Eddy successfully arrogated to herself all teaching authority, centralized decision-making and organizational power, and developed the movement's sectarian character."<ref>McGuire 1988, p.&nbsp;79.</ref>}} Eddy's idea of [[History of the Christian Science movement#Malicious animal magnetism|malicious animal magnetism]] (that people can be harmed by the bad thoughts of others) marked another distinction, introducing an element of fear that was absent from the New Thought literature.<ref>Wilson 1961, pp.&nbsp;[https://books.google.com/books?id=1NWVP5kDBJcC&pg=PA126 126–127] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221101115020/https://books.google.com/books?id=1NWVP5kDBJcC&pg=PA126 |date=2022-11-01 }}; Braden 1963, pp.&nbsp;18–19.</ref><ref>[[Stephen Gottschalk|Gottschalk, Stephen]] (1973). ''The Emergence of Christian Science in American Religious Life''. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp.&nbsp;[https://archive.org/details/emergenceofchris00step/page/128 128], [https://archive.org/details/emergenceofchris00step/page/148 148–149].{{pb}}
Moore, Laurence R. (1986). ''Religious Outsiders and the Making of Americans''. New York: Oxford University Press. pp.&nbsp;112–113.{{pb}}
Simmons 1995, p.&nbsp;[https://books.google.com/books?id=og_u0Re1uwUC&pg=PA62 62] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221101115026/https://books.google.com/books?id=og_u0Re1uwUC&pg=PA62 |date=2022-11-01 }}; Whorton, James C. (2004). ''Nature Cures: The History of Alternative Medicine in America''. New York: Oxford University Press. pp.&nbsp;[https://books.google.com/books?id=RU0DndWVSPoC&pg=PA128 128–129] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221101115019/https://books.google.com/books?id=RU0DndWVSPoC&pg=PA128 |date=2022-11-01 }}.</ref> Most significantly, she dismissed the material world as an illusion, rather than as merely subordinate to Mind, leading her to reject the use of medicine, or ''[[materia medica]]'', and making Christian Science the most controversial of the metaphysical groups. Reality for Eddy was purely spiritual.<ref>Craig R. Prentiss, "Sickness, Death and Illusion in Christian Science", in Colleen McDannell (ed.), ''Religions of the United States in Practice'', Vol. 1, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001, p.&nbsp;[https://books.google.com/books?id=s0tCip7DZL4C&pg=PA322 322] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221101115019/https://books.google.com/books?id=s0tCip7DZL4C&lpg=PP1&pg=PA322 |date=2022-11-01 }}.{{pb}}
Claudia Stokes, ''The Altar at Home: Sentimental Literature and Nineteenth-Century American Religion'', University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014, p.&nbsp;[https://books.google.com/books?id=kOwJBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA181 181] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221101115042/https://books.google.com/books?id=kOwJBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA181 |date=2022-11-01 }}.</ref>{{refn|group=n|[[Charles S. Braden]], 1963: "Mary Baker Eddy pushed the postulates of positive thinking to their absolute limit.&nbsp;... She proposed not merely that the spiritual overshadows the material, but that the material world does not exist. The world of our senses is but an illusion of our minds. If the material world causes us pain, grief, danger and even death, that can be changed by changing our thoughts."<ref>Braden 1963, p.&nbsp;19; {{harvnb|Stark|1998|p=195}}</ref>{{pb}}
Roy M. Anker, 1999: "Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science (denominationally known as the Church of Christ, Scientist), the most prominent, successful, controversial, and distinctive of all the groups whose inspiration scholars trace to the healing and intellectual influence of Quimby."<ref>Anker 1999(a), p.&nbsp;[https://books.google.com/books?id=Yv8Qv5Zg0JUC&pg=PA9 9] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221101115020/https://books.google.com/books?id=Yv8Qv5Zg0JUC&pg=PA9 |date=2022-11-01 }}.</ref>}}