Christian Science

Christian Science is a set of beliefs and practices which are associated with members of the Church of Christ, Scientist. Adherents are commonly known as Christian Scientists or students of Christian Science, and the church is sometimes informally known as the Christian Science church. It was founded in 1879 in New England by Mary Baker Eddy, who wrote the 1875 book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, which outlined the theology of Christian Science. The book was originally called Science and Health; the subtitle with a Key to the Scriptures was added in 1883 and later amended to with Key to the Scriptures.<ref name="Mary Baker Eddy Library">Template:Cite news</ref>

The book became Christian Science's central text, along with the Bible, and by 2001 had sold over nine million copies.<ref name=Gutjahr2001p348>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Eddy and 26 followers were granted a charter by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1879 to found the "Church of Christ (Scientist)"; the church would be reorganized under the name "Church of Christ, Scientist" in 1892.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, was built in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1894.<ref>For the charter, Eddy, Mary Baker (1908) [1895]. Manual of the Mother Church, 89th edition. Boston: The First Church of Christ, Scientist. pp. 17–18.</ref> Known as the "thinker's religion", Christian Science became the fastest growing religion in the United States, with nearly 270,000 members by 1936 — a figure which had declined to just over 100,000 by 1990Template:Sfn and reportedly to under 50,000 by 2009.<ref name=Prothero2017p165>Template:Cite book</ref> The church is known for its newspaper, The Christian Science Monitor, which won seven Pulitzer Prizes between 1950 and 2002, and for its public Reading Rooms around the world.Template:Refn

Christian Science's religious tenets differ considerably from many other Christian denominations, including key concepts such as the Trinity, the divinity of Jesus, atonement, the resurrection, and the Eucharist.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Eddy, for her part, described Christian Science as a return to "primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing".<ref name=lostelement>Template:Cite bookTemplate:Pb Eddy, Manual of the Mother Church, p. 17.</ref> Adherents subscribe to a radical form of philosophical idealism, believing that reality is purely spiritual and the material world an illusion.<ref>Template:Harvnb; Rescher, Nicholas (2009) [1996]. "Idealism", in Jaegwon Kim, Ernest Sosa (eds.). A Companion to Metaphysics. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. p. 318 Template:Webarchive.</ref> This includes the view that disease is a mental error rather than physical disorder, and that the sick should be treated not by medicine but by a form of prayer that seeks to correct the beliefs responsible for the illusion of ill health.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The church does not require that Christian Scientists avoid medical care—many adherents use dentists, optometrists, obstetricians, physicians for broken bones, and vaccination when required by law—but maintains that Christian Science prayer is most effective when not combined with medicine.<ref name=combined>Schoepflin, Rennie B. (2003). Christian Science on Trial: Religious Healing in America. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 192–193.Template:Pb Trammell, Mary M., chair, Christian Science board of directors (March 26, 2010). "Letter; What the Christian Science Church Teaches" Template:Webarchive. The New York Times.</ref><ref>Regarding vaccines specifically, see:

• Christine Pae (September 1, 2021). "Here's who qualifies for a religious exemption to Washington's COVID-19 vaccine mandate". Template:Webarchive. KING 5.
• Samantha Maiden (April 18, 2015). "No Jab, No Pay reforms: Religious exemptions for vaccination dumped". Template:Webarchive. Daily Telegraph (Australia).</ref> The reliance on prayer and avoidance of medical treatment has been blamed for the deaths of adherents and their children. Between the 1880s and 1990s, several parents and others were prosecuted for, and in a few cases convicted of, manslaughter or neglect.<ref>Schoepflin 2003, pp. 212–216 Template:Webarchive</ref><ref>Peters, Shawn Francis (2007). When Prayer Fails: Faith Healing, Children, and the Law. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 91, 109–130. Template:Webarchive.</ref><ref>Massachusetts Citizens for Children (MassKids), 2023, “Cases of Childhood Deaths Due to Parental Religious Objection to Necessary Medical Care”. [1]Template:Webarchive</ref>

Overview

Metaphysical family

Template:See also Several periods of 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. 10–11, 16–17.Template: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. 11–100), pp. 8, 176ff.</ref> In the latter half of the 19th century, these included what came to be known as the metaphysical family: groups such as Christian Science, Divine Science, the Unity School of Christianity, and (later) the United Church of Religious Science.Template:Refn 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. 10–11.Template:Pb Horatio W. Dresser, A History of the New Thought Movement, New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1919, pp. 152–153.Template: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. 215.</ref>

The term metaphysical referred to the movement's philosophical idealism, a belief in the primacy of the mental world.Template:Refn 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 Divine Mind, Truth, God, Love, Life, Spirit, Principle or Father–Mother, reflecting elements of Plato, Hinduism, Berkeley, Hegel, 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. 81–82.</ref><ref>William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience (Gifford Lectures, Edinburgh), New York: Longmans, Green, & Co, 1902, pp. 75–76; "New Thought" Template:Webarchive, 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. 73.</ref>Template:Refn 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>Template:Harvnb; de Chant 2007, p. 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. 135 Template:Webarchive; Braden 1963, p. 62 (for "the truth is the cure"); McGuire 1988, p. 79 Template:Webarchive.Template:Pb Also see "Religion: New Thought" Template:Webarchive, Time magazine, 7 November 1938; "Phineas Parkhurst Quimby" Template:Webarchive, Encyclopædia Britannica, September 9, 2013.</ref>Template:Refn Mary Baker Eddy had been a patient of his (1862–1865), leading to debate about how much of Christian Science was based on his ideas.<ref name=Simmons1995p64>Simmons 1995, p. 64 Template:Webarchive; Fuller 2013, pp. 212–213 Template:Webarchive, n. 16.</ref>

New Thought and Christian Science differed in that Eddy saw her views as a unique and final revelation.<ref>Wilson 1961, p. 156 Template:Webarchive; Braden 1963, pp. 14, 16; Simmons 1995, p. 61 Template:Webarchive.</ref>Template:Refn Eddy's idea of 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. 126–127 Template:Webarchive; Braden 1963, pp. 18–19.</ref><ref>Gottschalk, Stephen (1973). The Emergence of Christian Science in American Religious Life. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 128, 148–149.Template:Pb Moore, Laurence R. (1986). Religious Outsiders and the Making of Americans. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 112–113.Template:Pb Simmons 1995, p. 62 Template:Webarchive; Whorton, James C. (2004). Nature Cures: The History of Alternative Medicine in America. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 128–129 Template:Webarchive.</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. 322 Template:Webarchive.Template:Pb Claudia Stokes, The Altar at Home: Sentimental Literature and Nineteenth-Century American Religion, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014, p. 181 Template:Webarchive.</ref>Template:Refn

Christian Science theology

File:Christian Science logo (1891).jpg

Christian Science seal, with the Cross and Crown and words from Matthew 10:8

Christian Science leaders place their religion within mainstream Christian teaching, according to J. Gordon Melton, and reject any identification with the New Thought movement.Template:Refn Eddy was strongly influenced by her Congregationalist upbringing.<ref>Catherine Albanese, A Republic of Mind and Spirit: A Cultural History of American Metaphysical Religion, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007, p. 284.</ref> According to the church's tenets, adherents accept "the inspired Word of the Bible as [their] sufficient guide to eternal Life ... acknowledge and adore one supreme and infinite God ... [and] acknowledge His Son, one Christ; the Holy Ghost or divine Comforter; and man in God's image and likeness."<ref>Wilson 1961, p. 121; Eddy, Manual of the Mother Church, pp. 15–16.</ref> When founding the Church of Christ, Scientist, in April 1879, Eddy wrote that she wanted to "reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing".<ref name=lostelement /> Later she suggested that Christian Science was a kind of second coming and that Science and Health was an inspired text.Template:Refn<ref>David L. Weddle, "The Christian Science Textbook: An Analysis of the Religious Authority of Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy", Template:Webarchive, The Harvard Theological Review, 84(3), 1991, p. 281; Gottschalk 1973, p. xxi.</ref> In 1895, in the Manual of the Mother Church, she ordained the Bible and Science and Health as "Pastor over the Mother Church".<ref>Eddy, Manual of the Mother Church, p. 58; Weddle 1991 Template:Webarchive, p. 273.</ref>

Christian Science theology differs in several respects from that of traditional Christianity. Eddy's Science and Health reinterprets key Christian concepts, including the Trinity, divinity of Jesus, atonement, and resurrection; beginning with the 1883 edition, she added "with a Key to the Scriptures" to the title and included a glossary that redefined the Christian vocabulary.Template:Refn At the core of Eddy's theology is the view that the spiritual world is the only reality and is entirely good, and that the material world, with its evil, sickness and death, is an illusion. Eddy saw humanity as an "idea of Mind" that is "perfect, eternal, unlimited, and reflects the divine", according to Bryan Wilson; what she called "mortal man" is simply humanity's distorted view of itself.<ref>Wilson 1961, p. 122 Template:Webarchive.</ref> Despite her view of the non-existence of evil, an important element of Christian Science theology is that evil thought, in the form of malicious animal magnetism, can cause harm, even if the harm is only apparent.<ref>Wilson 1961, p. 127 Template:Webarchive; Moore 1986, p. 112 Template:Webarchive; Simmons 1995, p. 62 Template:Webarchive.</ref>

File:First Church of Christ Scientist in Boston (closeup).jpg

The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston

Eddy viewed God not as a person but as "All-in-all". Although she often described God in the language of personhood—she used the term "Father–Mother God" (as did Ann Lee, the founder of Shakerism), and, in the third edition of Science and Health, she referred to God as "she"—God is mostly represented in Christian Science by the synonyms "Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love".<ref>For personhood, "Father–Mother God" and "she", see Gottschalk 1973, p. 52 Template:Webarchive; for Ann Lee, see Stokes 2014, p. 186 Template:Webarchive. For the seven synonyms, see Wilson 1961, p. 124 Template:Webarchive.</ref>Template:Refn The Holy Ghost is Christian Science, and heaven and hell are states of mind.Template:Refn There is no supplication in Christian Science prayer. The process involves the Scientist engaging in a silent argument to affirm to herself the unreality of matter, something Christian Science practitioners will do for a fee, including in absentia, to address ill health or other problems.<ref>Wilson 1961, p. 129; Template:Harvnb</ref> Wilson writes that Christian Science healing is "not curative ... on its own premises, but rather preventative of ill health, accident and misfortune, since it claims to lead to a state of consciousness where these things do not exist. What heals is the realization that there is nothing really to heal."<ref>Wilson 1961, pp. 125–126.</ref> It is a closed system of thought, viewed as infallible if performed correctly; healing confirms the power of Truth, but its absence derives from the failure, specifically the bad thoughts, of individuals.<ref>Wilson 1961, pp. 123, 128–129.</ref>

Eddy accepted as true the creation narrative in the Book of Genesis up to chapter 2, verse 6—that God created man in his image and likeness—but she rejected the rest "as the story of the false and the material", according to Wilson.<ref>Wilson 1961, p. 122; Gottschalk 1972, p. xxvii; "Genesis Chapter 2" Template:Webarchive, kingjamesbibleonline.org.</ref> Her theology is nontrinitarian: she viewed the Trinity as suggestive of polytheism.Template:Refn She saw Jesus as a Christian Scientist, a "Way-shower" between humanity and God,<ref>Eddy, Retrospection and Introspection, p. 26.</ref> and she distinguished between Jesus the man and the concept of Christ, the latter a synonym for Truth and Jesus the first person fully to manifest it.<ref>Wilson 1961, p. 121; Template:Harvnb</ref> The crucifixion was not a divine sacrifice for the sins of humanity, the atonement (the forgiveness of sin through Jesus's suffering) "not the bribing of God by offerings", writes Wilson, but an "at-one-ment" with God.<ref>Wilson 1961, p. 124.</ref> Her views on life after death were vague and, according to Wilson, "there is no doctrine of the soul" in Christian Science: "[A]fter death, the individual continues his probationary state until he has worked out his own salvation by proving the truths of Christian Science."Template:Sfn Eddy did not believe that the dead and living could communicate.<ref>Gottschalk 1973, p. 95 Template:Webarchive.</ref>

To the more conservative of the Protestant clergy, Eddy's view of Science and Health as divinely inspired was a challenge to the Bible's authority.<ref>Melton 1992, p. 36 Template:Webarchive.</ref> "Eddyism" was viewed as a cult; one of the first uses of the modern sense of the word was in A. H. Barrington's Anti-Christian Cults (1898), a book about Spiritualism, Theosophy and Christian Science.<ref>J. Gordon Melton, "An Introduction to New Religions", in James R. Lewis (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements, New York: Oxford University Press, 2003, p. 17; for Barrington, see Jenkins 2000, p. 49.</ref> In a few cases Christian Scientists were expelled from Christian congregations, but ministers also worried that their parishioners were choosing to leave. In May 1885 the London TimesTemplate:' Boston correspondent wrote about the "Boston mind-cure craze": "Scores of the most valued Church members are joining the Christian Scientist branch of the metaphysical organization, and it has thus far been impossible to check the defection."<ref>Raymond J. Cunningham, "The Impact of Christian Science on the American Churches, 1880–1910" Template:Webarchive, The American Historical Review, 72(3), April 1967 (pp. 885–905), p. 892; "Faith Healing in America", The Times, May 26, 1885.</ref> In 1907 Mark Twain described the appeal of the new religion to its adherents:

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History

Mary Baker Eddy and the early Christian Science movement

File:Mary Baker Eddy.jpg

Mary Baker Eddy

Mary Baker Eddy was born Mary Morse Baker on a farm in Bow, New Hampshire, the youngest of six children in a religious family of Protestant Congregationalists.<ref>Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb.</ref> In common with most women at the time, Eddy was given little formal education, but read widely at home and was privately tutored.<ref>Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb.</ref> From childhood, she lived with protracted ill health.<ref>Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb p. 29.</ref> Eddy's first husband died six months after their marriage and three months before their son was born, leaving her penniless; and as a result of her poor health she lost custody of the boy when he was four.<ref>Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb.</ref> She married again, and her new husband promised to become the child's legal guardian, but after their marriage he refused to sign the needed papers and the boy was taken to Minnesota and told his mother had died.<ref>Template:Harvnb.</ref>Template:Refn Eddy, then known as Mary Patterson, and her husband moved to rural New Hampshire, where Eddy continued to suffer from health problems which often kept her bedridden.<ref>Template:Harvnb, pp. 30.</ref> Eddy tried various cures for her health problems, including conventional medicine as well as many forms of alternative medicine such as Grahamism, electrotherapy, homeopathy, hydropathy, and finally mesmerism under Phineas Quimby.<ref>Piepmeier, Alison (2004). Out in public: configurations of women's bodies in nineteenth-century America. University of North Carolina Press. pp. 63, 229; Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb.</ref> She was later accused by critics, beginning with Julius Dresser, of borrowing ideas from Quimby in what biographer Gillian Gill would call the "single most controversial issue" of her life.<ref>Template:Harvnb.</ref>

In February 1866, Eddy fell on the ice in Lynn, Massachusetts. Evidence suggests she had severe injuries, but a few days later she apparently asked for her Bible, opened it to an account of one of Jesus' miracles, and left her bed telling her friends that she was healed through prayer alone.<ref>Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb; Mead, Frank S. (1995) Handbook of Denominations in the United States. Abingdon Press. p. 104.</ref> The moment has since been controversial, but she considered this moment one of the "falling apples" that helped her to understand Christian Science, although she said she did not fully understand it at the time.<ref>Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb. For her account see: Eddy, "The Great Discovery", Retrospection and Introspection, pp. 24–29.</ref>

In 1866, after her fall on the ice, Eddy began teaching her first student and began writing her ideas which she eventually published in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, considered her most important work.<ref>Bates & Dittemore 1932, pp. 118–135; Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb; Gutjahr, Paul C. "Sacred Texts in the United States", Book History, 4, 2001 (335–370), 348. Template:JSTOR</ref> Her students voted to form a church called the Church of Christ (Scientist) in 1879, later reorganized as The First Church of Christ, Scientist, also known as The Mother Church, in 1892.<ref>Template:Harvnb. Milmine, McClure's, August 1907, p. 458.</ref> She founded the Massachusetts Metaphysical College in 1881 to continue teaching students,<ref>Template:Harvnb; Milmine, McClure's, September 1907, p. 567; Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb.</ref> Eddy started a number of periodicals: The Christian Science Journal in 1883, the Christian Science Sentinel in 1898, The Herald of Christian Science in 1903, and The Christian Science Monitor in 1908, the latter being a secular newspaper.<ref name=timeline>Template:Harvnb; Chronology Template:Webarchive, Mary Baker Eddy Library.</ref> The Monitor has gone on to win seven Pulitzer prizes as of 2011.<ref>Template:Harvnb.</ref> She also wrote numerous books and articles in addition to Science and Health, including the Manual of The Mother Church which contained by-laws for church government and member activity, and founded the Christian Science Publishing Society in 1898 in order to distribute Christian Science literature.<ref name=timeline/> Although the movement started in Boston, the first purpose-built Christian Science church building was erected in 1886 in Oconto, Wisconsin.<ref>Paul Eli Ivey, Prayers in Stone: Christian Science Architecture in the United States, 1894–1930, Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1999, p. 31; "First Church of Christ, Scientist" Template:Webarchive, Oconto County Historical Society.</ref> During Eddy's lifetime, Christian Science spread throughout the United States and to other parts of the world including Canada, Great Britain, Germany, South Africa, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Australia, and elsewhere.<ref>Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb.</ref>

Eddy encountered significant opposition after she began teaching and writing on Christian Science, which only increased towards the end of her life.<ref>Template:Harvnb.</ref> One of the most prominent examples was Mark Twain, who wrote a number of articles on Eddy and Christian Science which were first published in Cosmopolitan magazine in 1899 and were later published as a book.<ref>Template:Harvnb.</ref> Another extended criticism, which again was first serialized in a magazine and then published in book form, was Georgine Milmine and Willa Cather's The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy and the History of Christian Science which first appeared in McClure's magazine in January 1907.<ref>Template:Harvnb.</ref> Also in 1907, several of Eddy's relatives filed an unsuccessful lawsuit instigated by the New York World, known in the press as the "Next Friends Suit", against members of Eddy's household, alleging that she was mentally unable to manage her own affairs.<ref>Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb.</ref> The suit fell apart after Eddy was interviewed in her home in August 1907 by the judge and two court-appointed masters (one a psychiatrist) who concluded that she was mentally competent. Separately, she was seen by two psychiatrists, including Allan McLane Hamilton, who came to the same conclusion.<ref>Template:Harvnb; "Dr. Alan McLane Hamilton Tells About His Visit to Mrs. Eddy" Template:Webarchive, The New York Times, August 25, 1907.</ref> The McClure's and New York World stories are considered to at least partially be the reason Eddy asked the church in July 1908 to found the Christian Science Monitor as a platform for responsible journalism.<ref>Canham, Erwin (1958). Commitment To Freedom: The Story of the Christian Science Monitor. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. pp. 14–15.</ref>

Eddy died two years later, on the evening of Saturday, December 3, 1910, aged 89. The Mother Church announced at the end of the Sunday morning service that Eddy had "passed from our sight". The church stated that "the time will come when there will be no more death," but that Christian Scientists "do not look for [Eddy's] return in this world."<ref>Template:Harvnb; "New York Eddyites Take Death Calmly" Template:Webarchive, The New York Times, December 5, 1910; "Look for Mrs. Eddy to rise from tomb" Template:Webarchive, The New York Times, December 29, 1910.</ref> Her estate was valued at $1.5 million, most of which she left to the church.<ref>"Nothing left to relatives" Template:Webarchive, The New York Times, December 8, 1910; "Church gets most of her estate" Template:Webarchive, The New York Times, December 15, 1910.</ref>

The Christian Science movement after 1910

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File:The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston, October 1974.jpg

The First Church of Christ, Scientist, 1974

In the aftermath of Eddy's death, some newspapers speculated that the church would fall apart, while others expected it to continue just as it had before.<ref>Template:Harvnb.</ref> As it was, the movement continued to grow in the first few decades after 1910.<ref>Template:Harvnb;Template:Page needed Template:Harvnb.</ref> The Manual of the Mother Church prohibits the church from publishing membership figures,Template:Refn and it is not clear exactly when the height of the movement was. A 1936 census counted c. 268,915 Christian Scientists in the United States (2,098 per million), and Rodney Stark believes this to be close to the height.<ref>Template:Harvnb; Dart, John (20 December 1986). "Healing Church Shows Signs It May Be Ailing", Los Angeles Times.</ref> However, the number of Christian Science churches continued to increase until around 1960, at which point there was a reversal and, since then, many churches have closed their doors.<ref>Stores, Bruce (2004). Christian Science: Its Encounter with Lesbian/Gay America. iUniverse. p. 34</ref> The number of Christian Science practitioners in the United States began to decline in the 1940s according to Stark.<ref>Christian Science practitioner figures, and practitioners per million, 1883–1995: Template:Harvnb, citing the Christian Science Journal.</ref> According to J. Gordon Melton, in 1972 there were 3,237 congregations worldwide, of which roughly 2,400 were in the United States; and, in the following ten years, about 200 congregations were closed.<ref>Template:Harvnb.</ref>

During the years after Eddy's death, the church has gone through a number of hardships and controversies.<ref>Template:Harvnb.</ref> This included attempts to make practicing Christian Science illegal in the United States and elsewhere;<ref>Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb.</ref> a period known as the Great Litigation which involved two intertwined lawsuits regarding church governance;<ref>Simmons, John K. (1991). When Prophets Die: The Postcharismatic Fate of New Religious Movements. Albany: State University of New York Press. pp. 113–115; Template:Harvnb; The "Great Litigation" Template:Webarchive. Mary Baker Eddy Library. March 30, 2012.</ref> persecution under the Nazi and Communist regimes in Germany<ref>King, Christine Elizabeth. (1982). The Nazi State and The New Religions: Five Case Studies in Non-Conformity. Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press. pp. 29–57; Template:Harvnb; Sandford, Gregory W. (2014). Christian Science in East Germany: The Church that Came in from the Cold. CreateSpace Independent Publishing.</ref> and the Imperial regime in Japan;<ref>Template:Harvnb; Abiko, Emi (1978). A Precious Legacy: Christian Science Comes to Japan. E. D. Abbott Co.</ref> a series of lawsuits involving the deaths of members of the church, most notably some children;<ref>Barns, Linda L.; Plotnikoff, Gregory A.; Fox, Kenneth; Pendleton, Sara (2000). "Spirituality, Religion, and Pediatrics: Intersecting Worlds of Healing". Pediatrics 104, no. 6: 899–911; DesAutels, Peggy; Battin, Margaret; May, Larry (1999). Praying for a Cure: When Medical and Religious Practices Conflict. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers; Kondos, Elena M. (1992). "The Law and Christian Science Healing for Children: A Pathfinder." Legal Reference Services Quarterly. 12: 5–71; Template:Harvnb.</ref> and a controversial decision to publish a book by Bliss Knapp.<ref>"Court rejects Christian Science motion on bequests" Template:Webarchive Stanford University. Press release, September 23, 1992; "Christian Scientists Charge Their Church with Violating Its Principles" Template:Webarchive Christian Research Institute, April 9, 2009; "Christian Science Church Settles Claim to Bequest" Template:Webarchive The New York Times, October 14, 1993.</ref> In conjunction with the Knapp book controversy, there was controversy within the church involving The Monitor Channel, part of The Christian Science Monitor which had been losing money, and which eventually led to the channel shutting down.<ref>Bridge, Susan (1998). Monitoring the News: The Brilliant Launch and Sudden Collapse of the Monitor Channel. Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe; Gold, Allan R. (November 15, 1988). "Editors of Monitor Resign Over Cuts" Template:Webarchive. The New York Times.</ref> Acknowledging their earlier mistake, of accepting a multi-million dollar publishing incentive to offset broadcasting losses, The Christian Science Board Of Directors, with the concurrence of the Trustees Of The Christian Science Publishing Society, withdrew Destiny Of The Mother Church from publication in September 2023.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> In addition, it has since its beginning been branded as a cult by more fundamentalist strains of Christianity, and attracted significant opposition as a result.<ref>Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb.</ref> A number of independent teachers and alternative movements of Christian Science have emerged since its founding, but none of these individuals or groups have achieved the prominence of the Christian Science church.<ref>Melton, J. Gordon (1999). Encyclopedia of American religions. Detroit: Gale Research. pp. 140–142.</ref>

Despite the hardships and controversies, many Christian Science churches and Reading Rooms remain in existence around the world,<ref>Christian Science Journal Directory Search Template:Webarchive. christianscience.com</ref> and, in recent years, there have been reports of the religion growing in Africa, though it remains significantly behind other evangelical groups.<ref>Christa Case Bryant (June 9, 2009). "Africa contributes biggest share of new members to Christian Science church" Template:Webarchive. The Christian Science Monitor.</ref>Template:Sfn The Christian Science Monitor also remains a well-respected non-religious paper which is especially noted for its international reporting and lack of partisanship.<ref>Template:Harvnb; Squires, L. Ashley (2015). "All the News Worth Reading: The Christian Science Monitor and the Professionalization of Journalism" Template:Webarchive. Book History. 18: 235–272.</ref>

Healing practices

Christian Science prayer

[A]ll healing is a metaphysical process. That means that there is no person to be healed, no material body, no patient, no matter, no illness, no one to heal, no substance, no person, no thing and no place that needs to be influenced. This is what the practitioner must first be clear about.{{#if:|{{#if:|}}

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File:Mary Baker Eddy Library, Boston, 10 July 2014.jpg

Mary Baker Eddy Library, 200 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston

Christian Scientists avoid almost all medical treatment, relying instead on Christian Science prayer.<ref>Battin 1999, p. 7 Template:Webarchive.</ref> This consists of silently arguing with oneself; there are no appeals to a personal god, and no set words.<ref>Template:Harvnb; Gottschalk 2006, p. 86 Template:Webarchive.</ref> Caroline Fraser wrote in 1999 that the practitioner might repeat: "the allness of God using Eddy's seven synonyms—Life, Truth, Love, Spirit, Soul, Principle and Mind," then that "Spirit, Substance, is the only Mind, and man is its image and likeness; that Mind is intelligence; that Spirit is substance; that Love is wholeness; that Life, Truth, and Love are the only reality." She might deny other religions, the existence of evil, mesmerism, astrology, numerology, and the symptoms of whatever the illness is. She concludes, Fraser writes, by asserting that disease is a lie, that this is the word of God, and that it has the power to heal.Template:Sfn

Christian Science practitioners are certified by the Church of Christ, Scientist, to charge a fee for Christian Science prayer. There were 1,249 practitioners worldwide in 2015;<ref>"Teachers and practitioners" Template:Webarchive, Christian Science Journal.</ref> in the United States in 2010 they charged $25–$50 for an e-mail, telephone or face-to-face consultation.<ref name=Vitello>Vitello, Paul (March 23, 2010). "Christian Science Church Seeks Truce With Modern Medicine" Template:Webarchive, The New York Times.</ref> Their training is a two-week, 12-lesson course called "primary class", based on the Recapitulation chapter of Science and Health.<ref>Template:Harvnb; Eddy, "Recapitulation" Template:Webarchive, Science and Health.</ref> Practitioners wanting to teach primary class take a six-day "normal class", held in Boston once every three years, and become Christian Science teachers.Template:Sfn There are also Christian Science nursing homes. They offer no medical services; the nurses are Christian Scientists who have completed a course of religious study and training in basic skills, such as feeding and bathing.<ref>Template:Harvnb; "Christian Science nursing facilities" Template:Webarchive, Commission for Accreditation of Christian Science Nursing Organizations/Facilities.</ref>

The Christian Science Journal and Christian Science Sentinel publish anecdotal healing testimonials (they published 53,900 between 1900 and April 1989),<ref name="books.google.com">Battin 1999, p. 15 Template:Webarchive.</ref> which must be accompanied by statements from three verifiers: "people who know [the testifier] well and have either witnessed the healing or can vouch for [the testifier's] integrity in sharing it".<ref>"Testimony Guidelines" Template:Webarchive, JSH-Online, Christian Science church.</ref> Philosopher Margaret P. Battin wrote in 1999 that the seriousness with which these testimonials are treated by Christian Scientists ignores factors such as false positives caused by self-limiting conditions. Because no negative accounts are published, the testimonials strengthen people's tendency to rely on anecdotes.<ref name="books.google.com"/> A church study published in 1989 examined 10,000 published testimonials, 2,337 of which the church said involved conditions that had been medically diagnosed, and 623 of which were "medically confirmed by follow-up examinations". The report offered no evidence of the medical follow-up.<ref>Battin 1999, p. 15 Template:Webarchive; "An Empirical Analysis of Medical Evidence in Christian Science Testimonies of Healing, 1969–1988" Template:Webarchive, Christian Science church, April 1989, pp. 2, 7, courtesy of the Johnson Fund.</ref> The Massachusetts Committee for Children and Youth listed among the report's flaws that it had failed to compare the rates of successful and unsuccessful Christian Science treatment.<ref>Peters 2007, p. 22; "An Analysis of a Christian Science Study of the Healings of 640 Childhood Illnesses" Template:Webarchive, Death by Religious Exemption, Coalition to Repeal Exemptions to Child Abuse Laws, Massachusetts Committee for Children and Youth, January 1992, Section IX, p. 34.</ref>

Nathan Talbot, a church spokesperson, told the New England Journal of Medicine in 1983 that church members were free to choose medical care,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> but according to former Christian Scientists those who do may be ostracized.<ref name=Vitello/> In 2010 the New York Times reported church leaders as saying that, for over a year, they had been "encouraging members to see a physician if they feel it is necessary", and that they were repositioning Christian Science prayer as a supplement to medical care, rather than a substitute. The church has lobbied to have the work of Christian Science practitioners covered by insurance.<ref name=Vitello/>

As of 2015, it was reported that Christian Scientists in Australia were not advising anyone against vaccines, and the religious exception was deemed "no longer current or necessary".<ref>Samantha Maiden (April 18, 2015). "No Jab, No Pay reforms: Religious exemptions for vaccination dumped" Template:Webarchive. Daily Telegraph.</ref> In 2021, a church Committee on Publication reiterated that although vaccination was an individual choice, that the church did not dictate against it, and those who were not vaccinated did not do so because of any "church dogma".<ref>Christine Pae (September 1, 2021). "Here's who qualifies for a religious exemption to Washington's COVID-19 vaccine mandate" Template:Webarchive. KING 5.</ref>

Church of Christ, Scientist

Governance

File:USA 09562 Boston Luca Galuzzi 2007.jpg

The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston

In the hierarchy of the Church of Christ, Scientist, only the Mother Church in Boston, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, uses the definite article in its name. Otherwise the first Christian Science church in any city is called First Church of Christ, Scientist, then Second Church of Christ, Scientist, and so on, followed by the name of the city (for example, Third Church of Christ, Scientist, London). When a church closes, the others in that city are not renamed.Template:Sfn

Founded in April 1879, the Church of Christ, Scientist is led by a president and five-person board of directors. There is a public-relations department, known as the Committee on Publication, with representatives around the world; this was set up by Eddy in 1898 to protect her own and the church's reputation.<ref>Eddy, "List of Church Officers" Template:Webarchive, Manual of the Mother Church; Gottschalk 1973, p. 190; Fraser (Atlantic) 1995 Template:Webarchive.</ref> The church was accused in the 1990s of silencing internal criticism by firing staff, delisting practitioners and excommunicating members.<ref>Steve Stecklow, "Church's Media Moves At Issue A Burgeoning Network Sparks Dissent" Template:Webarchive, Philadelphia Inquirer, October 14, 1991;Template:Failed verification Template:HarvnbTemplate:Better source needed</ref>

The church's administration is headquartered on Christian Science Center on the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Huntington Avenue, located on several acres in the Back Bay section of Boston.<ref>Boston Landmarks Commission 2011 Template:Webarchive, p. 1.</ref> The 14.5-acre site includes the Mother Church (1894), Mother Church Extension (1906), the Christian Science Publishing Society building (1934)—which houses the Mary Baker Eddy Library and the church's administrative staff—the Sunday School building (1971), and the Church Colonnade building (1972).<ref>Boston Landmarks Commission 2011 Template:Webarchive, pp. 5–6.</ref> It also includes the 26-story Administration Building (1972), designed by Araldo Cossutta of I. M. Pei & Associates, which until 2008 housed the administrative staff from the church's 15 departments. There is also a children's fountain and a Template:Convert reflecting pool.<ref name=BostonRedevelopment>"Christian Science Plaza Revitalization Project Citizen Advisory Committee (CAC)" Template:Webarchive, Boston Redevelopment Authority.</ref><ref>Boston Landmarks Commission 2011 Template:Webarchive, p. 18.</ref>

Manual of The Mother Church

File:Manual of the Mother Church (Christian Science).jpg

Eddy's Manual of The Mother Church, 89th edition<ref>Eddy, Manual of the Mother Church Template:Webarchive, 89th edition.</ref>

Eddy's Manual of The Mother Church (first published 1895) lists the church's by-laws.<ref>Gottshalk 1973, p. 183.</ref> Requirements for members include daily prayer and daily study of the Bible and Science and Health.Template:Refn Members must subscribe to church periodicals if they can afford to, and pay an annual tax to the church of not less than one dollar.<ref>Eddy, "Discipline" Template:Webarchive, Manual of the Mother Church, Article VIII, Sections 13, 14.</ref>

Prohibitions include engaging in mental malpractice; visiting a store that sells "obnoxious" books; joining other churches; publishing articles that are uncharitable toward religion, medicine, the courts or the law; and publishing the number of church members.<ref>Eddy, "Discipline" Template:Webarchive, Manual of the Mother Church, Article VIII, Sections 8, 12, 17, 26, 28.</ref> The manual also prohibits engaging in public debate about Christian Science without board approval,<ref>Eddy, "Discipline" Template:Webarchive, Manual of the Mother Church, Article X, Section 1.</ref> and learning hypnotism.<ref>Eddy, "Discipline" Template:Webarchive, Manual of the Mother Church, Article XI, Section 9.</ref> It includes "The Golden Rule": "A member of The Mother Church shall not haunt Mrs. Eddy's drive when she goes out, continually stroll by her house, or make a summer resort near her for such a purpose."<ref>Eddy, "Discipline" Template:Webarchive, Manual of the Mother Church, Article VIII, Section 27.</ref>

Services

Template:Further The Church of Christ, Scientist is a lay church which has no ordained clergy or rituals, and performs no baptisms; with clergy of other faiths often performing marriage or funeral services since they have no clergy of their own. Its main religious texts are the Bible and Science and Health. Each church has two Readers, who read aloud a "Bible lesson" or "lesson sermon" made up of selections from those texts during the Sunday service, and a shorter set of readings to open Wednesday evening testimony meetings. In addition to readings, members offer testimonials during the main portion of the Wednesday meetings, including recovery from ill health attributed to prayer. There are also hymns, time for silent prayer, and repeating together the Lord's Prayer at each service.<ref>Stuart M. Matlins; Arthur J. Magida, How to Be a Perfect Stranger: The Essential Religious Etiquette Handbook, Skylight Paths Publishing, 2003 (pp. 70–76)Template:PbDell de Chant, "World Religions made in the U.S.A.: Metaphysical Communities – Christian Science and Theosophy," in Jacob Neusner (ed.), World Religions in America, Westminster John Knox Press, 2009 (pp. 251–270), p. 257.Template:Pb "Sunday church services and Wednesday testimony meetings" Template:Webarchive, and "Online Wednesday meetings" Template:Webarchive, First Church of Christ, Scientist.</ref>

Notable members

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Notable adherents of Christian Science have included Directors of Central Intelligence William H. Webster and Admiral Stansfield M. Turner; and Richard Nixon's chief of staff H. R. Haldeman and Chief Domestic Advisor John Ehrlichman.<ref>Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb; Fraser (Atlantic) 1995 Template:Webarchive.</ref> The viscounts Waldorf and Nancy Astor, the latter of whom was the first female member of British Parliament, were both Christian Scientists;<ref>Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb</ref> as were two other early women in Parliament, Thelma Cazalet-Keir and Margaret Wintringham.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Thelma's brother Victor Cazalet was also a member of the church.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Another was naval officer Charles Lightoller, who survived the sinking of the Titanic in 1912.<ref>Template:Harvnb; Charles Lightoller, "It is difficult to tell of the experience ..." Template:Webarchive, Christian Science Journal, October 1912.</ref> Other adherents in the United States government also include Senator Jocelyn Burdick,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Governor Scott McCallum,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.<ref>Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb</ref> A number of suffragists were Christian Scientists including Vida Goldstein,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Muriel Matters,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and Nettie Rogers Shuler.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Businesswomen Martha Matilda Harper<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and Bette Nesmith Graham<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> were both Christian Scientists. As was the founder of the Braille Institute of America, J. Robert Atkinson.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In sports, Harry Porter,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Harold Bradley Jr.,<ref>Tony Lobl (February 2022). "A spiritually guided Renaissance man". The Christian Science Journal. vol. 140(2).</ref> and George Sisler<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> were all adherents. Christian Scientists within the film industry, include Carol Channing and Jean Stapleton;<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> Colleen Dewhurst;<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> Joan Crawford, Doris Day, George Hamilton, Mary Pickford, Ginger Rogers, Mickey Rooney;<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> Horton Foote;<ref name="Fraser 1999 215">Template:Harvnb</ref> King Vidor;<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Robert Duvall, and Val Kilmer.<ref>Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb</ref> Those raised by Christian Scientists include jurist Helmuth James Graf von Moltke,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> military analyst Daniel Ellsberg;<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Ellen DeGeneres, Henry Fonda, Audrey Hepburn;<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> James Hetfield, Marilyn Monroe, Robin Williams, Elizabeth Taylor,<ref name="Fraser 1999 215"/> and Anne Archer.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Four prominent African American entertainers who have been associated with Christian Science are Pearl Bailey, Lionel Hampton, Everett Lee, and Alfre Woodard.<ref>Template:Harvnb; Template:Cite news; Template:Cite news</ref>

Christian Science Publishing Society

File:Christian Science Publishing Society, Boston MA.jpg

The Christian Science Publishing Society, Massachusetts Avenue, Boston

The Christian Science Publishing Society publishes several periodicals, including the Christian Science Monitor, winner of seven Pulitzer Prizes between 1950 and 2002. This had a daily circulation in 1970 of 220,000, which by 2008 had contracted to 52,000. In 2009 it moved to a largely online presence with a weekly print run.<ref>Stephanie Clifford, "Christian Science Paper to End Daily Print Edition" Template:Webarchive, The New York Times, October 28, 2008; Jon Fine, "The Christian Science Monitor to Become a Weekly" Template:Webarchive, Business Week, October 28, 2008; David Cook, "Monitor shifts from print to Web-based strategy" Template:Webarchive, The Christian Science Monitor, October 29, 2008.</ref> In the 1980s the church produced its own television programs, and in 1991 it founded a 24-hour news channel, which closed with heavy losses after 13 months.<ref>Seth Faison, "The Media Business; New Deadline for Monitor Channel" Template:Webarchive, The New York Times, April 6, 1992.</ref>

The church also publishes the weekly Christian Science Sentinel, the monthly Christian Science Journal, and the Herald of Christian Science, a non-English publication. In April 2012 JSH-Online made back issues of the Journal, Sentinel and Herald available online to subscribers.<ref>"Learn more about JSH-Online" Template:Webarchive, christianscience.com.</ref>

Works by Mary Baker Eddy

• Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (1875)
• Christian Healing (1880)
• The People's Idea of God: Its Effect on Health and Christianity (1883)
• Historical Sketch of Metaphysical Healing (1885)
• Defence of Christian Science (1885)
• No and Yes (1887)
• Rudiments and Rules of Divine Science (1887)
• Unity of Good and Unreality of Evil (1888)
• Retrospection and Introspection (1891)
• Christ and Christmas (1893)
• Rudimental Divine Science (1894)
• Manual of The Mother Church (1895)
• Pulpit and Press (1895)
• Miscellaneous Writings, 1883–1896 (1897)
• Christian Science versus Pantheism (1898)
• The Christian Science Hymnal (1898)
• Christian Healing and the People's Idea of God (1908)
• Poems (1910)
• The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany (1913)
• Prose Works Other than Science and Health (1925)

See also

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Citations

Sources

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Further reading

• Church of Christ, Scientist Template:Webarchive, christianscience.com
• Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures Template:Webarchive, christianscience.com
• New York Times archives: "Christian Science" Template:Webarchive; "Mary Baker Eddy" Template:Webarchive.
• The Christian Science Monitor Template:Webarchive
• Christian Science Journal Template:Webarchive
• Christian Science Sentinel Template:Webarchive
• The Herald of Christian Science Template:Webarchive
• JSH-Online Template:Webarchive (Journal, Sentinel, Herald)
• Independent Christian Science Template:Webarchive, plainfieldscs.com
• Haller, John S. Shadow Medicine: The Placebo in Conventional and Alternative Therapies, New York: Columbia University Press, 2014.
• Rogers, Alan. The Child Cases: How America's Religious Exemption Laws Harm Children, Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2014.
• Swan, Rita. "Religion, Culture and Criminal Law" Template:Webarchive, Child-Friendly Faith Project Conference, November 8, 2013.
• Template:Cite book

Church histories

(chronological)

• Cather, Willa and Milmine, Georgine. "Mary Baker G. Eddy", McClure's magazine, December 1906 – June 1908.
• Powell, Lyman Pierson. Christian Science: The Faith and Its Founder, New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1917 [1907].
• Peabody, Frederick William. Complete Exposure of Eddyism or Christian Science, Boston: Frederick Peabody, 1907.
• Wilbur, Sibyl. The Life of Mary Baker Eddy, New York: Concord Publishing Company, 1908 (first serialized in Human Life, 1907; published by the Christian Science Publishing Society, 1913).
• Meehan, Michael. Mrs. Eddy and the Late Suit in Equity, Concord, NH: Michael Meehan, 1908 (also published as Mrs. Eddy and Next Friends).
• Template:Cite book via Archive.org
• Lord, Myra B. Mary Baker Eddy: A Concise Story of Her Life and Work, Boston, Mass: Davis & Bond, 1918
• Bancroft, Samuel P. Mrs. Eddy as I Knew Her in 1870, Boston: Geo H. Ellis Co, 1923.
• Ramsay, E. Mary. Christian Science and its Discoverer, Cambridge: Heffer & Sons, 1923. [Republished: CS Pub. Soc., 1923]
• Dickey, Adam E. Memoirs of Mary Baker Eddy, London: Robert G. Carter, 1927.
• Dakin, Edwin Franden. Mrs. Eddy, the Biography of a Virginal Mind, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1929.
• Fisher, H. A. L. Our New Religion: An Examination of Christian Science, New York, J. Cape & H. Smith, 1930.
• Powell, Lyman Pierson. Mary Baker Eddy: A Life Size Portrait, New York: The MacMillan Company, 1930. [reprinted by CS Pub. Soc.: 1930, 1950, 1991]
• Springer, Fleta Campbell. According to the Flesh, New York: Coward-McCann, 1930.
• Bates, Ernest Sutherland and Dittemore, John V. Mary Baker Eddy: The Truth and the Tradition, New York: A. A. Knopf, 1932.
• Zweig, Stefan. Mental Healers: Mesmer, Eddy and Freud, London: Pushkin Press, 2012 [1932].
• Smith, Clifford P. Historical Sketches from the Life of Mary Baker Eddy and the History of Christian Science, Boston: CS Pub. Soc., 1934. [1941, 1969]
• Tomlinson, Irving C. Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy, Boston: Christian Science Publishing Society, 1945.
• Studdert Kennedy, Hugh A. Mrs. Eddy: Her Life, Her Work and Her Place in History, San Francisco: The Farallon Press, 1947.
• Beasley, Norman. The Cross and the Crown, the History of Christian Science, New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1952.
• Beasley, Norman. The Continuing Spirit, New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1956.
• Beasley, Norman. Mary Baker Eddy, New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1963.
• Peel, Robert. Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Discovery, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1966.
• Peel, Robert. Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Authority, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1977.
• Silberger, Julius. Mary Baker Eddy, an interpretive biography of the founder of Christian Science, Boston: Little, Brown, 1980.
• Gardner, Martin. The Healing Revelations of Mary Baker Eddy, New York: Prometheus Books, 1993.
• Thomas, Robert David. With Bleeding Footsteps: Mary Baker Eddy's Path to Religious Leadership, New York: Knopf, 1994.
• Knee, Stuart E. Christian Science in the Age of Mary Baker Eddy, Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Company, 1994.
• Williams, Jean Kinney. The Christian Scientists. NY: Franklin Watts, 1997.
• Nenneman, Richard A. Persistent Pilgrim: The Life of Mary Baker Eddy, Etna, NH: Nebbadoon Press, 1997.
• Gill, Gillian. Mary Baker Eddy, Reading, MA: Perseus Books, 1998.
• Von Fettweis, Yvonne Cache; Warneck, Robert Townsend Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer, Boston: CS Pub. Soc., 1998. [Amplified 2009]
• Koestler-Grack, Rachel A. Mary Baker Eddy, Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 2004.
• Gottschalk, Stephen. Rolling Away the Stone: Mary Baker Eddy's Challenge to Materialism, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006.
• Ferguson, Isabel and Vogel Frederick, Heather. A World More Bright: The Life of Mary Baker Eddy, Boston: CS Pub. Soc., 2013.

Books by former Christian Scientists Template:Refbegin

• Fraser, Caroline. God's Perfect Child: Living and Dying in the Christian Science Church, New York: Metropolitan Books, 1999.
• Greenhouse, Lucy. Fathermothergod: My Journey Out of Christian Science, New York: Crown Publishers, 2011.
• Kramer, Linda S. Perfect Peril: Christian Science and Mind Control, Lafayette: Huntington House, 2000 (first published as The Religion That Kills. Christian Science: Abuse, Neglect, and Mind Control).
• Simmons, Thomas. The Unseen Shore: Memories of a Christian Science Childhood, Boston: Beacon 1991.
• Swan, Rita. The Last Strawberry, Dublin: Hag's Head Press, 2009.
• Wilson, Barbara. Blue Windows: A Christian Science Childhood, New York: Picador 1997.

External links

• Plainfield Christian Science Church, Independent—A part of the Christian Science movement, independent from the Mother Church in Boston

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