“A New Christian Identity: Christian Science Origins and Experience in American Culture by Amy B. Voorhees” (review)

Huenneke, Judy. “A New Christian Identity: Christian Science Origins and Experience in American Culture by Amy B. Voorhees (Review).” Nova Religio 25, no. 3 (February 2022): 134-5.

Amy B. Voorhees’s A New Christian Identity: Christian Science Origins and Experience in American Culture offers a compact yet information-rich study of Mary Baker Eddy, her landmark text Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, and the emergence of Christian Science in the dynamic religious climate of late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century America. As reviewer Judy Huenneke notes, Voorhees provides a sympathetic but not biased account, grounding her analysis in the broader cultural and theological currents of New England and beyond. The book’s strength lies in its focused exploration of how Science and Health developed and how a new religious movement cohered around it, though this selected focus inevitably leaves out some dimensions—including Eddy’s active preaching career and her interactions with local clergy—that might have enriched the narrative. Huenneke appreciates the work’s lively later chapters, its charming Victorian-style chapter abstracts, and its concluding essay, which distills the book’s major themes with energy and insight. She also points out occasional factual slips, such as the misidentification of Christian Scientist Israel Pickens. Nonetheless, she regards the book as a valuable contribution for readers interested in American religious history, women’s leadership, New Thought, and the cultural forces that shaped Christian Science’s distinctive identity.

ISSN:  1541-8480
Print ISSN: 1092-6690

Link to article: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/847375

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A New Christian Identity: Christian Science Origins and Experience in American Culture by Amy B. Voorhees