“American Christian Science Architecture and its Influence”

Ivey, Paul. “Building Respectability: Christian Science Architecture in the U. S. A. and its Influence in Europe.” Reproduced by The Mary Baker Eddy Library, 16 June 2011.

Among Ivey’s many academic writings on architecture in the context of the Christian Science tradition, this article gives the clearest picture of the specific influence of the American-born religion in Europe. Everywhere, Christian Scientists increasingly turned to the Bible and Mary Baker Eddy’s writings for architectural inspiration. Architecture became the chief visible proclamation of Christian Science’s presence in American cities and in Europe; and in many ways, architecture itself became its primary symbol. Although classical revival edifices were the most common in the early nineteenth-century, by contrast the most architecturally celebrated Christian Science edifice (in Berkeley, CA) was inspired by traditional Gothic architecture. Like the American Christian Science churches, those in Britain sought the expression of spiritual qualities. They usually adopted the American auditorium church plan and focused on excellent acoustics and being respectable in their communities. But the most celebrated one (in Manchester, England) strove for its own unique original character along with artistic expression. Another highly prominent Christian Science church in Europe was built in The Hague. Hendrick Berlage, its architect, studied Eddy’s Science and Health for inspiration, but the magnificent structure also reflects influences from Berlage’s theosophical colleagues as well as Louis Sullivan’s (American) Cedar Rapids’s church.

Read this article on The Mary Baker Eddy Library website.

See also annotations:

Bernard Maybeck at Principia College: The Art and Craft of Building by Robert M. Craig

“Material Expression and Materialism in Mary Baker Eddy’s Boston Churches: How Architecture and Gender Compromised Mind.” By Jeanne Halgren Kilde

“Prayers in Stone: Christian Science Architecture in the United States, 1894-1930.” by Paul Eli Ivey

“Christian Science Architecture in the American City: The Triumph of the Classical Style.” By Paul Eli Ivey