Bliss Knapp Christian Scientist

Houpt, Charles Theodore. Bliss Knapp Christian Scientist. Boston: Wingaway Press, (1976) 2008.

Knapp’s wife, Eloise, preserved the letters, papers, and other memorabilia concerning the life and ministry of her husband, and she entrusted them to Houpt, who in turn sought to preserve them in this book. It begins with a brief history of Bliss’s family heritage and childhood experiences, including the family’s introduction to Christian Science with healings in 1884.  Mary Baker Eddy’s visit with the family in 1888 (when Bliss was 11) left a major impact on the family. Bliss and his parents devoted their lives to serving Eddy and her cause, and he began his healing practice and lecturing immediately after graduating from Harvard. Eddy sometimes tempered the family’s spiritual zeal with human practicality, but she valued all of them. Bliss won special lecturing guidance from Eddy, who praised his lectures. In larger cities, he held audiences of 1500-5000 people. Bliss’s father, Ira, was especially concerned with prophecy, and Bliss expanded on it, emphasizing the importance of Eddy’s place in prophecy. He was the leading proponent of her role as the divinely appointed Leader of the Christian Science Church. Opposition both within the movement and without, Knapp thought, derived from ignorance of Eddy’s prophetic role as the woman in the Apocalypse.

ISBN-10: 0974041270
ISBN-13 (Softcover): 978-0974041278

See also annotations:

Mary Baker Eddy: The Truth and the Tradition by Ernest Sutherland Bates and John V. Dittemore 

The Destiny of The Mother Church by Bliss Knapp

The Religio-Medical Masquerade: A Complete Exposure of Eddyism by Frederick W. Peabody