“Christian Science and New Thought”

Ivey, Paul Eli. “Christian Science and New Thought.” Pages 737-38 of The American Midwest: An Interpretive Encyclopedia. Edited by Richard Sisson, Christian Zacher, and Andrew Cayton.  Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 2007.

Ivey chronicles the late 19^th century organizational expansion of Mary Baker Eddy’s Christian Science church in the American Midwest. The 1880s experienced the outgrowth of Eddy’s Massachusetts Metaphysical College when its graduates established institutes and academies in six major Midwest cities. Eddy also taught a class in Chicago in 1884 and lectured there in 1889. Two of the four National Christian Scientist Association meetings were held in Chicago and Cleveland before it was disbanded. By 1906 more than 300 congregations were holding services there, nearly half of all services in the United States.  Ivey mentions important organizers Bradford Sherman and Caroline and Gideon Noyes, and notes that Edward Kimball, a Chicago businessman, achieved national and international prominence as a lecturer and teacher of Christian Science. The first church built solely for Christian Science worship was in Oconto, Wisconsin, in 1886, and Chicago branch churches became important architectural templates for classical churches built throughout the United States. The Midwest also supported the 1898 establishment of The Principia, a St. Louis independent school which would expand into a four-year liberal arts college. Ivey also briefly traces the importance of the Midwest in the development of New Thought, where Emma Curtis Hopkins taught many important organizers.

ISBN-10: 0253348862
ISBN-13: 978-0253348869

See also annotations:

“Oconto Christian Science Church Still Relevant” by Margaret Lewis

Lectures and Articles on Christian Science by Edward A. Kimball published by Edna Kimball Wait

Pioneers in Christian Science: Portraits Exhibited in the Museum and Biographical Sketches from the Society’s Collection by Longyear Historical Society