“Christian Science in the Age of Mary Baker Eddy” by Stuart E. Knee (Review)

Lindley, Susan Hill. “Christian Science in the Age of Mary Baker Eddy.” Church History 66, no. 1 (March 1997): 156–57.

Lindley’s review of Knee’s Christian Science in the Age of Mary Baker Eddy affirmed the need for such a book that attempted to “locate Christian Science in the context of contemporary political, social, and intellectual currents in the United States” (157). His use of contemporary published sources was commendable since they were in such short supply [especially notable before the opening of the Mary Baker Eddy Library in 2002]. But Lindley critiques Knee’s tendency to oversimplify, overgeneralize, and rely on his own creative and obtuse analogies rather than develop fewer and more well-reasoned theses. She also acknowledges his attempt at a balanced assessment of Eddy but thinks his arguments “might have been more convincing had his prose lapsed less frequently into disdainful, even snide commentary” (157).

ISSN: 1755-2613
Print ISSN: 0009-6407

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3169686

See also annotation: 

Christian Science in the Age of Mary Baker Eddy by Stuart E. Knee