Christian Science Today: Power, Policy, Practice

Braden, Charles S. Christian Science Today: Power, Policy, Practice. Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1959.

Braden sought and was denied “unrestricted use of… the Archives of the Mother Church” (ix). Therefore, most information seems to have come from “two or three dozen top-ranking teachers whose instruction I have perused” (106). Part I includes a fairly standard recap of where Mary Baker Eddy got her ideas, peppered with information from Bancroft, Dakin, Dittemore, Dresser and Haushalter, where Braden concludes that the recent response to the Lieber document by Moehlman regarding accusations of undocumented borrowing and plagiarism had “proved unconvincing” (34). Part II constitutes more than half of the book, focusing on the struggle for and abuses of power, through and after the ‘Great Litigation’ (the Church’s internal battle), by detailing a dozen current and former practitioners and teachers who had produced writings “regarded as offensive” (129) to the Christian Science Board of Directors. Part III identifies inconsistencies in Science and Health and class teaching, including explanations of the Eustace years and publishing “Kimballism” (309) which, while not authorized, was accepted. Braden’s omission of the successful ‘practices’ of Sunday schools, lectures, Reading Rooms, and The Christian Science Monitor in 1959 may account for his apparent puzzling over how “the church has come to be respected” (10) as shown by the growth evidenced in his charts.

ISBN-10: 0835788466
ISBN-13 (Softcover): 9780835788465

For more on Moehlman, see also annotations:

Mrs. Eddy Purloins from Hegel: Newly Discovered Source Reveals Amazing Plagiarisms in Science and Health by Walter M. Haushalter

“Historical Consensus and Christian Science: The Career of a Manuscript Controversy” by Thomas C. Johnsen

Ordeal by Concordance: Historian Explodes the Lieber Myth by Conrad Moehlman

For more on Eustace, see also annotations:

“Science and Health” and the “Church Manual.” Jesus: Pentecost: Mary Baker Eddy: Today by W. Gordon Brown

Christian Science: Its “Clear, Correct Teaching” and Complete Writings by Herbert W. Eustace

See additional annotations on the Great Litigation:

Proceedings in Equity 1919-1921 Concerning Deed of Trust of January 25, 1898 by the Christian Science Publishing Society

“Report to the Members of The Mother Church” by the Committee on General Welfare

See additional annotation on Plagairism: