From Christian Science to Jewish Science, Spiritual Healing and American Jews

Umansky, Ellen M. From Christian Science to Jewish Science, Spiritual Healing and American Jews. Oxford University Press, 2005.

Umansky examines the history of Jewish Science—a movement that arose to counter the estimated tens of thousands of Jews (a majority women) attracted to Christian Science in the late 19^th and early 20^th century. These Jews were attracted to Christian Science’s promise of health and healing; and many stayed with the Church having found ‘spiritual sustenance’ and a ‘spiritually satisfying concept of God.’ Umansky examines the Christian Science theology that resonated with Jewish beliefs, as well as their struggle with the Christocentric nature of Mary Baker Eddy’s writings—although in Christian Science, to its favor, Jesus was not equated with God. Umansky also notes the gain for these Jews in socioeconomic mobility by association with this new and prosperous Christian denomination which had no past association with antisemitism. The Jewish defection to Christian Science brought about a self-examination within Judaism generating within Reformed Judaism a ‘spiritual renaissance’—out of which emerged the Jewish Science movement—an ‘explicitly Jewish way’ for the Jew to find divine healing, health and happiness.

ISBN-10: 0195044002
ISBN-13 (Hardcover): 978-0195044003