Health and Medicine in the Christian Science Tradition: Principle, Practice, and Challenge

Peel, Robert. Health and Medicine in the Christian Science Tradition: Principle, Practice, and Challenge. Edited by James P. Wind. New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, 1989.

Representing the Christian Science tradition, Peel was invited to participate in the series “Health/Medicine and the Faith Traditions.” He acquaints his readers with Mary Baker Eddy and her theology, because the healing practices of Christian Science are incomprehensible without this understanding. The theology is grounded in Christian origins with a Christian salvific purpose, and not an alternative form of American metaphysical ‘harmonialism.’ Peel begins his explanation of Christian Science health practices with the topic of Christian Science and the moral attitudes of the day (1988), thus demonstrating the “immense distance between the sexual revolution’s discarding of traditional Christian morality and radical emphasis of Christian Science” (36). Moral and mental health establish the foundation for both motives and means of practicing healing in Christian Science, because the healing of sin and disease is so closely linked theologically. The seventh chapter, “Passage to Light,” consists of numerous accounts of successful healing without medical aid. In his discussion of the struggle between Christian Science and orthodox medicine, Peel answers typical questions, such as the meaning of suffering and the role of Christian Science practitioners and nurses. Admitting the decline in Christian Science membership and lessening evidence of spiritual vigor in practice, Peel calls on fellow Christian Scientists to commit to more dedicated work, courage, and spiritual purity.

ISBN-10: 0824508955
ISBN-13 (Hardcover): 978-0824508951