Mary Baker Eddy: Her Revelation of Divine Egoism
Nowell, Ames. Mary Baker Eddy: Her Revelation of Divine Egoism. New York: Veritas Institute, Inc., 1963.
This book was accepted as Nowell’s thesis for an honorary DD degree from Burton College and Seminary and a ThD degree from Philathea College in 1964. The purpose of the book was to “elucidate the very essence of the revelation and advanced teachings of Mary Baker Eddy,” giving particular attention to “the most important” but least recognized concepts in the Christian Science Field—”the full revelation of spiritual reality, as given to us by our revered Leader,” Eddy (xi). As a ‘biography,’ this book is not concerned with “the minutiae of Mary Baker Eddy’s human experience,” but deals with what Nowell identifies as “the realm of the divinely mental, for [her] greatness lies especially in the magnitude of her apodictical discovery” (8). Appealing to mid-20th century language (not Eddy’s), Nowell argues that the mental nature of telepathic treatment involves error of the human mind, by contrast with the perfection of the one Mind (God). The egoistic nature of this one God—ruling out any other mind or existence—is the source of all true healing power. His last article published in the Christian Science periodicals was in 1951, and his book on the Ten Commandments (1968) appeared five years after this biography, with almost no reference to Christian Science or Eddy.