Spirits in Rebellion: The Rise and Development of New Thought

Braden, Charles S. Spirits in Rebellion: The Rise and Development of New Thought.  Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, (1963) 1987.

Scholars seeking to differentiate between Christian Science and New Thought will appreciate Braden’s history of their origins. Although Braden’s purpose was to explain the various New Thought communities and their origins, their stories are intertwined for various reasons with Mary Baker Eddy and the establishment of her movement, Christian Science. All of the new metaphysical groups had some type of relationship with P. P. Quimby, but as Braden notes, “at Quimby’s passing there was no movement. He had no successor” (130). Controversies arose over differences and similarities with Quimby and with Eddy. Many who left Christian Science appreciated its basic teachings and healing practice, but opposed Eddy’s complete control over her movement, and several of these became leaders within various New Thought communities. Braden cites F. L. Rawson as an example of someone with “too brilliant and creative a mind to yield itself to a control so absolute as that imposed by the rigid authoritarian organization that Christian Science had become” (432). And yet, most defectors from Eddy’s movement as well as newcomers to New Thought groups continued to use the general name ‘Christian Science’—a reflection of the ambiguous relationship between Christian Science and New Thought schools of thought.

(Quotes are from the 1987 edition.)

ISBN-13: 0870740253

See also annotation:

“A Story Untold: A History of the Quimby-Eddy Debate” by Keith McNeil