The Bridge: A Book for Christian Scientists

Moore, Irene S. The Bridge: A Book for Christian Scientists. Santa Monica, CA: DeVorss & Company, 1971.

Moore’s personal wrestling with her relationship to Christian Science culminates in this book. She had been a registered Christian Science healing practitioner for many years, and her questioning and studying led her to what she has termed “the higher order of Science,” using a quote from Mary Baker Eddy (Miscellaneous Writings, 99). Publication of this book resulted in Moore’s excommunication from The Mother Church and her branch church in the early 1970s. “My study of Christian Science showed these material sciences to be in perpetual conflict with what Mrs. Eddy conceived to be her ‘higher order,’ and I knew some sort of resolution of this had to come” (285). She cites Teilhard’s phrase “spiritual dualism” as an accurate expression of what had troubled her in Christian Science teaching. She strove to attain the “divine Wholeness and Oneness,” and to place herself in a “matter/mind consciousness to bring about a peaceful integration” (xix), i.e., a ‘bridge.’ Her fundamental argument is with (her perception of) traditional Christian Science, that Mind’s allness precludes the reality of life experience. “There cannot be an absence of Mind no matter what the appearance. Jesus’ crucifixion became the ascension! Was not Mind there” (298)? Therefore, she reasons, Mind must be present at all happenings, even with accidents and sickness.

This reference is written by an ‘independent’ Christian Scientist and is included in the bibliography because of its historical value. For further explanation, click here.