“The Eddy-Hopkins Paradigm: A ‘Metaphysical Look’ at Their Historic Relationship”

Simmons, John K. “The Eddy-Hopkins Paradigm: A ‘Metaphysical Look’ at Their Historic Relationship.” The Journal of the Society for the Study of Metaphysical Religion 8 (Fall, 2002): 129-51.

Simmons explores the reasons for the parting of ways between Mary Baker Eddy and one of her followers, Emma Curtis Hopkins—whose students went on to found several prominent New Thought movements. He speculates that the Hopkins-Eddy relationship embodied the second and third stages in the process of spiritual transformation. In the first stage, one intuits a spiritual oneness of Being. In stage two, one must suffer an apocalyptic destruction of the ego as a prerequisite to authentically reaching stage three. Hopkins observed this cleansing process in Eddy’s life of sorrow and struggle. But Simmons sees Eddy as remaining in stage two because of her dualistic terminology where God is One and All, but then there is also what Eddy called malicious animal magnetism—a pernicious something apart from God that must be battled. It is Hopkins who Simmons sees as moving on to the unitive stage three—a progression not possible unless Hopkins had first broken the bonds of ego attachment—an essential component of Christian Science discipleship. Hopkins left Christian Science because “she learned what she needed to learn, and then graduated” (143). The Eddy-Hopkins paradigm represents a model for spiritual transformation.

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Print ISSN: 1545-7338

See also annotations:

“Neurotheology and Spiritual Transformation: Clues in the Work of Joel Goldsmith” by John K. Simmons

“Emma Curtis Hopkins: A Feminist of the 1880s and Mother of New Thought” by Gordon J. Melton

“New Thought’s Hidden History: Emma Curtis Hopkins, Forgotten Founder” by Gordon J. Melton

Emma Curtis Hopkins: Forgotten Founder of New Thought by Gail M. Harley