“The Response of Christian Science to the Revolution in Medicine”
Harragin, Robin. “The Response of Christian Science to the Revolution in Medicine.” CESNUR: Tallinn University, Tallinn (Estonia), 18-20 June 2015.
At a 2015 conference devoted to the relationship of religion and modern medicine, Harragin (a Christian Science adherent) explores the tension between material and spiritual healing. She argues against Rodney Stark’s assertion that Christian Science, the religion founded by Mary Baker Eddy, had failed in part because it could not compete with the revolution in medicine post World War II. But, using French sociologist Régis Dericqubourg’s position that Christian Science is a restructuring of Christianity and the prototype of healing churches, Harragin concludes that the institutional church and Christian Scientists are still rising to the challenge posed by their spiritual worldview. In Harragin’s survey of Christian Scientists who are actively practicing spiritual healing and who were willing to talk about it, she found a solid core of Christian Scientists that almost always makes a rational decision to seek healing without medicine. As members of a type of healing church described by Dericquebourg, they are well aware that it may take time to develop their spiritual practice and consequently their healing work. They view their treatment for illness as “a stage on the way to salvation” and “manage failure so as not to question the validity of their doctrine” (3).
Read this resource on the web.
See also annotations:
“Christian Science: The First Healing Church” by Régis Dericquebourg