Skip to content
Csbibliography

Annotated Bibliography of Christian Science

Academic and Other Literature

  • Home
  • About
    • About the ABCS Project
    • Support Opportunities (Donate)
    • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Annotations
    • Search Information
    • Category Search
    • Keyword Search
    • Advanced Search
    • Standard Search
    • Authors/Editor List
    • Title List
    • Recently Added
    • Search Support
  • Resources
    • The Book
    • Online Resources
    • ABCS Blog
    • Suggest Resources
  • Contact
Annotation Resource

“Understanding Mary Baker Eddy”

“Understanding Mary Baker Eddy”

Johnsen, Thomas C. “Understanding Mary Baker Eddy.” Paper presented at American Studies Conference. Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, 2002.

Johnsen lays out the problematic history of how the public, the press and the Christian Science Church have depicted Mary Baker Eddy in the past century. He laments the usual one-dimensional portraits of Eddy either eulogizing her (Church’s sycophantic authorized literature), or demonizing her (attacks from ministers, physicians, press, disaffected students). Both the adoring and the reviling of Eddy were prone “to report gossip as gospel” (13); and due to the heavily guarded Church archives, “the perceptions of scholars were ruled not by a tyranny of facts but by a tyranny of preconceptions” (14). It was Robert Peel, a loyal Christian Scientist, who was finally given full access to the Church’s historical files, allowing the evidence to “talk back” (21). Peel’s three-volume biography of Eddy could then “face squarely, fairly, and explicitly the serious questions raised in critical works,” something “the authorized biographies … fail[ed] miserably to answer” (5). Johnsen, like Peel, highlights the nature of Eddy’s hard-fought discipleship fueled by her profound spirituality as well as her humanity—”the full range of her contradictions as well as strengths, her capacity for change and growth, her anguish, and yes, her authentic religious experience, without which there is no possibility of understanding her and little reason to try” (3,4).

Read “Understanding Mary Baker Eddy” on the Marlène F. Johnson Fund website.

See also annotation (polemic response):

Our New Religion: An Examination of Christian Science by H.A.L. Fisher

 

Johnsen, Thomas C.

Related Annotations:

Annotations related by category:
  • Availability: Online - Free
  • Official Christian Science Publication: No
  • Organizations: Mary Baker Eddy Library
  • People: Eddy, Mary Baker
  • Publication Date: 2001-2010
  • Resource Types: Conference Papers, Reports, and Manuscripts
  • Resource Types: Web Resources
  • Subjects: Biographies and Chronologies
  • Subjects: Church Growth and Change
Annotations related by keyword:
  • Authorized
  • Critical Analysis
More by authors or editor(s):
  • Johnsen, Thomas

Comment on this resource: Cancel

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Search Home

Search application instructions and overview.

Search Support

Questions? We've got answers.

Category Search

Select subject, person, organization and/or controversy to provide a subset of annotation results. The results page includes the ability to further limit your search.

Keyword Search

Select one or more specific keywords to provide a subset of annotation results. The results page includes the ability to further limit your search.

Advanced Search

Select from all search options to obtain very specific results.

Standard Search

Might yield a mix of relevant and irrelevant results, but could be very helpful if you are looking for a specific term not included in any of the other types of searches.

Annotations by Author
Annotations by Title
Most Recent

View the 30 most recently added annotations.

New Since the Book

View new annotations available here that were not included in the book.

Suggest a Resource
Donate via PayPal

Scholarly Works on Christian Science is the nonprofit corporation that produces the ABCS website. We rely on donations to keep the bibliography updated and available to the public. If you find this site useful we hope you'll consider donating to support the work. Donate via PayPal by clicking the button above or send a check to:

Scholarly Works on Christian Science
420 Conway Meadows Drive
St. Louis, MO 63017

© 2022 and later by Scholarly Works on Christian Science, all rights reserved.

Privacy Policy is here. Cookie Policy is here. Comment Policy is here.

This material was printed from the Annotated Bibliography of Christian Science website produced and maintained by Scholarly Works on Christian Science (https://csbibliography.org). All rights reserved.