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The Mary Baker Eddy Library examines Eddy’s correspondence and documents related to the 1881 chartering, development and fruition of the Massachusetts Metaphysical College. The College, an institution meant to teach Eddy’s metaphysical healing method, accepted both sexes regardless of age or gender. Eddy intended her students to practice what they learned back in their own communities.

This research on Native American affiliation with Christian Science highlights Tsianina Blackstone, a Native American singer, who later became a Christian Science practitioner for four decades. It also includes links to the church periodicals where one can find Native American healing testimonies, how Native Americans were blessed by Christian Science literature, and Christian Science evangelizing work on reservations.

Due to the long-standing debate over Mary Baker Eddy’s use of morphine, the Mary Baker Eddy Library sought to resolve it in order to restore focus on Eddy’s larger record. Calvin Frye’s diaries had recorded several instances of Eddy’s use of morphine, but some claimed his diaries had been altered. A forensic analysis in 2021 concluded the diaries are reliable.

Voorhees offers new scholarship on a broad array of topics related to Christian Science identity focusing on reception history. With attention to fully resourced details and modern scholarship, Voorhees outlines the reception history of Christian Science in fields of religion, women studies, American history, politics, medicine, and metaphysics. She probes Mary Baker Eddy’s relationships with contemporary scholars, religion leaders, and students.

Henniker-Heaton’s meaningful life and Christian Science healing of ten years of paralysis are accompanied by selections from his poetry and other writings. The book’s purpose is to “present the spiritual ideas of this prolific writer in chronological order, setting them in the context of his life.”

Wadleigh’s purpose is to help foster a rebirth and reform in the practice of Christian Science—a rebirth that self-knowledge could help advance. Looking through the lens of his own experience as a longtime Christian Science practitioner and insider, he takes up an appraisal of the Church and its members’ persistently unexamined, unresolved challenges and mistakes. He especially seeks more compassion.

After the healing of her son through reading Science and Health, Marietta Thomas Webb became a devoted student of Christian Science and eventually, one of the first Black Journal-listed Christian Science practitioners. This article shares her journey of finding Christian Science, and the racial discriminiation she faced as a Black Christian Science practitioner.

Peidle finds common ground between Christian Science and Vedanta (represented by Swami Vivekananda), by examining a speech written by Mary Baker Eddy for the 1893 Parliament of World Religions, as well as her other writings, and Vivekananda’s correspondence. Vivekananda first learned about Christian Science at the Parliament. His later ill health prompted an interest in the nature of healing and reality.

Eddy’s first published reference to the subject of vaccination was in an 1880 sermon. In 1900, Eddy was consulted by some Christian Science parents, including her son, who wanted to keep their children from school due to their opposition to vaccination laws. But Eddy recommended compliance with the law and affirmed that one could also submit to the providence of God. 

Prominent business woman of franchised beauty shops, Martha Matilda Harper, publicly accredited Christian Science with healing her and sustaining her through decades in business. Harper set up a system of training for the many women of modest means who became operators of the 500 franchises, which by the 1930s were spread throughout the United States, Canada and Europe.

Within the context of how new Christian denominations relate healing systems with the Bible, Paulson cites different traditions that lie on the spectrum between continuationists who believe healing is still possible, such as the Christian Scientists, and the cessationists who see healing as ended with the apostles, and work with medicine for a cure. Christian Science spiritual healing mirrors Christ’s authority.

The Mary Baker Eddy Library discovered letters to Eddy from student Lucinda Reeves detailing accounts of the healing of Black Americans. Reeves first healed a Black American family and later two other patients. These accounts of healing are significant because they show that Black Americans had encounters with Christian Science earlier than previously thought.

This chapter, written by the Church, provides information that will help health care providers understand the spiritual needs of Christian Scientists in a practical, clinical setting. Besides a background history of Mary Baker Eddy, the formation of the Church, and its foundational teachings, the chapter explains reliance on prayer for healing as an individual choice, and the adherence to law when it comes to infectious diseases.

After joining the Christian Science church in 1912 and becoming a Journal-listed healing practitioner in 1930, Lulu M. Knight became the first Black American to receive the degree of C.S.B which allowed her to teach her own annual class on Christian Science. Knight was a celebrated Christian Scientist who contributed greatly to Christian Science healing in Chicago.

The structure of this dissertation is a critical theological conversation between Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health and the 2nd-century Christian text, the Secret Revelation of John. It uses methodology from Practical Theology to highlight epistemological contrasts and similarities between the two texts and between their worldviews and orthodox worldviews. A common theological foundation lies beneath healing practices for both texts.

The metaphysical nature of the religious belief and practice of Christian Science triggered theological, ecclesial, legal, medical, scientific, and moral controversies. Mary Baker Eddy also dealt with stress and trauma throughout her life. The metaphysical aspect of Christian Science does not detract from its practicality in human experience, as the metaphysically induced healing is evidence of the full salvation to come.

Dean, a graduate student in American Religious History, examines the life of Mary Baker Eddy through a psychological lens—”her desires, her fears, the way in which she came to this [Christian Science] doctrine, and her state of mind throughout her life” (61). His aim is to humanize Eddy beyond the stereotypical views of her as either saint or fraud.

The Oconto, Wisconsin Christian Science Church was built in 1886, the first Christian Science church in the world. Lewis, a media representative for Christian Science, commemorates its continuing services over the past 130 years, as well as its place in the National Register of Historic Places. She documents the church’s beginnings and gives a brief biography of Mary Baker Eddy.

Moses’s 1916 book intended to foster a Jewish spiritual renaissance and to prove that Judaism long held what appears so attractive to the early 20th-century Jewish converts to Christian Science: divine healing, affirmative prayer, and a religion of love and law. He catalogs Jewish scripture illustrating healing and divine love, and contrasts Christian Science tenets with Jewish faith.

Paulson provides a defense of Christian Science as Christian, citing two main points: 1) from earliest times there have been many Christianities of which Christian Science is one expression; 2) Eddy’s Christianity was born out of her difficult life experiences and search of scripture. She became “a Christian reformer, seeking to revitalize the Bible’s practical, transformative power.”

Dericquebourg distinguishes those religious expressions where ontological salvation is their primary goal and purpose, from ‘healing churches’ (where he places Christian Science) where ontological salvation is also important, but the healing of mind and body is the heart of their faith and the authentication of their theology. He lists characteristics in common with other healing religions as well as their points of tension.

Issaoui questions the limits of the legal accommodations that allow Christian Science practitioners and/or parents to rely on spiritual means in treating Christian Scientists. By examining specific cases, she concludes the key issue is finding a balance between the religious right to practice Christian Science healing and the State’s responsibility to prevent child endangerment.

Lobl, the UK/Ireland representative for Christian Science, notes that in spite of the abundance of research on the connection between spirituality and health, he sees a need to widen the sphere of public concern so that policies reflect the growing numbers of people who value spirituality in the realm of healthcare. A case study is included.

Kramer’s well-researched critique on Christian Science makes her arguments easier to understand than most critics. She grasps the fundamental teachings and history of the religion well, but she left it for doctrinal reasons. Most of Perfect Peril describes her emotional and intellectual struggles with doctrinal issues. Following a crisis of faith, she concluded that Christian Science is a dangerous mind control. 

This essay by an adherent of Christian Science accompanies the main article on Christian Science. Paulson describes her childhood experience and how her religious practice was her primary source of comfort and healing. She recognizes distinctions between Christian Science and orthodox Christianity and explains why she thinks the typical orthodox view of Christian Science’s similarity with Gnosticism is misleading. 

Janik traces the historical path of mesmerism from Franz Mesmer’s late 18th-century theories on animal magnetism, leading to de Puysegur’s discovery of hypnosis, to Charles Poyan’s 1830 lecture tour introducing mesmerism and hypnotism to New England, to Phineas Quimby’s mind cure practice, to Mary Baker Eddy’s Christian Science movement, to New Thought and eventually today’s clinical psychology.

The Society of Jewish Science was a response to the mass conversion of Jews, particularly women, to Christian Science. Its purpose was to revive a growing secular Judaism with elements Lichtenstein feared had been lost: healing, personal prayer, and belief in the Divine Spirit within. Unlike Christian Science, the Society did not reject medicine or deny the reality of matter.

Fraser, a harsh critic of Christian Science, focuses on the history of its health practices in relation to the development of Western medicine. Eddy “left a movement that American society found simultaneously appealing (in its emphasis on Emersonian self-reliance) and troubling (for its wholesale rejection of medicine).”

Hendrickson discusses the American history of metaphysical healing practices from Native Americans to the present and identifies characteristics of diverse types of healing. Mary Baker Eddy and Christian Science are discussed within the context of Quimbyism and New Thought, with the distinction made between the Christian basis of Eddy and the more materialistic, secular basis of the latter.

Hutchinson defines New Thought as any American metaphysical religion affiliated with Phineas P. Quimby, Mary Baker Eddy and Emma Curtis Hopkins. They expanded from their emphasis on healing to a focus on prosperity theology; and Hutchinson observes that since Eddy rejected materialism, the New Thought emphasis on prosperity—while popular in mainstream Christian America—differentiated it from Christian Science.

In an ecumenical context, Paulson illustrates common ground between the healing mission and Christian salvation of Christian Science which results in a transformed soul and body. But the lack of fellowship between Christian Scientists and other Christians could be due to lack of respect for women’s leadership on the one hand and arrogance on the other, resulting in isolation.

Horowitz assigns Christian Science a prominent place in the development of American affirmative-thinking (his term) philosophical systems. Although he acknowledges Mary Baker Eddy’s interest in Quimby (a 19th-century mesmerist) and her debt to him during a prolonged time of illness, Horowitz believes that Quimby was not the founder of Christian Science. Instead, Eddy herself created a brigade of spiritual freethinkers.

As Christian Science gained popularity in the 1880s, Reformed Jews who had recently migrated to the U.S. were attracted to it. Although Mary Baker Eddy would fall into the historic Christian pattern of deprecating Judaism as legalistic, she was in agreement with Judaism’s monotheism, and with the tenet that Jesus was not God but the Christ or Messiah available to all.

Steckler, Rebecca. “‘God is my First Aid Kit’: The Negotiation of Health Care Choices Among Christian Scientists.” MA Thesis, University of Texas at San Antonio, 2013. Steckler’s interest in the challenges associated with health care choices for Christian Scientists stems from her own upbringing in Christian Science and her casual conversations among peers who, like her, left the religious practice of their families. She understands and remains interested in the conflict between their families’ religion.

Written by representatives from a wide variety of Christian communions, the essays in this book seek Christian unity in mission. Unity is how diverse churches can agree to a common purpose. Mission is how the church’s purpose is transformational in both personal and social dimensions. The Christian Science chapter is: “Christian Science Christians’ Healing Practice: A Contribution to Christian Pilgrimage.”

Manca concludes from his research in one region in Canada that although many critics of Christian Science see it as a cult creating a psychological environment that tolerates only obedience, he has found that the healthcare choices made by Christian Scientists are more diverse than previous studies suggested. Those he interviewed made a wide range of choices.

​​Hines’s study on the relationship between illness, disability, and sin in the healing theologies of three American-born religions, including Christian Science, highlights the 19th-century context from which they came. Reacting against the prevalent Calvinist notion of illness and disability offering salvific powers, Christian Science argues that sickness is not God-made. But sick people can feel blamed for their infirmities.

Although written for young readers, “A World More Bright” contains details for those interested in the personal side of Mary Baker Eddy’s life story. For those more familiar with other biographies on Eddy, this book offers new facts that may be useful for filling in gaps of historical interest. Typical biographical controversies are mentioned but not critiqued by the authors.

Albanese’s undergraduate textbook explains Christian Science in the context of the evolution of religions and the meaning of religion in America. Christian Science was one of the 19th-century new religions that made considerable demands on its members, as new sects often did.  Albanese’s theological explanations of Christian Science are based on her thorough knowledge of the American metaphysical movement.

Ruetenik’s unusual suggestion to establish a ‘Church of Christ, Pragmatist,’ envisions an institution based on a pragmatic practice of Christian Science that does not need to be protected or a doctrine that needs to be defended but as a practice that can be modified. It could function as a midway point between optimism (healing always occurs) and pessimism (healing never occurs).

Rapport argues that both Christian Science and the Unity School of Christianity came into being during an emerging scientific worldview, and implemented their “scientific rationale and language as a strategy to validate themselves in late 19th-century America.” But, whereas Unity used science to complement Protestantism, Eddy employed scientific language to defy mainstream science and religion.

Through interviews with twelve Christian Scientists, and accessing the writings of social theorists such as Michel Foucault, Nelson argues that Christian Scientists systematically “reinterpret and rewrite biomedical discourse to reclaim interpretive rights over their bodies and create spiritual connection to other bodies and to God.” She also examines the conflict in identity when a Christian Science adherent chooses biomedical treatment.

Driessen’s chapter in a book about spiritual perspectives and clinical practices is devoted to the religious background, practice, and ethics of Christian Science treatment. Driessen, an officially recognized Christian Science practitioner, describes the theological foundation of the Christian Science worldview, the resources for healing, and the relationship of Christian Science ethics with the medical world.

As a health communication researcher, Kline focuses this study on Christian Science for several reasons, including the use of health testimonies for examining how prayer affects health, and learning how people communicate about spirituality in their healthcare. Six themes emerged from Kline’s research on testimonials published in Christian Science periodicals in 2008 and 2009, reflecting three general interactive processes involving spirituality and health.

Loue addresses the conflict generated among numerous parties concerned with the death or potential death of a child whose parents rely on religious, non-medical means for healing (including Christian Science). She calls for a systematic study with sufficient scientific rigor of the effects of religious healing, to confirm or refute claims of adherents and opponents of religious healing for children.

Scalise explores the widespread public debate surrounding metaphysical healing in the late nineteenth-century, especially through the study of rhetorical theories and practices of Mary Baker Eddy and Emma Curtis Hopkins. They were both part of the conciliatory project of liberal Christianity during the period, challenging the assumption that the rhetorical practices exhibited in the liberal and Christian traditions are inherently contradictory.

Ivey presents historical context for the 19th-century emergence of metaphysical religions and their evolution into the 20th century. He highlights the inter-relationships between the practice of Phineas Quimby, Mary Baker Eddy’s Christian Science, and the ensuing movements. Ivey differentiates the theology of Christian Science from Quimby and New Thought—with the human mind acting as a conduit between spirit and matter.

Campbell seeks to identify and critique three central issues concerning communities who practice Christian healing without medicine: their theological justification for such healing practices, medical practices as morally and metaphysically wrong from their perspectives, and their understanding of theodicy when healing does not occur. But a glaring problem for researchers of Christian Science is Campbell’s lack of distinction between groups.

Four women— Emma and Abigail Dyer (daughter of Emma) Thompson, Janette Weller, and Annie M. Knott—were selected as representative of the pioneering work of early Christian Scientists due not to their gender, but to the available historical evidence, the range of their contributions to the history of Christian Science, and the relative familiarity of that person among today’s Christian Scientists.

Dose’s article is an argument opposing religious exemption from medical care for very sick children. Focusing on the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment, she argues why the government should not endorse spiritual treatment. First, the exemptions are not mandated by the Free Exercise Clause, and second, the exemptions are not a permissible accommodation of religion under the Establishment Clause.

Having grown up as a practicing Christian Scientist, Hagerty left the organized religion when she discovered she was more comfortable with medical help. But her experience raised unnerving questions about God, reality, and what she really believed. She concludes that Christian Scientists are more deliberate about pursuing the spiritual law. Its practice places a person in the path of spiritual power.

This biography highlights Mary Baker Eddy as a Christian healer and offers the first comprehensive record of her own healing works. It demonstrates how essential her own practice of Christian healing was to her. Part 1 covers Eddy’s life story with examples of her healing works and editorial comments. Part 2 includes additional healing accounts quoted directly from original sources.

​​Scientology was often confused with Christian Science in public thought, especially around the first decade of the current century. Although that confusion has dissipated to a degree, comparisons between the two often crop up in scholarly work. This book, an academic compilation of chapters about Scientology written by scholars of New Religious Movements, includes a few of those comparisons.

Swensen, Rolf. “‘You are Brave but You are a Woman in the Eyes of Men’: Augusta E. Stetson’s Rise and Fall in the Church of Christ, Scientist.” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion  24, no. 1 (2008): 75–89. Augusta Stetson was the controversial founder and leader of the largest Christian Science church in the world—completed in 1903, a magnificent 1.2-million-dollar sanctuary located in New York City. She was one of many women at the turn.

Johnson’s book expounds on the ‘science of prayer’—based on her own journey of discovery and framed by her Christian Science faith. Each of the seven chapters explores one of Mary Baker Eddy’s seven synonymous terms for God. Each synonym represents a scientific law effectively defeating any challenge that confronts the reader and bringing healing.

Harrington seeks non-medical causes for illness and cures. Beginning in antiquity, she concludes her research with modern scientific research in brain science. Harrison positions Christian Science in the context of the American ‘mind-cure’ movement of the 19th and 20th centuries with two competing groups: scientists and doctors, and those who blur the powers of God and the human mind.

Roberts, Tomorrow Foundation Professor of American Intellectual History at Boston University, argues that Eddy endorsed a rather classical view of the meaning of science and held that science, rightly conceived, simply referred to genuine knowledge and pure truth. Eddy concluded that the term ‘science’ should be applied to the laws of God and God’s government of the universe.

Albanese’s study of the meaning and role of metaphysics in American religious development includes magical practices (which she equates to healing), Spiritualism, occultism, theosophy, and extra- and post-Christian concerns such as Christian Science. She distances such metaphysics from Gnosticism and from Ahlstrom’s rubric of harmonialism. But significantly, it has played a key role in the culture of the modern state.

Hall examines why Mary Baker Eddy was, and continues to be, underrated and misrepresented. She also provides an accessible introduction to Eddy’s life, and a look at her theology through a feminist lens. Hall cites Eddy’s practical emphasis on healing, the lack of gender hierarchy in her church, her seven non-gender-specific synonyms for God, and God as Mother. 

Albanese identifies three major forms of religion in America: evangelical, liturgical, and metaphysical, claiming that the key to understanding religion in America is the influence of the metaphysical on the others.She locates Christian Science in a continuum of 19th-century metaphysical expressions from Andrew Jackson Davis and Spiritualism to Phineas P. Quimby and then influencing directly and indirectly a wide range of New Thought offshoots.

The Divine Healing Movement of the late 19th century attempted to reform evangelicalism by including healing. Curtis makes relevant comparisons with Christian Science, one of its better-known contemporaries, to highlight the rich history of Divine Healing. Their healing examples are quite similar. The relationship between faith healing evangelicals and Christian Science worsened, though, as they both matured and gained more followers.

​​Badaracco, a professor of communication, is interested in how 19th-century American religion advertised hopefulness, compared with how medicine preyed more on fear. In the chapter devoted to Christian Science, Badaracco emphasizes Mary Baker Eddy’s use of publishing and branding to spread her ideas. She underlines Eddy’s religious conservativism rooted in the Bible and the importance of Eddy’s female religious leadership.

Simmons contextualizes Mary Baker Eddy amidst the late 19th-century era of revolutionary change showing how her forebears (Swedenborgianism, Mesmerism, Transcendentalism and Spiritualism) “prepared the psychic way” by making explicit to “the American spiritual imagination the connection among physical, psychological, and spiritual health” (94). He reviews Eddy’s theology, the influence of Quimby, and the evolution of Christian Science as an institution.

Curtis examines the ‘divine healing’ or ‘faith cure’ movement of the late 19th century which offered a liberalized theology that fundamentally uncoupled the long-standing and deeply gendered link between bodily suffering and spiritual holiness. Faith homes provided worship services, spiritual practices and alternative biblical models that facilitated healing. Examples were water-cure sanitoriums and Christian Science dispensaries, (later converted to Reading Rooms).

Setta, a feminist scholar of 19th-century American religion, identifies some cultural attitudes of Mary Baker Eddy’s day and Eddy’s distinct response to them. Rather than attributing her poor health to her gender, Eddy argued that ‘man’ (both male and female) is God’s spiritual reflection. Society, not God, produced the idea of gender; therefore women could take responsibility for their own health.

The focus of Klassen’s study is the healing practice of mainstream Christians in the US and Canada during the early 20th century. She argues that it was unabashedly medicalized and modern and was supported by the therapeutic role of written texts. Christian Science enters the discussion as a perceived opponent with its innovative reading of biblical texts.

Gottschalk, an intellectual historian, left his post at the Christian Science Committee on Publication in 1990, uncomfortable with the leadership of the Church. Still considered a leading Christian Science scholar despite his criticism, he conducted extensive archival research for this book. Gottshcalk focuses on the last two decades of Eddy’s life and her effort to protect and perpetuate her religious teaching.

Peel, a highly respected scholar and Christian Scientist, represents Christian Science in this dictionary of pastoral care and counseling. Explaining its healing ministry, he addresses the unique theology, metaphysics, and practice of Christian Science. Peel also authored the next dictionary entry on “Christian Science Practitioner,”—practitioner qualifications, status within the church, and role with patients.

This article examines the medical profession’s reaction to complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) especially during the last half of the 20th century. It includes no direct mention of Christian Science, but the subject is relevant to the understanding of Christian Science when it is categorized with other CAM treatments. CAM sometimes includes the religious healing practice of Christian Science.

In the dispute between state and religion over medical treatment for minors Herrera pleas for reform. Parents whose children need urgent care have few legal guidelines. In an era when physicists and chemists are openly discussing the metaphysical presuppositions of their science, an attempt to deny medicine’s own rituals and even superstitions sounds regressive and inhibits reform.

This 2005 self-published memoir offers readers unfamiliar with the daily life and mindset of a Christian Scientist a firsthand account. The book is not heavily laden with religious teachings, but the author makes clear her routine application of basic Christian Science teachings to the challenges in her life, including her healthcare choices.

Umansky studies the history of Jewish Science—a movement that arose to counter the estimated tens of thousands of Jews (a majority women) attracted to Christian Science in the late 19th and early 20th century. These Jews had been attracted to Christian Science’s promise of health and healing. Umansky also examines the Christian Science theology that resonated with Jewish beliefs.

Medical practices have waxed and waned as part of Christian healing practices from antiquity. Porterfield devotes two pages to Mary Baker Eddy’s contributions as an heir to Wesley. Eddy’s engagement with mesmerism led her to relinquish many aspects of evangelical theology. In her break with the materialist elements of mesmerism, Eddy followed Quimby, but went beyond him with her biblical interpretation.

Swensen documents the long-term effect of Alfred Farlow’s early crusade to protect the growing Christian Science Church from outside attacks, and muzzle an unrestrained and over-zealous faithful. He sees this protective stance as casting a long shadow over the content of future church periodicals, and the reason why members have since shown a deep reticence for personal outreach.

Based on a hypothesis from neuroscience—that the human brain is wired for spirituality—Simmons posits a universal process of spiritual transformation in three stages and claims that Mary Baker Eddy has experienced the third: experiencing mystical unity with God. But she retreated at times to a paradoxical duality when forming her theology and church organization.

Corbett examines the ways that Eddy exercised effective leadership in increasingly male-dominated fields from which women were excluded: education, health care, and religion. She is particularly interested in the way Eddy incorporated obstetrics into her system of healing. Corbett also responds to claims that Eddy expressed an ambiguous feminism by championing women’s authority yet promoting male authority within her Church.

Hughes argues that faith-based medical neglect is permitted or facilitated by exemption clauses that appear in many state statutes, resulting in the deaths of children. Although most of the article discusses the theology and religious defense of the Faith Assembly, Hughes argues that the source of the religious exemption clauses is the extensive lobbying of the Christian Science Church.

This historically valuable documentary recounts the story of the earliest growth of Christian Science in the Midwestern US of the 1880s. The story includes many significant healings that turned patients into students of Christian Science. Despite severe persecution and ridicule, they also healed others. These pioneers represented all walks of life—farmers, businessmen, housewives, clerks, simple and sophisticated.

Schoepflin’s book contains a detailed analysis of the late 19th-century legislative and legal confrontations between Christian Scientists and the medical community, demonstrating the shifting relationship between medical practitioners, Christian Science practitioners, and the public. From medical licensing, the meaning of medical practice, and the rights of Americans to therapeutic choice, the public debate turned to matters of contagious disease, public safety and children’s rights.

Hardesty’s book is about the Holiness and Pentecostal movements, but because of the similarities between these movements and Christian Science, she identifies a few significant points of comparison. Although both “saw themselves as based in the Bible, following the practice of Jesus, and accomplishing the miraculous” (4), they vehemently opposed each other and sought to distinguish themselves from each other. 

This book is Mary Baker Eddy’s response to the vicious accusations by Frederick Peabody, a lawyer who represented a client in litigation against Eddy. Eddy’s advisors recommended she not publish her book because of the possibility of further public agitation. But it was published by the Christian Science Publishing Society for the first time in 2002. 

Michell examines the influences, and theological connections and differences, between the teachings of Mary Baker Eddy, Emma Curtis Hopkins, the 19th-century Woman’s movement, and the New Thought and New Age movements. Hopkins, unlike Eddy, would see Truth in all religions, not limited to Christianity, and focused more on a prosperity gospel.

This well-researched biography of Emma Curtis Hopkins, little-known founder of the 19th-century New Thought movement, includes Hopkins’s early-stage affiliation with Mary Baker Eddy—her tutelage by Eddy and editorship of The Christian Science Journal for 13 months before being suddenly discharged. Harley draws on a range of scholarship to contextualize the complexity of this knotty developmental stage of Christian Science.

This large anthology of primary and secondary sources is of great value to scholars because it was published in conjunction with the 2002 opening of the Church archives in the new Mary Baker Eddy Library. Some sections provide material not readily available in other published works, such as early family letters and images and transcriptions of pages from Eddy’s Bibles.

Feehan argues that Burke, a famed literary theorist and philosopher, developed his philosophy by ‘secularizing’ principles he appropriated from Eddy during his childhood in a Christian Science household. For instance, in developing her system of healing, Eddy made prominent use of the principle of ‘reversal.’ Burke’s methodology of reversal depends on material existence being nothing other than a flawed reversible orientation.

Eddy’s Science and Health critiqued the contemporary ideology of invalidism. Male doctors had a vested interest in women’s weakness, making their own treatments necessary. Eddy, by contrast, validated the authority of the patient to bring about healing, thereby giving women more control over their bodies. Eddy’s message emphasized vitality and health for women and diminished biological differences between the sexes.

Barrett’s approach to his survey of 21st-century “sects, cults, and alternative religions” is to present ideas according to predominant views of believers. Thus, Barrett presents material from the perspective of adherents of Christian Science, even though he cites the views of its critics as well. Acknowledging the Christian Science self-understanding as Christian, he also notes some major differences with mainstream Christianity.

Within the context of the interaction of cultural, intellectual, and religious influences, Prentiss positions Christian Science as a response to orthodox theologies, the lingering effects of the Civil War, horrific medical practices, and the suffrage movement. Christian Science theology appeared to subscribe to Platonic dualism, but its view of matter as a product of a false consciousness distinguishes it from dualism.

Schoepflin includes short sections on the Seventh-day Adventists, Mormons and Christian Scientists, seeing them as movements which used science as a “tool for apologetics.” He shows how Mary Baker Eddy combined the tools of science (reason and empiricism—in the evidence of bodily healing) with “the spiritual and immaterial dimensions of Christianity” (311).

Michell examines in detail the remarkable similarities where the unorthodox theologies of Julian of Norwich (14th century) and Eddy (19th century) converge. Both women struggled with serious illness and near-death experiences which became the basis for profound revelation and healing.  Eddy understood God as mother, and Julian’s vision of Jesus as mother reflected on the kindness and gentleness of God.

This article addresses the relationship between the practice of biomedicine and religious beliefs and practices related to children. Christian Scientists are mentioned only in the context of describing the tension between clinicians and faith healers in general. But the article is relevant because of its acknowledgment of both the benefits and challenges to society and to families who practice spiritual healing.

Piepmeier studies five women, including Mary Baker Eddy, as examples in 19th-century America of the ‘outing’ of women’s bodies in the public sphere in ways not easily categorized. They had to address the powerful ideologies of domesticity and sentimentality to distinguish their own ideologies. Eddy’s textbook was a rewriting of major discourses, representing a significant rethinking of women’s roles and rights.

Bednarowski explores themes of healing in the theological work of women since Mary Baker Eddy, whose quest for healing served as an entry into the construction of an entire religious worldview. Following Eddy’s accident from a fall, a moment of insight into the nature of reality sparked the emergence of her textbook, theology, healing method, and church.

Both Mary Baker Eddy’s Christian Science movement and the New Thought Movement flourished in the late 19th-and early 20th-centuries. They agreed that one’s mental fears foster illness and distress. Yet unlike the New Thought Movement—believing in the human mind’s ability to control the world—Eddy thought a reliance on the mortal mind’s power distracted from one’s reliance on God.

This book is the culmination of a conversation between the three authors in the Journal of Social Philosophy and the Hastings Center Report. They explore the relationship between Christian Scientists and secularized, medically oriented, broader society about the conflicts over medical and religious healing practices. They examine, for example, whether the Christian Science church is ethically irresponsible for influencing its members.

Alice Clark, a British suffragist and historian of women, was influenced by her later affiliation with Christian Science.  In Christian Science, Clark found a synthesis of her Quaker belief in the ‘Light within’ with a gender identity that rejected dominance in a male-governed world of the power of reason and the corresponding value of the feminine for impacting world affairs.

Asser and Swan “evaluate deaths of children from families in which faith healing was practiced in lieu of medical care and to determine if such deaths were preventable.” They studied death records from 1975 through 1995, but dismissed published accounts of healed organic and functional diseases for children in Christian Science as “not [having] been confirmed by scientifically valid measures.”

Roe recounts the history of Christian Science coming to Australia from 1890 to Mary Baker Eddy’s death in 1910, when there were 21 accredited practitioners and at least a thousand members. She notes that the earliest testifiers found healing and revelation through reading the Christian Science literature and Eddy’s textbook, Science and Health, but that later healing came through practitioners.

Gill, a feminist historian and biographer, offers a fresh view of Mary Baker Eddy’s achievements in the light of obstacles faced by women in her time. Without access to Church archives Gill relied on Peel’s archival research. Gill’s unique contribution challenges the traditional biographers’ view of Eddy as a hysterical invalid who abandoned her son and stole her ideas.

Wilson’s memoirs recount her 1950s childhood with Christian Science and the tragedy of her mother’s illness and death due to cancer. Wilson never expected Christian Science or medicine to solve her mother’s problems, but the deeper philosophical questions generated by her experience with Christian Science stayed with her. Rather than ‘rose-colored’ windows, she admits she is more readily drawn to ‘blue windows.’

​​This book teaches mostly by pictures the sociological and historical view of women in the healing ministry. In her coverage of Mary Baker Eddy, Brooke emphasizes Eddy’s theological basis for healing from the teachings and example of Jesus. But she (Brooke) ignores the persecution Eddy suffered from the prejudices against women as both healers and Christian leaders.

This 1996 collection of testimonies of healing produced by the Christian Science Publishing Society is a sequel to the 1966 A Century of Christian Science Healing. The objective was to provide evidence of healing that would confirm the Church’s claim that anyone who believes in and trusts God completely, can rely on God’s law alone for health, happiness—and healing.

​​Keyston claims that no one since Christ Jesus has accomplished a fragment of what Mary Baker Eddy did. He identifies Eddy’s healing work with biblical references, indicating his belief in her fulfillment of biblical prophecy. Keyston draws a direct parallel between Jesus and Eddy, establishing her as the human appearing of the Scriptural prophecies concerning the Daughter of Zion.

DesAutels responds to Margaret Battin’s book, Ethics in the Sanctuary (1990), which includes a critique of those who appear to take health risks through religious practices. DesAutels explains that the choice of health care for a Christian Scientist is not a decision between alternative approaches to curing disease, but between alternate world views–it is a religion with a primary goal of spiritualizing consciousness.

Schoepflin’s study addresses the difficult and contentious relationship between the evolution of medical practice and the healing practices in Christian Science. His analysis is based on the thoughts and work of actual Christian Science practitioners and the experiences of their patients during a period (1890s–1920s) when the movement struggled against the efforts of organized American medicine to curtail its activities.

This collection of brief articles about 14 people who served the Cause of Christian Science during Mary Baker Eddy’s last decades first appeared in a series from The Christian Science Journal between 1987 and 1991. More than imparting interesting historical information, the articles express these individuals’ vital spirit and conviction that moved them to give their all for a Cause.

Johnsen acknowledges the profound and troubling issues of responsibility and conscience some court cases have raised for state legislatures and the Christian Science Church. The Church needs to think through the relation between the deep faith and spiritual commitment that underlie their healing ministry and the essential common sense and common humanity that Mary Baker Eddy identified with this ministry.

Thomas, not a Christian Scientist, draws on his training in history and psychoanalysis to explain why some of the unusual details of Mary Baker Eddy’s life were disturbing to some and dismissed as irrelevant to her followers. He focuses on understanding the complexities and inconsistencies of Eddy’s life that caused the range of reactions from veneration to vilification.

Christian Science and New Thought both conveyed a “metaphysical perfectionism” in sync with late 19th-century American can-do spirit and the golden glow of California culture with its promises of prosperity. Key women in Christian Science left the movement to become teachers and prime movers of New Thought in California. Other reasons for the decline in both movements today are discussed. 

Gartrell-Mills’s Part II continues her study of Christian Science in 20th century Britain, examining the initial negative reaction of the public, medical establishment, and Anglican Church. But then she finds ways in which Christian Science eventually contributed to more favorable medical attitudes toward spiritual considerations, and the Anglican Church’s opening up to spiritual forms of healing. 

The authors summarized six cases in the 1980s in which parents were prosecuted for not providing medical care for their children who died under Christian Science treatment. They found ambiguity in state and federal laws, as well as in the Christian Science Church’s claim that the decision to use Christian Science treatment was individual, leaving parents unsupported and vulnerable.

Kondos’s ‘pathfinder’ is a comprehensive collection of resources on Christian Science healing for children and its relation to modern U.S. law. The author attempted to be objective in the presentation and evaluation of the various research materials. Kondos believes that, given the profound religious, legal, and moral questions discussed, firm conclusions should be based on thoroughly informed and balanced judgment.

Christian Science is one of the established cults (“popular label given alternative religions”) selected for Melton’s 1992 study. He addresses both the controversial subjects and the false stereotypes associated with them. Christian Science is selected because of its substantial size, the presence of continuing controversy, and the fact that evangelical Christian counter-cult ministries oppose it for deviating from orthodox Christianity.

​​Eight decades after Eddy’s passing, Nenneman addresses the question of the relevance of Christian Science in modern times. He acknowledges that for many mainline Protestant churches the language of religion has changed, and that Christian issues have also shifted from pressing doctrinal concerns toward social justice and personal moral issues. He concludes with the continued need for supporting Christian healing.

Poloma seeks to examine empirically the alleged differences between Christian Science and mainline Christian beliefs and practices on a specific topic, namely, spiritual healing. Her methodology includes recorded telephone interviews with 44 Christian Scientists and 95 mainline conservative Christians, all of whom reported having experienced spiritual healing.

Johnsen presents a Christian Science point of view in the context of Rita Swan’s work with the CHILD organization. He clarifies that he has no intention to rebut Swan’s painful personal experience, nor does he represent an official church line on health choices, but speaks from his personal experience of  healing which brought about a close relationship with God.

Becker compares the striking similarities as well as the differences between the unorthodox history, writings, theology, and codified methods of healing of the founders of two religious movements: Miki Nakayama of Japan’s Tenrikyo, and Mary Baker Eddy of America’s Christian Science.

This sourcebook was compiled by the Christian Science Publishing Society as a response to many unanswered questions in public thought regarding Christian Science beliefs and practices in the late 1980s. It includes primary and secondary sources, as well as scholarly analytical work and personal statements of faith.

Albertine surveys the media and publicity around the controversial 1898 death of Harold Frederic, London Chief of the New York Times. He then analyzes Robert Barr’s 1901 novel The Victors with its characters depicting a melodramatic and sarcastic version of the Frederic incident. Albertine finds a subtext: the fear of Christian Science “as a new kind of [financial, healing and social] power in the hands of women.” 

This book was published by the Christian Science Church in the late 1980s, near the end of the decade of highly publicized losses of children among Christian Scientists. Although Christian Scientists had been practicing spiritual healing over a century, these losses resulted in prosecution of parents and stimulated discussion of religious, ethical, and legal issues. They caused much soul-searching among Christian Scientists.

Representing the Christian Science tradition, Peel participates in the series “Health/Medicine and the Faith Traditions.” He acquaints his readers with Mary Baker Eddy and her theology because the healing practices of Christian Science are incomprehensible without this understanding. He also answers questions regarding the struggle between Christian Science and orthodox medicine, such as the role of practitioners and nurses.

Bednarowski compares Christian Science and Scientology, two religions often confused. Both Christian Science and Scientology radically seek an understanding of God and reality which the physical world obscures. Mary Baker Eddy’s Christian Science emerged from Christ-centered revelation and a deep study of the healing message of the Bible. L. Ron Hubbard’s Scientology and terminology is more psychological, taking the form of self-help.

This 1988 report analyzes two cases of measles outbreaks within Christian Science communities exercising their religious rights to be exempt from immunization. Due to the nature of their respective facilities, the two cases represent contrasting strategies. Control measures at a college included immunization and quarantine, while a summer camp consisted of dispersal of exposed persons followed by quarantine within their homes.

​​The 1987 death of a young child under spiritual treatment prompted Gottschalk’s clarification of how Christian Science parents approach care for their children. He makes the case that they stand by their commitment to their children’s health as well as their First Amendment right to practice their religious beliefs, because their experience with spiritual healing has proved reliable.

Gottschalk identifies Christian Science as “a religious movement emphasizing Christian healing as proof of the supremacy of spiritual over physical power.” He documents Christian Science emerging during a period of social and religious crisis, exemplified by the struggle over science (Darwinism) and faith (biblical critical scholarship). Although abandoning her Calvinist upbringing, Eddy clung to a strongly theistic, biblical solution to ‘the problem of being.’

Peel, an eminent Christian Science scholar, addresses some challenging 20th-century questions concerning healing the sick through prayer and asserts that the quantitative measurements of science and the qualitative judgments of ethics and religion should no longer be two entirely separate categories. The book contains detailed accounts of medically improbable cures but understood by the patients as ‘healing’ through Christian Science treatment.

Contextualizing his own comments within the historic period in which he wrote (mid-1980s), Gottschalk argued that the public perception of Christian Science was based on misleading views from both medical and fundamentalist literature. Serious theological exchanges with mainstream Christians had declined precipitously by that time, resulting in an oversimplification and incorrect categorization (idealism, ‘harmonialism,’ and ‘gnosticism’) of Christian Science theology.

Simultaneous with the interest in spiritual healing among mainstream and fundamentalist Christian denominations in the 1970s and 1980s was the concern about the legal basis for such healing practices. Johnsen addresses these concerns by providing a contextual background of the evolution of the ministry of healing in the Christian Science Church from its founding up to the writer’s day.

McDonald notes that most feminist and psychological explanations attribute the success of Christian Science not to its theological worth, but for its personal utility. These explanations ironically resemble the traditional reductionism assigned to public women by 19th-century men—ironic because a decade of feminist scholarship on Eddy has helped to reinforce patriarchy. McDonald examines these social, intellectual, and religious stereotypes.

Albanese argues that the 19th-century American interests in both physic and metaphysic showed striking points of connection and overlap.  American metaphysical religion paradoxically also expressed forms of the theology of nature. But Mary Baker Eddy, a former Quimby patient and student, achieved the greatest clarity regarding matter and mind, given the inconsistencies of the theology-of-nature heritage.

​​Fox’s analysis of the relationship between Christian Science healing practices and medicine covers the one-hundred-year-plus history between the publication of Science and Health and the publication of this 1984 article. Christian Science had enjoyed relatively harmonious relations with the law because it had modified its practices over the years in deference to medicine, law, and the influence of science in general.

Flowers surveys the beliefs of groups—including Christian Science—that refuse medical care and how they interface with the law and the U.S. Constitution. He studies underlying assumptions, the authoritative Bible passages, and the complex legal, religious and moral issues they evoke. Included are some specific examples of the Christian Science Church arguments in favor of exemption.

Johnsen claims that it was not mind cure, or Phineas P. Quimby (evaluated in detail) that influenced Mary Baker Eddy; rather it was the profoundly shifting Puritan tradition which infused the 19th-century “New England mind” and was the religious milieu out of which Christian Science emerged. Johnsen demonstrates how Eddy, with her Congregational background in tow, “carried forward certain essential dimensions of [Jonathan] Edwardsian thought and piety.”

Swan, whose young son had recently died of meningitis after being attended by a Christian Science practitioner, argues that the state should not be required to protect the Christian Science health care system. Such treatment is within the state’s realm of comment because Christian Science calls itself an independent system of health, yet it does not conform to state health regulations.

Talbot, an officially recognized Christian Science practitioner, addresses the medical community’s oft-asked questions about what Christian Science treatment is and is not. A key point is that Christian Scientists view disease as mentally caused, and therefore subject to treatment through spiritual means. He addresses common misconceptions about Christian Science treatment, such as Christian Scientists trying to dismiss sickness as an illusion.

Hansen examines the formative period of the Christian Science movement and discovers not only restorations of health but also healing as a religious act. From this, Hansen distinguishes Christian Science from the women metaphysical healers of the same period who eventually formed the New Thought movement. Eddy’s declaration, “This is woman’s hour” conveys the female contribution to Christian Science.

This Roman Catholic perspective on Christian Science respects its longevity and the simple quiet dignity of its churches, publications, and members. Although Mary Baker Eddy’s non-standard definitions of church, Jesus, and the Christ differ from orthodoxy, these Catholic authors consider Eddy’s views on celibacy and marriage favorably, and claims of healing as not fanatical, escapism, or insanity.

Sizer argues that the multiple forms of mind cure of the 19th century arose from the metaphoric and poetic language of the 18th century. She traces threads of old metaphors used by mind-cure systems to justify themselves against the theories of orthodox medicine. Mary Baker Eddy went even further toward transcendentalism in Science and Health, using emotional, musical, or visceral metaphors.

Meyer’s purpose was to assess religion as therapy: as a cult of reassurance, as psychology of peace and positive thinking. After a brief biography of Mary Baker Eddy’s life, Meyer positions Christian Science as a kind of psychotherapy dressed in religious attire —mind cure’s tightly organized, exclusive denomination. However, his perception is based on very few and dated resources.

Fox, a social anthropologist, claims that Mary Baker Eddy and the early Christian Science movement functioned socially as a protest movement against 19th-century social assumptions and roles assigned to women. Eddy and the women who followed her found leadership and healing roles independent of the social, religious and medical authority of men. But Christian Scientists did not recognize their historical role.

Houpt’s book contains valuable primary sources for the history of Christian Science in the decades before and after Mary Baker Eddy’s death in 1910. It covers the life and career of Bliss Knapp, who devoted his life to serving Eddy and her cause. He is best known as the leading proponent of Eddy’s prophetic role as the woman in the Apocalypse.

Nearly fifty years ago, Stokes, the spokesperson for The First Church of Christ, Scientist, answered questions about Christian Science that are still heard today. Contemporary Christian Scientists would recognize a shift in language and social engagement since the 1970s, such as “What is your attitude toward Black people, women, vaccination?” But the basic theological underpinning of the Church’s self-understanding remains valid.

Swensen describes Hofer’s career as a “lifelong journalist and political maverick” which included his own newspaper and magazine, the Capital Journal and The Lariat, membership in the Oregon legislature and Salem city council, and an unsuccessful candidacy for governor. His unceasing fight was for individualism and decentralized government. In his Appendix, Swensen takes up Hofer’s Christian Science affiliation with its emphasis on the individual’s role in salvation.

In this short chapter, Wardwell, a professor of sociology, reviewed the theology, practice, and structure of Christian Science relying on secondary sources and a review of numerous testimonies from the Christian Science publications. He includes observations on the nature of healing, middle class values, the focus on individual practice (vs. communal problems), and church services. 

Although Ahlstrom’s widely accepted categorization of ‘harmonial religion’ has been critiqued and somewhat abandoned in more recent scholarship, his 1972 analysis of American religious history made a significant impact on religious scholarship. Ahlstrom identifies Christian Science as the most clearly defined and best organized of five harmonial religions.

​​From her Quaker perspective, Murphy argues that Bible readers ought to suspend criticism against Christian Science long enough to consider Eddy’s logic and healing implications of the Bible.  Murphy finds a parallel to the experience of George Fox in the Christian Science claim that the importance of healing is the light it lets through.

The Christian Science Church documents “the tide of spiritual healing” over 100 years after the discovery of Christian Science (1866-1966). The healings range from those closer to common experience to those considered miraculous. Other healings are sorted topically–such as Healing and Salvation, Healing in the Churches, Healing of the Nations, Practical Aspects, Christianity and Science, etc. There is a sequel: Healing Spiritually: Renewing your life through the power of God’s law (1996).

This small but unique book contains details about Mary Baker Eddy’s domestic life between 1868 and 1870, when she boarded with the Wentworth family in Stoughton, MA. This was a period in which she was separated from her husband, Daniel Patterson, and had no source of income. She moved frequently, boarding with various families who were interested in her work.

Nowell describes Mary Baker Eddy’s human experience as the realm of the divinely mental, for her greatness lies in her discovery. He argues that the mental nature of telepathic treatment involves error of the human mind, by contrast with the egoistic nature of the one God. Ruling out any other mind or existence is the source of true healing power.

Barth is the only towering theologian who has engaged with Mary Baker Eddy’s theology, but his critique on Christian Science lacks depth. His sole reference to Christian Science is in a long footnote on his theological treatment of sickness. He claims Eddy did not understand Jesus’s death on the cross, whereas she emphasizes the efficacy and sacrifice of his actual crucifixion.

The value of this 1960 article lies in its historical evidence of the evolution of the debate over the legal and moral issues related to the medical care of children whose parents practiced spiritual healing based on the teachings of Christian Science. The basic argument was based on the gradual judicial, legislative, and social acceptance of the spread of Christian Science.

Clara Clemens, daughter of Mark Twain, records the help she received “both physically and metaphysically” in her experience of Christian Science. The book details her life journey with numerous quotes from the Bible and Science and Health, and how she applied Christian Science to her challenges.

England, an emeritus professor of sociology, studied 500 testimonies from The Christian Science Journal from 1929 to 1946 to evaluate characteristics of church adherents. Testimonies include a great deal of self-diagnosis and show indifference to the natural healing power of the human body. Most testimonies fell into four categories: physical health, financial concerns, intoxicants, and discord, depression or general unhappiness.

Steiger sought a philosophical analysis from which he could account for the metaphysical coherence of the doctrine of Christian Science. He would classify Christian Science as a biblically based idealism, employ Eddy’s definitions of God, man, and ‘mortal mind’ into a unique study of dualism versus monism, and examine the doctrine as a science confirmed through its healing practice.

Despite Mary Baker Eddy’s prohibition against the use of formulas for Christian Science treatment, Kramer establishes a five-step pattern of treatment based on Eddy’s Scientific Statement of Being. He claims that healers needed these fixed rules at that time (1948) because the presentation of Christian Science and its exact science must improve with the advancing age.

A long-time favorite among Christian Scientists, Tomlinson’s work presents Eddy’s life and work in the most favorable light. A sincere student who knew her well in her last years, Tomlinson left to history his impressions of a leader inspired and guided by God. Witnessing her emotional and physical struggles, his admiration for her spiritual courage and strength inspired his hagiographic memoires.

Hiltner, a leading mid-20th century pastoral theologian, analyzed the shifting relationship between religion and science within the realm of health care and healing. Christian Science was the most successful movement with Christian backgrounds making large claims for the place of religion in healing. Hiltner could not conceive the future of religion without contemporary medical cooperation, though, even in Christian Science.

Smith, a prominent Christian Scientist who held many senior positions in the church, brought together this collection of articles originally published in The Christian Science Journal as a series titled “Historical and Biographical Papers.” The articles are divided into three parts: biography, organization and history; including Mary Baker Eddy’s childhood and beginnings of her career as author, healer, teacher, and organizer.

Crabtree’s critique on Christian Science reflects both the historical setting and the theological reception of Christian Science. He wrote, in 1932, “Of all modern cults, Christian Science is far and away the most spectacular, the most fashionable, and, numerically, probably the most successful.” But his criticisms include unsound logic and metaphysics, individualistic attitudes, isolating facts from common life, and insufficient explanations.

Seal’s first-hand account of her missionary work in Germany (1931 to 1940) begins with her introduction to Christian Science. With no funding, knowledge of German, or prior contacts, but only the certainty that God had sent her, she went to Dresden. Though at times persecuted, people found her through the publicity of her healing works and by word of mouth.

If Bellwald had had access to archival resources on Christian Science, he might have made a more accurate comparison between Christian Science and Roman Catholicism of the early twentieth century. His organizational approach to his study is well conceived, but he combines the resources of blatant polemics, Milmine and Peabody, with his own Catholic perspectives to denounce Christian Science.

This little-known history of the growth and reception of Christian Science in a pivotal year, 1885, is told through a fictional literary framework. The value of this account is that most history recorded of that period is derived from Mary Baker Eddy or her closest supporters, but this is a rare account of public perceptions of controversies and efforts to find the truth.

Published posthumously by Kimball’s daughter, this book constitutes a collection of Kimball’s lectures, articles, addresses and letters to Christian Scientists. The popularity of his lectures and writings is attested by Mary Baker Eddy. His writings reflect his profound gratitude for Eddy’s discovery of Christian Science and his estimation that the ancient Christians would have rejoiced if they could have known it.

Lea, not a Christian Scientist but a “Free Churchman,” mounts his 1915 defense of Christian Science by answering various questions raised by its clerical and medical critics who have been “blinded by professional and religious prejudices.” He builds his case through observing his “Personal Experiences of Christian Science Healing Work” (chapter XII) and including an appendix (F) of healing testimonies.

This flagship for Christian Science by Mary Baker Eddy is used as the denominational textbook and was intended by its author to “bear consolation to the sorrowing and healing to the sick” (xii). The book’s theological premise—that Christ Jesus taught and demonstrated the spiritual facts of being—precedes the metaphysical interpretation of scripture that grounds its healing system.

In the early 20th century, when the daily press began to assail Christian Science with its campaign of misrepresentation and slander, Flower, not a Christian Scientist, felt it his duty to present some facts on the other side. The two most persistent arguments that he heard and countered were: a) it is contrary to the Bible and b) organic diseases could not be cured by a religious belief.

Podmore’s 1909 study of mental healing establishes a trajectory from Mesmer’s dismissal of healing in the churches, through the materialism in animal magnetism, through the psychical side of Spiritualism, toward clairvoyant diagnoses of Quimby, and finally returning to the church in the arrival of Mary Baker Eddy’s religion. The book consists of a historical context for the mind-body experimentation.

This extremely important report covers the court trial, the ‘Next Friends’ suit against Mary Baker Eddy, which was dismissed. It includes records of pre-trial publicity, court proceedings, and press interviews, and is an important study for the American history of religion, the struggle between religion and science, medical and psychiatric history, legal precedence, and the powerful, long-lasting impact of yellow journalism. 

This book is Walter’s autobiographical account of the first five years after his dramatic healing through Christian Science treatment and his subsequent successful healing practice based on his reading of Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health. Walter left the church soon afterward due to his conviction that this healing method should be treated more like a Science than a religious practice.