McClure’s Magazine Controversy (Milmine, Cather)

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.

McNeil’s extensive research of all the original papers of Phineas P. Quimby in conjunction with the vast holdings of The Mary Baker Eddy Library has brought resolution to the complex questions about the alleged influence mental healer Quimby had on Eddy’s later founding of Christian Science. McNeil also covers other important 19th-century figures as well as other relevant subjects, such as Mark Twain and Christian Science and early animal magnetism in 1830s and 1840s America.

Squires sees the opening of the Mary Baker Eddy Library as an opportunity for literary scholars to give closer attention to the history, doctrines, and distinctions of Christian Science. Only then will there be an honest and accurate account for the literature that seeks to represent or critique them. 

Damaging newspaper accounts incentivized Mary Baker Eddy to found The Christian Science Monitor with the intent to be a more professional alternative sticking closely to facts and highlighting optimism rather than fear. Although this approach helped dampen the polemic around the church, critics found it lacking in illuminating systemic societal abuses of power.

Squires’s research resolves the controversial claims to authorship of the 1907 polemic series in McClure’s, “The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy.” Squires finds that Willa Cather never took ownership of it, but the multi-authorship makes the relationship among all contributors ambiguous. The work should be understood in the context of the raging public debates at the time.

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.

Although the book is a study on Cather and the relationship between her life and her writing, Porter finds in Cather’s writing insistent reminders of Mary Baker Eddy which bubble up as if from an obsessive subconscious, shaping characters and themes so that they recall Eddy even as they resist her (Eddy’s) influence. Porter’s psychoanalysis concludes Cather saw herself in Eddy.

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.

Jenkins argues that the cult problem of today is the product of cultural and political work and that Christian Science, with associated mind-cure movements, has been the primary target of cult critics. He joins the attacks by asserting (falsely): “Most pernicious, Christian Science denied the Virgin Birth, the miracles of Christ, the Atonement, and the Resurrection.” (60)  

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.

Knee presents one of the most accurate and scholarly explanations then (1994) available on the relationship between Christian Science, Eddy’s former mentor, Phineas P. Quimby, and other American metaphysical religions. Knee also assesses the reactions of other faith communities toward Christian Science, especially Jews, Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Protestants, and Swedenborgians.

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.

Peabody, legal counsel for Josephine Woodbury in a 1901 lawsuit against Mary Baker Eddy, lost the case, but continued accusing Eddy of immorality and abuse in this 1910 book. Peabody also supplied testimony against Eddy for McClure’s magazine, which led to another trial, the ‘Next Friends’ suit (that Eddy also won). Eddy had been counseled against publishing her 1901 response. 

This 1993 biography of Mary Baker Eddy is a reprint of the hostile original public domain book, The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy and the History of Christian Science, by Georgine Milmine. Until this reprint appeared, authorship of the book had been attributed solely to Milmine; however, Cather’s involvement in the series was greater than she chose to admit.

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.