Annotations Related to Ethics

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.

Mary Baker Patterson [Eddy] responded to newspaper accounts of the courage and wisdom of the Union Army General, Benjamin F. Butler. As commander of the fort where three enslaved men sought refuge, Butler’s defense became a foundation for legal freedom for slaves. Eddy’s letter to Butler sheds light on her anti-slavery convictions and willingness to advocate for them. 

…the massacre, the Mary Baker Eddy Library both published this article and produced a podcast, “Tulsa Rising,” which includes interviews with Tulsa’s mayor, its Black citizens, and Robert Turner, pastor…

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. 

Booth seeks correlations between the field of Organizational Development, quantum physics, and Christian Science, with the intent of determining how the principles and practices of Christian Science, in sync with quantum physics, might align with, and be a resource for, business challenges. The thesis is based on interviews with fifteen Christian Scientists about their experience relating their theology to their business practices.

Paulson’s essay is one of 22 in this ecumenical collection. She draws on the beatitudes of Matthew 5 to illustrate biblical guidance to loving others (even our enemies) and dismantling both victimhood thinking and criminal behavior that contribute to mass incarceration. Paulson’s analysis of each beatitude is based on the teachings of Christian Science and uses quotes from Mary Baker Eddy. 

Writing in the context of ecumenical concerns, Paulson sees it as vital that science and religion work together to bring about climate justice and she sees the moral and theological perspective of Christian Science as a valuable contribution, with its “understanding of science in the context of salvation.”

Horton’s page-turner autobiography recounts her courageous experience rising to the highest place of distinction in the Army Chaplain Corps with, as she often heard, two strikes against her: her Christian Science faith tradition and her being among the first few women to enter the chaplain corps.

Implementing feminist rhetorical criticism, Tencza examines Mary Baker Eddy’s strategic use of rhetoric to create meaning in her writings, reinforced by the integrity of her character. Tencza sees Eddy working within three frameworks: an ethic of care [mother-like pathos], extreme utilization of ethos [her character integrity], and logos [ability to make meaning]—all of which coalesce into her rhetoric of confidence.

In response to the unrestrained muckraking attacks on Mary Baker Eddy, Yemma, a late 19th century journalist, decided to give serious consideration to the meaning of Mary Baker Eddy’s work and her contribution to human development. The 2016 Christian Science Journal brings Flower’s work to light today.

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.

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.

…Parliament in the UK in the early 20th century, and how their Christian Science faith sustained and guided them. These three women, Nancy Astor (the very first woman in Parliament),…

Gallagher highlights four American alternative Christianities able to maintain continuity and gain legitimacy by retaining elements of the dominant Christianity and texts of its day, while also engaging in a “creative exercise of interpretive ingenuity” that resulted in a novel message evoked from familiar symbolic capital.

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.

Collins, a Christian Scientist who acknowledges his hope for the future success of The Christian Science Monitor, presents an account of the Monitor’s history including its weaknesses and unique strengths. Collins brings his readers through the twists and turns of the paper’s relationship with the world’s needs and the spiritual demands of the Monitor’s mission, including its successes and two near collapses.

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.

Sweet’s firsthand account of the lives and work of Bruce and his son John Klingbeil describes their organization, Spindrift, and their deep involvement with Christian Science. Spindrift’s scientific experiments with prayer for plants, attempted to prove that prayer works, but their struggles with public rejection and excommunication from the Church until their double suicide in 1993 plagued them until the end.

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.

Darling and Fiarman explain how a little-known, but important suffragist, Mary A. Livermore, provides an important link to an understanding of Mary Baker Eddy’s attitudes toward woman suffrage.  The movement consisted of multiple approaches. Eddy rejected some, especially those advocates who attacked the Bible as the source of women’s oppression. But with Livermore, Eddy found a suffragist with compatible religious views. 

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 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 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.