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Cocks examines Mary Baker Eddy’s idealism through contemporary philosophy, early Christian writings, and the history of Christian Science healing. He explains her distinction between Divine Mind and ‘mortal mind,’ compares her cosmology with the Secret Revelation of John, considers William James’s ambivalent response, and argues that Christian Science healing records merit consideration in discussions of mind-body relationships.

Sheldon attempts to restructure and edit the ideas in Mary Baker Eddy’s textbook Science and Health to produce a concise and more coherent form of her radical idealism. His approach is to extract, re-express, and analyze Eddy’s essential core concepts, tapping into a number of explanatory models taken from the history of philosophy, logic, theology, and mathematics.

This book presents an independent Christian Scientist’s argument for Mary Baker Eddy’s role in biblical prophecy, critiquing institutional resistance within both Christian Science and broader Christianity. Keyston proposes a first and second advent of Christ—fulfilled by Jesus and Science and Health—and urges readers to help usher in the millennium, supported by extensive documentary appendices.

Utilizing church records and publications, plus public sources, Swensen examines the reasons for decline of Christian Science focusing on a dominating church leadership valuing conformity and eschewing individual initiative. Also contributing was the development of medical science, bad press, a lack of socializing opportunities among youth, and cloistered members’ reticence to share their faith. Some hope comes in the recent reorientation toward members’ own initiative.

Stiles examines Christian Science novels written in the early 1900s in light of Mary Baker Eddy’s views on what she calls nauseous fiction. Specifically, Stiles studies Eddy’s correspondence with, and tentative support of, Christian Scientist authors of some of the more wholesome fictions for youth, comparing these with the more secular novelists writing for youth who often mixed Christian Science and New Thought beliefs.

Swensen presents a comprehensive timeline and biography of Augusta Stetson including her adoption of the Christian Science faith, being taught by Mary Baker Eddy, becoming a Christian Science practitioner and teacher, her healing practices, and her founding of, and influential leadership of First Church of Christ, Scientist, New York City. Stetson’s significance to women’s studies is also appraised.

Armer researched Mary Baker Eddy’s 1881 founding of the Massachusetts Metaphysical College emphasizing her frequently overlooked contribution to adult education. The co-educational institution promoted lifelong learning, continuing education, self-directed learning, and vocational training, and uniquely emphasized entrepreneurship. Many graduates started their own businesses as practitioners of healing through Christian Science treatment, and some would go on to establish 37 institutes of instruction in healing methods.

Marquand–architect and Christian Scientist–, reflects on the architecture of sanctuaries meant to be sacred, nurturing cocoons for faith, but warns that a design meant to set apart believers can also harden into steel-reinforced, opaque shells. He highlights First Church of Christ, Scientist, Berkeley, California, as designed to allow a subtle awareness of their community outside to interface with the sermon inside.

Cooling examines the role, meaning and contemporary relevance of spiritual healing as found in the New Testament gospels, the writings of the Ante-Nicene Fathers, and the practices of Christian Scientists and Pentecostals today. She explores the elements that constitute Christian healing, and the different means of healing such as the laying on of hands, the anointing of oil and prayer.

In 1953, Anglican church leaders created a commission of clergy and doctors seeking a clearer understanding of divine healing, its role in their ministry, and their relationship with medical practitioners. The final report grounded it in the medical sciences and found little common ground between spiritual healing and the Anglican Church’s embedding of its healing ministry in the ritual and creed of the Church.

In this book of personal essays, people representing a variety of faiths respond to questions about the Covid pandemic and its impact on their spiritual practice. Susan Searle writes from a Christian Scientist viewpoint, and explains that she accepted vaccination in order to continue her public ministry. 

Shirley Paulson responds to questions about the Covid pandemic and its impact on the practice of her faith, Christian Science. She discusses how the pandemic experience highlighted the need for greater maturity in spiritual healing practices, such as more concern for public issues and greater spiritual clarity, strength, and authority.

This article investigates the relationship between religious architecture and real estate development in the United States. Using Christian Science churches from the 1920s and the 2020s as case studies, it argues that when churches engage in real estate development, they often use an aesthetic and business strategy termed “material disestablishment” to downplay their religious qualities and engage more effectively with potential business partners and tenants.

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.

Amy B. Voorhees’s A New Christian Identity offers a concise, culturally informed study of Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health, and the rise of Christian Science. While noting some minor errors, reviewer Judy Huenneke sees the book as a valuable resource for readers of American religious history and women’s religious leadership, and she praises its sympathetic, well-researched approach, and insightful context.

A 20th-century pioneer in the fashion industry, Adele Simpson attributed her significant achievements as an artist and a businesswoman to her practice of Christian Science. It benefitted her by 1) bringing the balance to her life that had been lacking and 2) the idea that all her creative work was governed by God, the one creative Mind, not herself.

The practice of Communion in The Mother Church would come to differ from that in the Christian Science branch churches. Due to the excessive popularity of Communion services in The Mother Church, in 1908 Mary Baker Eddy ceased the practice out of concern that it was becoming too social an event. However, Communion services continued in the branch churches.

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.

Anti-apartheid activist and future president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, visited The Christian Science Monitor as part of his 1990 world fundraising tour. On his visit, he told reporters of the Monitor’s impact on him while he was in prison. “It [the Monitor] continues to give me hope and confidence for the world’s future.”

Mary Baker Eddy’s support for the emancipation of slaves in the confederate states is shown through her correspondence with Union Army generals Benjamin Butler and John Fremont in their efforts and support of the emancipation of slaves. Along with regular correspondence, Eddy took initiative and drafted a petition in support of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Sheldon’s dissertation associates Eddy’s writings and “radical idealism” theology with philosophical writings through the ages. Eddy’s central thesis, Sheldon claims, is that the physical senses are unreliable and create a system of false beliefs about reality. The dissertation also contains a brief history of Eddy’s movement and critical reception as a religion. His assessment includes scholars within and without the Christian Scientist community.

Mary Baker Eddy’s approach to the weather is the topic of research, including stories of how threatening weather and the laws of nature were made subordinate to God’s divine law. One student of Eddy’s explains how she instructed them not to try to control the weather. Rather, their prayers were to affirm that God, not outside influences, governs the weather.

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.

This article features the records and testimony of Christian Scientists held in the Japanese Stanley Internment Camp of captured Hong Kong civilians during World War II. It covers their primary concern of getting enough food, and their resourcefulness in holding their own services in spite of the lack of access to hymnals and current issues of the Christian Science Quarterly.

Christian Scientists from Chicago would convince a skeptical Mary Baker Eddy to participate in the 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions with its message of unity among all religions. Although the address was enthusiastically received, its overall negative impact was the association of Christian Science with theosophy and Vedanta, and the crystalizing of opposition from the more traditional Christian Churches.