Resources Discussing Christian Science Outside the U.S.A.

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.

Countess Dorothy von Moltke was a devoted Christian Scientist and strong advocate for the German translation of Mary Baker Eddy’s textbook Science and Health. Throughout her life, she worked to make Christian Science more accessible to German-speaking followers by providing English lessons and by serving on the translation committee that ultimately completed the first foreign language translation of Science and Health.

Matsukata’s article, “History of the Church Universal as Unfolded in Tokyo, Japan” is the 20th-century history of Christian Science in Japan, which began with visits by Christian Science lecturers sent from Boston. Traditions were challenging and hostile to the growth of Western and Christian sects at the time. Translations of articles were deemed ineffective because Japanese culture was so alien.

Nicoletta, professor of architectural history, sees the 1964-1965 World’s Fair reflecting a major shift in the 1960s from modernism to postmodernism. The Christian Science pavilion was a dazzling white structure topped by a translucent pyramid that bathed the interior with light. The natural light, reflecting pool, white color, and symbolic use of the number seven, conveyed the harmony of Christian Science.

This article stems from Lessiter’s talk “Architecture and Design of Six, Purpose-Built, Early, Christian Science Churches in London.” Lessiter asks what images were being presented to the public and what these images say about the people worshipping inside. She examines the churches’ churchly character as well as practical aspects such as the foyer, acoustics, foundation stones, Bible quotes on walls, and the lack of depictions of Eddy’s life.

Introvigne reviews 19th- and 20th-century artists to understand how their Christian Science beliefs and convictions influenced and inspired their art. James Franklin Gilman, Violet Oakley, Evelyn Dunbar, Winifred Nicholson, the ‘Group of Seven,’ and James Cornell are featured artists in this review. Cornell, considered by Introvigne as the most important, was famous for his collages and ‘boxes.’

Harragin describes three female members of Parliament in the UK in the early 20th century, and how their Christian Science faith sustained them. These three women, Nancy Astor (the first woman in Parliament), Margaret Wintringham and Thelma Cazalet-Keir, paved the way for other women. Harragin shows their faith in their demeanor braving the male-dominated culture of the House of Commons.

​​Swensen, a social sciences bibliographer, researches whether the early appeal of Christian Science reached beyond American culture to attract recently arrived immigrants. Most of the immigrants were Europeans, especially British and German, and were of lower to middle working class. Despite language barriers, they found meaning in the church’s fellowship, restored health, and the promise of raising their station in life.

Sandford gives a definitive account of the history of Christian Science in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) based on his experience as a U.S diplomat and extensive research in official GDR archives. He covers the country’s initial hostility toward Christian Science as a foreign institution, to a post-war relaxation of restrictions, to recognition and re-establishment of rights just before the Berlin Wall fell.

Waldschmidt-Nelson meticulously presents, in German, the history and status of Christian Science in Germany from its beginnings to the present. It is based on a documented examination of historical records, published and unpublished writings ranging from panegyrical to dismissive, interviews and correspondence with representatives of the Christian Science church, the medical profession and the Christian clergy (both Protestant and Roman Catholic), and conversations with private individuals.

Hutchinson, a Christian Scientist, assembles the history of Christian Science in Australia, marking the 100th year since its arrival around 1891. Hutchinson’s extensive research is taken from Church archives, newspapers, information from The Christian Science Journal, the Library of Australia, State Library of Victoria, the internet, and questionnaires sent to the churches.

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.

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.

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.

This autobiography by John Wyndham opens with his three-year experience as a prisoner of war during WWII. His faith, grounded on his study of Christian Science, kept him alert and strong during years of solitary confinement. His personal story, a window on the serious practice of Christian Science during trying times, illustrates the basis of faith inspired by its teachings. 

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. 

Gartrell-Mills summarizes her 1991 D.Phil thesis in this article focusing on the historical role of Christian Science in Britain. Although into the early 1990s Christian Science retained “an unobtrusive, yet persistent presence in many British towns and cities,” she found that the organization was “a present day example of a movement largely ossified through the provisions and statutes laid down before 1910 by Mary Baker Eddy.”

Abiko’s book is a personal account of the introduction of Christian Science into Japan and its development through her first-hand experiences as the eldest daughter of one of the pioneers. This is not a primer on Christian Science, nor does Abiko write as a historian; rather she draws from deep resources of memory, feeling, and a life of loving and living Christian Science.

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.

Nazi persecution of some Christian denominations preceding and during WWII, particularly Christian Science, involved censorship and economic and political restrictions on circulating religious literature and the freedom to practice religion. Stories of authenticated testimonies include statements by those dealing with formidable challenges, along with stories of courage and fidelity of Christian Scientists standing before prying eyes of the Gestapo in Germany.

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.

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.

The War Relief Committee was established by The Mother Church in Boston in 1914 after the outbreak of WWI to relieve families and individuals who were adversely affected by the war. This book is a report of those activities by individuals and groups (Camp Welfare Committees) in the various states and in the countries of France, Great Britain, Holland, and Switzerland from 1914 to 1918. 

​​Stanger’s summary of Karl Holl’s article, “Scientismus,” in Der Herold is an appreciation of the thoroughness, accuracy, and sympathetic perspective of Holl’s overview of the Christian Science Church, its founder, Mary Baker Eddy, and its doctrines. Holl wrote for criminologists from the perspective of a non-Christian Science scholar, to correct the prejudice and injustice evident in many writings critical of Eddy.