Mary Baker Eddy
Article abstract: A deeply religious thinker, Mary Baker Eddy established the Church of Christ, Scientist—the first church movement to be founded in the United States by a woman.
Early Life
The youngest of six children, Mary Morse Baker was born in 1821 on her parents’ farm in the township of Bow, New Hampshire. Her father, Mark Baker, was a respected farmer whose deep interest in theology prompted him to engage in serious religious debates with his neighbors. Mary’s mother, Abigail Ambrose Baker, had grown up as the daughter of a prominent deacon of the Congregational church in nearby Pembroke and was known for her tender solicitude toward her family and neighbors. Both parents were devout members of the Congregational church; Mary was nurtured in their Calvinist faith and joined the church herself at the age of twelve.
As a young girl, Mary began her formal education in 1826. An intelligent, highly sensitive child, Mary suffered from ill health that frequently kept her at home. She became a diligent reader and an avid writer of poetry. Mary received individual instruction from her second brother, Albert, who served as a schoolmaster at Mary’s school when he was twenty. Her brother’s instruction provided Mary with an education well in advance of that commonly available to young women of the period, and she was introduced to the rudiments of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew as well as contemporary works of literature and philosophy.
In December of 1843, Mary Baker was married to Major George Washington Glover, a successful builder with business interests in the Carolinas. The newlyweds eventually settled in Wilmington, North Carolina. By June of 1844, George Glover’s investments in building supplies for a project in Haiti were lost, and he was stricken with yellow fever. He died on June 27, forcing his pregnant and impoverished widow to return to her parents’ home. Despite her dangerously poor health, Mary gave birth in September to a healthy son, whom she named George in honor of his late father. When Abigail Baker died in 1849, however, her daughter’s grief and precarious health made further care for the boisterous young George Glover even more difficult. Mark Baker’s second marriage less than one year later forced Mary and her son to leave the Baker house. Mary went to stay with her sister Abigail Tilton, but George Glover was placed in the care of Mary’s former nurse. Mary was devastated by her separation from her son, but her family insisted that reuniting the two would further strain Mary’s tenuous health.
In 1853, Mary was married to Dr. Daniel Patterson, a dentist who promised to provide a home for her and her son. That promise was never fulfilled, however, and Patterson’s failings as a husband became increasingly evident. Mary’s son moved with his foster parents to the West; they later told him that his mother had died. Mary’s new husband was often absent in the course of his itinerant practice, and the couple found lodgings in various communities in New Hampshire. In the spring of 1862, while on commission to deliver state funds to Union sympathizers in the South, Patterson was taken prisoner by Confederate forces.
Barely able to care for herself, Mary sought relief from her persistent ill health at an institute in New Hampshire that promoted hydropathy, or the water cure. Finding little improvement during her visit, she traveled to Portland, Maine, to visit Phineas P. Quimby, a clock maker who had developed a reputation as a magnetic healer and hypnotist. After her first treatment at his office, Mary experienced a marked improvement in her health. In her...
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enthusiasm to learn more about the methods Quimby used, she sought to reconcile Quimby’s ideas with the spiritually based biblical healings with which she was so familiar.
Reunited with her husband in December of 1862 after his escape from prison, Mary returned to New Hampshire, where she experienced relapses of ill health. She sought relief by visiting Quimby at various times but could not discover a permanent cure for her illnesses. After Quimby’s death in early January of 1866, Mary was seriously injured when she fell on an icy pavement in Lynn, Massachusetts, on February 1. Taken to a nearby house, she eventually regained consciousness sufficiently to convince her doctor and friends to move her to her lodgings in nearby Swampscott, where she was given little hope of recovery from the injuries to her head and spine. Visited by a clergyman on the Sunday after her accident, she asked to be left alone with her Bible. Turning to the ninth chapter of Matthew, she read the account of Jesus’ healing of the man sick of the palsy (paralysis). Upon reading the story, she felt a profound change come over her and found that she was fully recovered from her injuries. Rising from her bed to dress and then greet the friends who waited outside her door, Mary astonished them with the rapidity and completeness of her healing, one that she credited to the power of God alone.
Life’s Work
During the decade from 1866 to 1876, Mary Patterson’s outward life seemed little improved, yet her conviction that she could discover the source of her healing experience inspired her to continue her study of the Bible. Her husband deserted her soon after her healing; they were divorced in 1873, and she resumed using the surname Glover.
Although her financial situation was precarious and she was still separated from her son, Mary realized that, at the age of forty-five, she was healthier than she had ever been in her entire life. For three years after her recovery, she dedicated herself solely to searching the Bible for answers to her questions regarding spiritual healing, withdrawing from social pursuits and her temperance movement activities in order to record the revelations she was gaining through her studies. She lived frugally in a series of boarding houses, began sharing her notes and interpretations of Bible passages with individuals who seemed receptive to her new ideas, and occasionally offered instruction in her healing methods in exchange for the cost of her room and board. A group of committed students eventually began to gather around her. In October of 1875, she managed to publish the first edition of her work, entitled Science and Health, with the financial assistance of some of her students.
It was in March of 1876 that Asa Gilbert Eddy, a native of Vermont who was ten years her junior and worked in Massachusetts as a salesman for the Singer Sewing Machine Company, became one of Mary’s students. Asa Eddy, better known as Gilbert, became a successful healer. At a time when many of her most talented students were challenging her authority and attempting to undermine her teachings, Mary came to rely on Gilbert Eddy’s sound judgment and his steady support of her leadership. The two were married on January 1, 1877.
Around this time, Mary Baker Eddy began revising Science and Health, adding five new chapters. This two-volume second edition was so rife with typographical errors that only the second volume was circulated. During this time, Eddy began to lecture weekly at the Baptist Tabernacle in Boston. The success of her public sermons led her to make a motion at a meeting of her students in 1879 that they organize a church; it was called the Church of Christ, Scientist. In Eddy’s own words, the purpose of this church was “to commemorate the word and works of our Master, which should reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing.” The new church was incorporated under a state charter, and Eddy was designated its president and appointed its first pastor. By the winter of 1879, Eddy and her husband had moved to rooms in Boston to be nearer to the growing church. She continued to teach new adult students about Christian Science, and the church established a Sunday school for the instruction of children in 1880. That same year, Eddy published the first of her many pamphlets: a sermon entitled Christian Healing. In an effort to give a more solid legal foundation to her classes, Eddy applied for a state charter in order to incorporate the Massachusetts Metaphysical College, a school dedicated to furthering the spread of her healing method by ensuring that students received unadulterated instruction directly from her.
Earlier, Mary Baker Eddy had begun revising and expanding Science and Health once again. The third edition of Science and Health, which appeared in 1881, was the first accurate edition of her writings to incorporate part of the treatise she used to instruct students in her classes. This publishing enterprise brought Eddy into contact with one of the leading printers of her day: John Wilson of the University Press in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Prospects for selling all one thousand copies of the third edition were not promising, but Wilson was convinced that Eddy would be able to finance the printing of her book through its sales. By 1882, the book had gone back to print for two additional editions of one thousand copies each.
Other publishing activities began. In April of 1883, Eddy published the first issue of The Journal of Christian Science. Originally a bimonthly periodical with articles designed to explore issues of interest to both newcomers and longtime students of Eddy’s religion, the Journal was expanded to become a monthly publication and was one of the first authorized organs of the Christian Science church. A sixth edition of Science and Health appeared in 1883; it was the first to contain Eddy’s “Key to the Scriptures,” a section initially consisting of a glossary with her metaphysical interpretations of biblical terms and concepts. By 1885, nine additional printings were made, bringing the total number of copies in circulation during the book’s first ten years to 15,000.
The years following the publication of the sixth edition of Science and Health were prosperous ones, with many new students working to spread Christian Science and its healing practice throughout the United States. Nevertheless, several events occurred in the period from 1889 to 1892 that radically altered the structure and direction of the Christian Science church. Schisms among her students and the burdens resulting from those who increasingly relied on her personal leadership in all matters led Eddy to close her college at the height of its popularity and resign her post as pastor of the Boston church. Services continued to be conducted in Christian Science churches, but students voted to adjourn the activities of the National Christian Scientist Association for three years beginning in 1890. Withdrawing to a new home in Concord, New Hampshire, Eddy commenced work on a major revision of Science and Health to be published as the fiftieth edition in 1891.
September 23, 1892, marked the establishment of Eddy’s newly reorganized church: the First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, also known as The Mother Church. She consulted with attorneys familiar with Massachusetts statutes in order to find a legal means to incorporate her church that would place its corporate government on a solid basis without encouraging undue attachment to her personal authority. The new charter provided a powerful centralized structure in the form of a five-member Board of Directors responsible for management of the church’s affairs; it also fostered the practice of democratic self-government already established in the branch churches outside of Boston that were affiliated with the growing church movement. All members of these branches were invited to apply for concurrent membership in The Mother Church. Eddy was henceforth designated as the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. To her mind, this title expressed the scientific aspect of her work—emphasizing her role in formulating and articulating its religious teachings in much the same way that scientific laws and principles are formulated and articulated, but not created, by those who discover them.
In October of 1893, the building of the new church edifice was begun in Boston’s Back Bay area, with the cornerstone of the church laid in May of 1894 and the first service held on December 30, 1894. Eddy took the unusual step of ordaining the Bible and Science and Health, rather than human ministers, as pastors of the church. When she published the Manual of The Mother Church in 1895, setting forth the rules by which the church was to be governed, she made provisions in its bylaws for the election of lay readers who would read texts from the Bible and from Science and Health relating to twenty-six topics she set forth. These texts were selected by a special committee; the resulting lesson sermons were studied daily by individual members and were read Sundays at Christian Science church services throughout the world. These changes were instituted by Eddy in order to avoid the adulteration of her teachings through personal preaching. In this way, she believed that the healing message contained in the Bible and in her book would speak directly to all who attended her church without the injection of personal opinion or conflicting interpretations.
In 1898, Eddy established a Board of Education to provide for the formal instruction of students in Christian Science by those who were approved to serve as teachers. She also established a Board of Lectureship to which practitioners (ordained healers within the church) and teachers of Christian Science were appointed. These lecturers were responsible for preparing and delivering public lectures on Christian Science in order to introduce and clarify its teachings to those unfamiliar with the religion. The Christian Science Publishing Society was created through a deed of trust and was charged with the responsibility for publishing and distributing Science and Health and Eddy’s other books as well as The Christian Science Journal and the newly founded periodical, The Christian Science Weekly (renamed The Christian Science Sentinel in 1899). In 1902, Eddy completed work on her final major revision of Science and Health; it was the 226th edition of the book known as the Christian Science textbook.
Although she enjoyed the relative peace and seclusion of her New Hampshire estate, known as Pleasant View, Eddy faced bitter personal attacks in the popular press during early 1900’s that threatened to undermine her church. These articles reflected the sensational “yellow journalism” of the period. Few pieces were more damaging than those published by Joseph Pulitzer, whose New York World newspaper claimed that Eddy was near death from cancer and that her alleged fortune of $15 million was being wrested from her control. Refusing to meet with Pulitzer’s reporters, Eddy granted audience to representatives of several other leading newspapers and press associations. After answering three brief questions concerning her health, Eddy gave evidence of her well-being by departing to take her daily carriage ride.
Despite Eddy’s efforts to disprove the rumors concerning her health, her son George was approached by the publishers of the New York World and was encouraged, on the basis of the paper’s erroneous accounts of his mother’s welfare, to begin legal proceedings to determine Eddy’s mental competence and ability to conduct business affairs connected with her church. Although funded by Pulitzer’s newspaper fortune, this lawsuit ultimately collapsed after a panel appointed to determine Eddy’s competence held a one-hour interview and established that she was in full possession of her mental faculties.
Refusing to back down in the face of these personal attacks, Eddy was prompted to establish a trust for her property in order to preserve its orderly transfer to the church after her death. More important, Eddy was impelled to launch an enormous new undertaking: She directed the Trustees of the Publishing Society to establish a daily newspaper to be known as The Christian Science Monitor, which began publication in 1908. By bringing national and international events into clearer focus for its readers, The Christian Science Monitor would fulfill Eddy’s vision of its purpose: to combat the apathy, indifference, and despair that were common responses to world affairs through its spiritually enlightened, problem-solving journalism.
Having witnessed the fruition of her long-cherished hopes, Eddy died quietly in her sleep on December 3, 1910.
Summary
Regardless of one’s perspective on the validity of her religious beliefs, Mary Baker Eddy clearly led a remarkable life—one full of extraordinary success despite the prejudices that confronted her as a woman attempting to establish a spiritually minded religious movement during an age of rampant materialism. Novelist and humorist Mark Twain, who was one of Eddy’s most outspoken critics, once remarked that she was “probably the most daring and masterful woman who has appeared on earth for centuries.” A pragmatic and capable administrator who inspired her followers by her example of single-minded dedication, Eddy was equally comfortable in her role as a religious thinker—one who refused to compromise her conscience “to suit the general drift of thought” and was convinced of the importance of maintaining the intellectual and spiritual purity of her writings. Her church remains an active presence in the United States and throughout the world, and her book Science and Health was recognized by the Women’s National Book Association in 1992 as one of seventy-five important works by “women whose words have changed the world.”
Bibliography
Gottschalk, Stephen. The Emergence of Christian Science in American Religious Life. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973. Although its examination of Christian Science from the perspective of intellectual history may make it less easily accessible to general readers, this work sets forth the distinctive contributions Christian Science has made to American theology and culture.
Orcutt, William Dana. Mary Baker Eddy and Her Books. Boston: Christian Science Publishing Society, 1950. Written by a distinguished bookmaker who worked closely with Eddy from 1897 to 1910 and helped design the oversize subscription edition of Science and Health that was released in 1941, this memoir provides an intriguing window on Eddy’s career as an author.
Peel, Robert. Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Discovery. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1966.
Peel, Robert. Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Trial. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971.
Peel, Robert. Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Authority. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1977. Written by a Harvard-educated scholar who had unprecedented access to church archival materials, this monumental three-volume biography remains the definitive work on Eddy’s life. Although Peel was himself a Christian Scientist, his work gives evidence of his conscientious effort to provide “a straightforward, factual account free from either apologetics or polemics.”
Thomas, Robert David. “With Bleeding Footsteps”: Mary Baker Eddy’s Path to Religious Leadership. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994. Trained in the theories of psychoanalysis, Thomas brings this psychological perspective to bear on his study of Eddy’s character and behavior. Despite his serious, scholarly approach, Thomas fails to provide a complete assessment of Eddy’s significance as a religious leader and seems to fall short of bringing his subject fully alive. Nevertheless, this biography is useful as one of the few fair-minded studies of Eddy to have appeared since Peel’s three-volume work, cited above.