SOURCE: "Mary Baker Eddy: A Sesquicentennial Acknowledgement," in Contemporary Review, Vol. 220, No. 1277, June, 1972, pp. 294-300.

[In the following essay, Olds discusses Eddy's life and religious beliefs.]

Today, most moderns view the real world as the world of sense experience. In this world there is flesh which we enjoy both seeing and touching. In this world there is also war, poverty, sickness, suffering and death. Because the world of the five senses has such a strong hold on us, many are driven to doubt the existence of a Supreme Being and the possibilities of immortality. Many feel that they have been cast into a world they did not create, and so they must make the best of a bad situation.

Yet in this crazy mixed-up world which we both love and hate there is a small religious group which claims to hear the sound of a different drummer. In fact this drummer is a female, who made music on her drum before it was popular for women to play more than a piano or flute. This woman is Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of that little known American religious denomination which goes under the heading of Christian Science.

The writings of Mrs. Eddy inform us that we are greatly mistaken when we think that we experience the empirical world, for the natural world of matter, sickness, suffering and death are not real but an illusion. They are the results of erroneous thinking. If we straightened out our crooked thinking we would discover much to our surprise that men neither get sick nor die. Although it might seem strange to the average modern, there are those who view the world through Mrs. Eddy's nineteenth century rose coloured spectacles and claim that if one would only make the effort, one could discover the Truth also.

Like her movement Mrs. Eddy, as a woman, is a controversial figure. Some of her non-critical followers view her as one notch above the Virgin Mary, whereas her more severe critics claim that she was a charlatan. Perhaps the truth lies somewhere between these extremes.

The general facts of Mrs. Eddy's life are readily available. She was born on July 16, 1821, on a farm near Bow, not far from Concord, New Hampshire. Being both the youngest of six children and delicate from an early age, she received special attention from her parents and siblings alike. Often her education was interrupted because of her various illnesses, and her older brother, Albert, with whom she was very close, tutored her when he was home on vacation from college. Albert, however, died in 1841 when a brilliant young lawyer running for Congress. Of course, this affected her deeply. Also, Mrs. Eddy recalled that at the age of eight she thought that she heard a voice call to her as it had to Samuel in the Bible, but when her mother suggested that she respond with Samuel's reply: 'Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth'; she never heard the voice again. Moreover, she argued theology with her father who was a strict Calvinist, rebelling especially against the doctrines of predestination, hell and election. At the age of fifteen her family moved to Tilton, where she met the Reverend Enoch Corser, the Congregational minister, who apparently encouraged her intellectual interest in religious questions and who later performed the marriage ceremony for her and her first husband.

In 1843, at the age of twenty-two, Mrs. Eddy married George Washington Glover who was a contractor and builder from Charleston, South Carolina. Glover was also a slave holder and once his new wife was exposed to the institution she pleaded with him to free his slaves, but to no avail. Only seven months after their marriage, while they were on a trip to Wilmington, North Carolina, Glover contracted yellow fever and tragically died. His young wife returned to New Hampshire, giving birth to George Jr. three months later. Being in poor health, the young widow was forced to place her son in a foster home, while she lived with her sister Abigail, whose health also was not very good. For various reasons Mrs. Eddy was never able to take her son back.

Ten years after her first marriage, Mrs. Eddy married Daniel Patterson, a dentist, who apparently was more successful with the ladies than with his profession. In time Patterson went to Washington to enlist in the Union army but was captured watching the battle of Bull Run. However, through the efforts of his wife, the governor of New Hampshire intervened and Patterson was released from prison. Upon his return Patterson established a dental practice in Lynn, Massachusetts, but shortly eloped with the wife of a wealthy patient. When the elopers returned, Mrs. Eddy persuaded the offended husband to take his wife back, but she divorced her husband in 1873.

However, it was a hand bill that Patterson had given his wife before leaving for Washington to enlist in the army that proved most decisive. The advertisement told of a Dr. Phineas P. Quimby of Portland, Maine, who had great success in healing without the use of surgery or drugs. With great hopes for a cure from Quimby, Mrs. Eddy went to him in October of 1862, and after several treatments her health was greatly improved. She also discussed with Quimby, at some length, his theory of healing and in time she both lectured and wrote about his theories. Mrs. Eddy's relationship to Quimby is most controversial, with her critics maintaining that she plagiarised Quimby's theories, whereas her supporters argue there are fundamental differences between the two methods.

Nevertheless, on February 1, 1866, Mrs. Eddy fell on an icy street in Lynn, hurting herself 'severely'. Many of her friends had doubts about her recovery. However, she read the story in the Bible of Jesus' healing of the man with palsy and as a result had a great 'spiritual awakening'. She heard a voice say: 'Daughter arise!' and got out of bed, dressed herself, and went downstairs, much to everyone's amazement. It was from this healing experience that Christian Scientists date the beginning of their movement and sometimes refer to it as 'the Great Revelation'.

From 1866-1875 Mrs. Eddy lived in various towns of eastern Massachusetts, where she lectured on the new science of healing and even did some cures herself. In 1870 she conducted classes in mental science while her colleague, Richard Kennedy, was a practitioner. In 1875 she published the first edition of Science and Health which she revised numerous times before her death. This work is viewed as being divinely inspired by her followers and the views expressed in it are seen as a recovery of the authentic Christian gospel. Hence, in the Christian Science worship service, the first reader reads selections from this book while the second reader reads from the Bible. Since Science and Health is alleged to contain the revealed interpretation of the Christian gospel, Christian Scientists feel no need for preaching. Their church services consist only of readings from the Bible and Science and Health. Each Sunday throughout the world the same selections are read in each church so there is uniformity throughout the denomination.

When Mrs. Eddy first wrote Science and Health it was sold from door to door without great success, but in 1877 she married one of her followers, Asa G. Eddy, a capable businessman. Through his knowledge of marketing techniques the book began to sell. It was also during this period that Mrs. Eddy held public meetings in Lynn, Roxbury and Boston. In 1879 steps were taken to organise the First Church, Christ Scientist, in Boston, and in 1881 Mrs. Eddy became die pastor. In 1895 the first structure of the Mother Church was dedicated, and in 1906 the church was completely renovated and enlarged at the cost of $2,000,000, which was subscribed before the work was begun, becoming one of the landmarks of Boston. In 1881 she founded the Massachusetts Metaphysical College, where she taught until she closed it in 1889 at the 'height of its success'. She contends that she taught over four thousand students during this period and closed the school to devote her time to revising Science and Health. After the closing of the institution the Board of Education of the denomination took over the functions of the college. Through the years Mrs. Eddy founded a number of publications such as The Christian Science Journal (1883), The Christian Science Sentinel (1898), and the well-known daily, The Christian Science Monitor (1908).

Mary Baker Eddy, the woman who dared to deny the reality of death, died on December 3, 1910, at the age of 89. Her critics point out that although she attributed the validity of sense experience to the error of mortal mind, she wore eye-glasses and false teeth and that she was attended by physicians and took drugs to relieve the suffering brought on by kidney stones while her close associates attempted to ward off the effects of 'animal magnetism' (the power of evil thought) which she believed was causing her to suffer. Moreover, they point out that since the age of forty-five Mrs. Eddy had amassed a personal fortune of over two million dollars.

Mrs. Eddy grew up in a time in which the tides of Protestant liberalism were beginning to rise in the eastern part of the United States. Within the Congregational church of her youth there was the debate between the unitarians and trinitarians, as well as between the revivalists and anti-revivalists. It was only four years after her birth that the American Unitarian Association, a liberal denomination, was founded in Boston. Hence, her denial of such Calvinistic doctrines as hell and double predestination were in line with many of those of the middle and upper middle classes of eastern Massachusetts.

The emphasis on mind and rationality and the playing down of the emotions was in part one of the sides taken by the anti-revivalists against the advocates of revival. Even her philosophy of absolute idealism was in the background of both Continental and American liberalism. In fact, idealism in the west has a distinguished tradition reaching back to Plato, coming into Christianity as it branched out into the Greco-Roman world in the fourth and fifth centuries, and dominating Christian thought until St. Thomas introduced Aristotle into western thought in the thirteenth century. In the nineteenth century Hegelian idealism had a great influence on both Continental and American philosophy and theology. With the doctrine of creation, Christians have generally emphasised the primacy of the spiritual over the material as the former existed before the latter. Further-more, with the advent of Darwin's theory of evolution later in the century many liberals repudiated the traditional doctrine of original sin, maintaining instead that man was evolving from his animal past and that the evil existing in the world was the result of the residual animality which ultimately will be overcome.

To point out that many of the ideas held by Mrs. Eddy were in line with much of the thinking of eastern Massachusetts at her time is not to maintain that she was merely reflecting her culture, for there is no doubt that she put her own unique stamp on the doctrines. To deny completely the existence of matter was going much further than those liberals who spoke of a dualism. Obviously, Mrs. Eddy was convinced that she was divinely inspired, that she was presenting the authentic interpretation of Christianity which Jesus himself had taught but which had been distorted through the centuries and that the key doctrine which had been neglected was that of healing. Healing does mean the healing of sickness but it means much more. It also refers to the solving of interpersonal problems that exist between people. It has a personal aspect, but more recent Christian Scientists have become aware of its social dimension. In this concern they claim to find support in the thought of Mrs. Eddy.

Mrs. Eddy called her faith 'Christian Science'. Generally the word science is used to refer to the natural or material world. It is a method that is used to determine the truth or falsity of statements about this world of the senses. In contrast to this commonsense understanding, Christian Science teaches that the material world is an illusion; it only appears to be real because of erroneous thinking. Christian Scientists then try to teach men to think correctly. For them, the real is the spiritual, and there are certain laws that govern it. Christian Scientists believe that these laws or principles were revealed to Mrs. Eddy and that they have been passed on to them through her writings, through Christian Science practitioners and teachers. They maintain that they have received results from following Christian Science, and that anyone who follows it, will receive similar benefits. So we see that in the term Christian Science Mrs. Eddy took a word with great prestige and applied it to her teachings, thus appealing to a latent pragmatism that lies deep in every American if not in every occidental.

In referring to God Mrs. Eddy says: 'God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love'. To maintain that He is infinite is to say that He always has been and always will be, for He is without beginning and end. Later, she speaks of man and his relationship to God in the following way: 'God is the Principle of man, and man is the idea of God'. Man and God go together, for man is 'created' in God's image. He mirrors or reflects God; he is a 'tributary to God'. In this sense man always has and always will be, and hence it is impossible to speak literally of creation, as this would imply a time when God's image was not reflected. It would seem that since God does not come into being and cease to be, man does not come into being and cease to be. The divine image (man) then is coeternal with the infinite Mind.

With respect to the thorny problem of theodicy, Mrs. Eddy deals with it in a most unusual way. Since God is both infinite and good, He can only create what is good, and as God makes all that is made, he must make it good; therefore, there can be no evil. As man is created in the divine image, he reflects the divine goodness. If man were evil or a sinner, then the origin for evil would have to be in something other than God, which in turn would imply a denial of either God's infinitude or His goodness. Thus, to solve the problem of God as being both infinite and good with the presence of evil, Mrs. Eddy denied the presence of evil, for she maintains '… evil is but an illusion, and it has no real basis. Evil is false belief.' She then goes on to say 'In reality man never dies … Death is not the result of Truth but of error.…'

The problem then is to teach men how to look at life from the metaphysical position of Mrs. Eddy's idealism. If they will but learn to view life from her perspective, they will discover that the path of the Christian Scientist is the path of Truth.

The question then arises: what kind of people are Christian Scientists? Although the directors are very parsimonious in realising figures and profiles, some sociological studies have been made. Professor R. W. England studied the testimonies of some five hundred Christian Scientists as contained in the Christian Science Journal and concluded: (1) The largest single group of converts to Christian Science are 'urban, middleclass, married females who are suffering from bodily disorders of physical or emotional origin'. (2) Over 50 per cent of those coming to Christian Science 'are motivated by specific troubles, with problems of health predominating'. (3) Affiliating with Christian Science because of specific difficulties is 'more characteristic of women than men'. (4) The greatest benefit offered by the religion is the 'alleged' power of the religion to cure bodily disorders. (5) The role of the Christian Science practitioner is similar to that of a psychologist or psychiatrist to his patient, with good rapport between practitioner and sufferer being essential for results.

Christian Science has a proportionately much larger female following than male. It has been estimated that for every 100 female members there are only 31.3 males. Furthermore, in 1953, approximately 77 per cent of all fulltime practitioners were married women; another 11 per cent were single women, giving a total of 88 per cent. Also, unlike the beginnings of many sects. Christian Science originally appealed to the middle class with a few coming from the upper middle class. Being a religion which places great stress on reading and denying the existence of the physical world, which only one whose basic physical needs have been securely satisfied has the luxury to deny, the middle class appeal is understandable. This of course implies that in the United States few blacks are drawn to the religion.

If the present status of Christian Science can be judged by the establishment of churches and societies the situation is somewhat as follows: there are now 2,405 churches and societies in the United States and 838 in other parts of the world. In fact, there are now churches and societies throughout the United States. Although England has the second largest number it is believed that the membership there has reached a standstill, if not a decline. In the United States during the early part of the present century Christian Science growth was almost phenomenal but more recently the rate of growth has dropped considerably. For instance, in 1906, there were about 635 churches in the United States and in 1926 there were 1,913, a growth rate of over 200 per cent. However, in 1953 there were 2,284 churches and societies and when this number is compared with the present number of 2,405, the growth rate is less than 8 per cent in the past 18 years.

As Bryan Wilson has pointed out, the evidence seems to be that Christian Science has reached its high tide. There are probably a number of good reasons for this levelling off. First, the movement did not revolutionise the practice of medicine as many of the pioneers, including Mrs. Eddy, thought it would. In fact, medicine has increased in the popular esteem and people are living longer today than in any other period of man's history. This longevity is generally attributed to the efforts of modern medicine. Second, Mrs. Eddy cast her organisation and thought in her own nineteenth century mould and then claimed that it was divinely inspired, which has put her denomination in a s traitjacket which makes it difficult for it to adjust to the rapidly changing world of the last quarter of the twentieth century. Thirdly, in the nineteenth century, Christian Science provided many women with a creative outlet, but today women seem to have found more creative outlets so that there is little, if any, connection between Christian Science and such movements as women's liberation. Finally, Christian Science has ceased to be a novelty.

Christian Scientists believe that they have been grossly misunderstood, and they are willing to assume some responsibility for this problem. Believing that this has been their greatest failure, they are now making efforts to rectify it. As to its greatest success, Christian Science believes that it has brought health, healing and happiness to thousands of people who were suffering. It is here that it feels that it has made a lasting contribution.

As to Mary Baker Eddy, one may or may not accept her claims to divine inspiration, and yet one can still believe that here was a woman with a charismatic personality, who obviously was an effective speaker and who had a genius for administration. She left a religious movement, at least a monument to herself, that has outlasted her death by sixty years, but all indications are that although the movement is firmly established, the next sixty years will be more difficult than the past.