Part 6: Christian Scientists

The Church of Christ, Scientist, whose followers are known as Christian Scientists, is a Christian movement inspired by the writing, thoughts, and teachings of Mary Baker Eddy.

Mary Baker Eddy

She is born in New Hampshire in 1821, the youngest of Mark and Abigael Baker's six children. She is frequently ill as a child, and her life is marked by many low points, including the death of three husbands.

In February 1866, she slips, falls, and injures herself, after which she is bedridden and cannot sit or stand. Doctors say she has suffered internal injuries, so there is not much they can do to help.

When all seems lost, she turns to praying and reading the Bible. "In my extremity," she writes, "I promised my Heavenly Father that if he restores me, I'll devote my remaining years to helping the sick and the suffering."

She writes that while reading the Bible story of Jesus healing a paralyzed man, something happens to her that sets in motion a chain of events for which she is famous. "As I read," she explains, "change passed over me. The limbs that had been immovable, cold, and without feeling warmed; my internal agony ceased; my strength came back instantaneously; and I rose from my bed and stood up on my feet, healed."

In the years that follow, she studies the Bible rigorously to see if she can find clues on the reason behind her healing, and she concludes it must have been a miracle, like the ones Jesus used to heal the lame, blind, or crippled. When Jesus healed people, she claims, he wasn't using supernatural powers to defy the laws of science but was instead applying divine scientific processes, which she refers to as Christian Science.

Soon, she starts teaching people this system of healing. Her students call themselves Christian Scientists, and there are many of them. Over time, she writes a textbook on the subject. She calls it Science and Health, and it, together with the Bible, is the source of the Christian Science doctrine. The first edition is published in 1775, but, over the next 30 years, she revises it 400 times, and, in each new edition, she refines and clarifies her basic idea: that the subtle fact of the Bible is the superiority of spiritual over physical power, and that matter, sin, disease, and death are all mortal illusions. It says:

There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is unreal and temporal. Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual.

When the book initially comes out, it gets a mixed response, with most of the reviews being sceptical. The book's initial sales are low, but as Mary recruits more students, it gains traction, and by the time she dies in 1913, it has sold over 500,000 copies.

On New Years Day 1977, 55-year-old Marry marries 44-year-old Asa Gilbert Eddy, one of her patients and students. Eddy is her third husband, and he and she move to Boston shortly after their marriage, where they establish the Church of Christ, Scientist in 1879 and the Massachusetts Metaphysical College in 1881. Graduates of the college are called Christian Science practitioners, They treat diseases through spiritual healing, and they are as respected and in as much demand as medical doctors.

Eddy dies in 1882, leaving Mary to continue their Christian Science ministry. Her church's following increases swiftly, and the college's student population rises, bringing her enormous wealth, prestige, and power in the years ahead.

In 1883, she launches the Christian Science Journal, a monthly publication that brings her even more success. Within a decade, it has over 10,000 subscribers.

In 1889, when she is at the height of her success, Mary closes the college and disappears from view, causing widespread anxiety about her whereabouts. They are unaware that she has taken a vacation, her first in twenty years. She retires to a peaceful country home, where she creates a new edition of Science and Health and develops the church's institutions. She wants to create a lasting institution.

She forms the Mother Church, the first church of Christ, Scientist, which she builds in Boston and dedicates in 1895.

Boston Mother Church

Soon Christian science services begin overseas, first to England, and then to Germany. By the turn of the century, Mary Baker Eddy has become an international phenomenon, but she is modest about it.

Although it is estimated by business characters and learned scholars that I lead and I'm obeyed by 300,000 people and although our senators and members of congress call on me for counsel, I am not made the least proud by it. I am working for a higher purpose.

In 1908, she asks the church to start a daily newspaper that would "injure no man but bless all mankind". The result is the Christian Science Monitor, which by 2021 would be a monthly publication and have won three Pulitzer awards.

Mary dies on 3 December 1910, aged 89, leaving a vast fortune to her church.

Christian Scientists believe that prayer heals, and they hold services on Sundays and Wednesdays. Since they have no clergy or pastors, services are led by two readers. The first reader reads a passage from Mary Baker Eddy's Science and Health and the second reader reads the Bible. These are followed by testimonies for healing from the congregation.