Christian Science

In Christian Science on Trial, historian Rennie B. Schoepflin shows how Christian Science healing became a viable alternative to medicine at the end of the nineteenth century. Christian Scientists did not simply evangelize for their religious beliefs; they engaged in a healing business that offered a therapeutic alternative to many patients for whom medicine had proven unsatisfactory. Tracing the evolution of Christian Science during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Christian Science on Trial illuminates the movement's struggle for existence against the efforts of organized American medicine to curtail its activities. Physicians exhibited an anxiety and tenacity to trivialize and control Christian Scientists which indicates a lack of confidence among the turn-of-the-century medical profession about who controlled American health care. The limited authority of the medical community becomes even clearer through Schoepflin's examination of the pitched battles fought by physicians and Christian Scientists in America's courtrooms and legislative halls over the legality of Christian Science healing. While the issues of medical licensing, the meaning of medical practice, and the supposed right of Americans to therapeutic choice dominated early debates, later confrontations saw the legal issues shift to matters of contagious disease, public safety, and children's rights. Throughout, Christian Scientists revealed their ambiguous status as medical practitioners and religious healers. The 1920s witnessed an unsteady truce between American medicine and Christian Science. The ambivalence of many Americans about the practice of religious healing persisted, however. In Christian Science on Trial we gain a helpful historical context for understanding late–twentieth-century public debates over children's rights, parental responsibility, and the authority of modern medicine.

Christian Science is a 1907 book by the American writer Mark Twain (1835-1910). The book is a collection of essays Twain wrote about Christian Science, beginning with an article that was published in Cosmopolitan in 1899. Although Twain was interested in mental healing and the ideas behind Christian Science, he was hostile towards its founder, Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910). Twain's first article about Christian Science was published in Cosmopolitan in 1899. A humorous work of fiction, it describes how he fell over a cliff while walking in Austria, breaking several bones. A Christian Science practitioner who lived nearby was sent for, but could not attend immediately and so undertook to provide an "absent healing." She sent a message asking Twain to wait overnight and to remember that there was nothing wrong with him: I thought there must be some mistake. "Did you tell her I walked off a cliff seventy-five feet high?" "Yes." "And struck a boulder at the bottom and bounced?" "Yes." "And struck another one and bounced again?" "Yes." "And struck another one and bounced yet again?" "Yes." "And broke the boulders?" "Yes." "That accounts for it; she is thinking of the boulders. Why didn't you tell her I got hurt, too?" In the third chapter of this story (as published in the book form described below), Twain estimates more than 120 fractures, some or many of which were visible to him, as well as 7 dislocated joints, including his hips, shoulders, knees and neck. All of these were healed within three hours of the "Christian Science doctor's" visit of the second day of the story. Immediately following this healing, he turns to the local country horse doctor to cure a headache and stomach ache. In 1907 he collected this and several other critical articles he had written and published them as a book, Christian Science. Twain himself believed that mind could influence matter to some degree. He nevertheless took strong exception to the writings of Eddy, calling them "incomprehensible and uninterpretable." He was particularly incensed by the thought that Eddy was using Christian Science to accrue wealth and power for herself. After publication of Twain's book, the editors of Cosmopolitan stated that although they had printed his original articles, his "serious and extended criticism may be said to represent the uninformed view of Christian Science", and that they were "anxious... to give both sides of the controversy" and so allowed Edward A. Kimball, a prominent Christian Scientist, an opportunity for a rebuttal, which was printed in 1907. Gillian Gill, a biographer of Mary Baker Eddy, has argued that Twain was "ambivalent" towards Christian Science, and that passages of the essay were in fact "pretty unambiguously pro-CS." In response Caroline Fraser writes that Gill has misread the text, and that Twain praised Christian Science "in the most backhanded and ironic way." Fraser writes that whatever Twain's view of Christian Science, his view of Eddy herself was overwhelmingly hostile. He called her "grasping, sordid, penurious, famishing for everything she sees-money, power, glory-vain, untruthful, jealous, despotic, arrogant, insolent, pitiless where thinkers and hypnotists are concerned, illiterate, shallow, incapable of reasoning outside of commercial lines, immeasurably selfish." (wikipedia.org)

Whether you're a Christian Scientist searching for answers or a former follower still struggling to let go of the difficult and confusing teachings of Christian Science, this book can help you on your search for truth. In these ten intensely personal narratives, former Christian Scientists bravely recount their journey out of the religion and into authentic, biblical faith in Jesus Christ. Each chapter addresses a different theme, shining light on theological inconsistencies taught by Mary Baker Eddy in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. These themes include matter, Jesus Christ, contagion, prayer, and sin. With reflection questions, pastoral teaching, related Bible verses, and a guiding letter from the author, each story navigates common obstacles and paves the way for a deeper understanding of the Christian faith. For those yearning to find truth, there is hope to be found here.

Author Bruce Stores has shed light on a hitherto unknown chapter in the annals of Christian Science. This is the story of lesbian/gay believers. Herein is their pursuit for respect and dignity in the Church of Christ, Scientist. The narrative traces stormy encounters from the days of near total rejection up to the friendlier atmosphere in the 21st century. Some events in this real life story are shameful while others are praiseworthy. This is a story of perseverance, hope, and especially healing. Anyone who values the triumph of right over wrong, and truth over error, will find this narrative both compelling and informative.

Tracing the movement during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Schoepflin illuminates its struggle for existence against the efforts of organized American medicine to curtail its activities.".