Christian Science Overview

March 17, 2015 · updated February 15, 2022

Fast Facts on Christian Science
Adherents 400,000
Beliefs One God. No Trinity (in traditional sense). Matter and evil do not exist.
Practices Spiritual healing through prayer and knowledge, Sunday services, daily Bible and Science & Health reading.
Texts Christian Bible, Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures

Christian Science, officially called the Church of Christ, Scientist, emphasizes physical healing through prayer and a recognition of the nonexistence of matter and illness. It was founded in the late 19th century by Mary Baker Eddy.

Christian Science is perhaps best known for its news organization The Christian Science Monitor, which was founded in 1908 by Mary Baker Eddy, and its Christian Science Reading Rooms.

Sources

  • "Christian Science." John R. Hinnels, ed., The Penguin Dictionary of Religions, 2nd ed. (Penguin Books, 1997).
  • "Christian Science." John Bowker, ed., The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (Oxford UP, 2000).
  • Official Website of the First Church of Christ, Scientist.
  • Science and Health, as published online at Spirituality.com

Christian Science Books

  • Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.
  • Mary Baker Eddy, Poems by Mary Baker Eddy.
  • Willa Cather, The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy and the History of Christian Science (1909; U of Nebraska P, 1993).
  • Gillian Gill, Mary Baker Eddy (Radcliffe Biography Series) (Perseus Books, 1999).
  • Nancy Niblack Baxter, Mr. Dickey: Secretary to Mary Baker Eddy (Hawthorne, 2005)
  • Stephen Gottschalk, Rolling Away the Stone: Mary Baker Eddy's Challenge to Materialism (Indiana UP, 2005).
  • Robert Peel, Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Discovery (1991).
  • Robert Peel, Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Trial (1991).
  • Robert Peel, Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Authority (1991).
  • Rennie B. Schoepflin, Christian Science on Trial: Religious Healing in America (Johns Hopkins UP, 2002).

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