The founder of the Christian Science cult was Mary Baker Eddy, born in 1821 into a stern Calvinist New Hampshire family. She argued bitterly against her father on issues such as the wrath of God, and final judgement, and later rejected orthodox Christian teaching altogether.
Often ill as a child, her education was mostly through her own efforts, and at twenty-two, she married George Glover, who died shortly afterwards. Ten years later she married Daniel Patterson, a dentist. After thirteen years they separated and then divorced.
Perhaps due to the suffering in her life, she became interested in a faith healer, a 'Dr' Quimby of Maine. She consulted him and reported herself cured of inflammation of the spine. She was enthusiastic about his teachings and stated that Quimby had rediscovered Jesus' healing technique. During this period she also became interested in Spiritualism, and on one notable occasion even manifested her dead brother's spirit (or a reasonable facsimile thereof) which she allowed to 'speak' through her. She launched her own healing career, based on Quimby's teaching (although this is denied by Christian Scientists), and by 1870 was offering her system in twelve lessons for only $300.
In 1875 Mary Baker Eddy (then Patterson) completed her book Science and Health. No publisher would take the book, so three of her associates helped her get it into print. 1877 saw her marry Asa Gilbert Eddy, a former student. He was the first to be granted the title 'Christian Science Practitioner'.
The Church of Christ (Scientist) was incorporated on August 23, 1879, in Boston with Mrs Eddy as its first pastor. Even after publication, Mary continued to work on Science and Health, and gave a revised manuscript to a retired Unitarian minister, and asked him to change 'a few things here and there'. He later reported that it contained 'passages that flatly and absolutely contradicted things that had preceded, and scattered all through were incorrect references to historical and philosophical matters'.
Death finally sneaked up on Mrs Eddy (89) in 1910.
It is not easy to reduce the jumbled teaching to simple statements, but essentially the teaching is that:
Mary Baker Eddy states that a Christian Scientist should use her book because God was its author, and because it is 'the voice of Truth to this age'. She said that the Bible is in error in at least 'three hundred thousand' places in the New Testament, but that Christian Science is 'unerring and divine'. Furthermore, the Bible is only useful when interpreted through Science and Health.
Man is not sinful, but sin and death and birth are just illusions. Because God is in everything, man is like God, and since God cannot be sick, neither can man. Sickness is only the imaginings of the 'Mortal Mind'.
She holds Mortal Mind responsible for everything which appears to be bad in this imaginary world. But she never bothers to explain what causes Mortal Mind. Her philosophy cannot deal with the obvious embarrassing problem: if all things that exist are good because God is in them, then how can Mortal Mind, which is evil, exist? In her view of Jesus Christ, Mary, like the Gnostics, draws an artificial distinction between the physical (or what appears to be physical, since matter does not exist) and the spiritual. The 'Jesus' side and the 'Christ' side of His character. The deity of Christ is denied, as is the virgin birth, atoning death, physical resurrection, final judgement, heaven and hell, etc.
'The material blood of Jesus was no more efficacious to cleanse from sin when it was shed upon 'the accursed tree,' than when it was flowing in his veins as he went daily about his Father's business' (Science and Health p25). This reveals typical and very obvious contradictions in her thinking. For example: what 'material blood'? what 'sin'? These do not exist under the Christian Science doctrine.
In conclusion Christian Science is neither Christian nor science, for it cannot be accepted by Christians (since it contradicts essentials of the Faith), or by scientists, who cannot accept Mrs Eddy's denial of the existence of matter.
Perhaps she should have called it something else.
Above article based on What's the Difference? by Fritz Ridenour, G/L Publications 1967 and The Christian and the Cults by W R Martin, Zondervan 1961
