Mary Baker Glover Eddy (1821-1910)
Founder of the Church of
Christ, Scientist, and author of its textbook, Science and Health with a Key to
the Scriptures. Born Mary Morse Baker, she was reared in a devout
Congregationalist home, but later rejected her parents' strict Calvinism.
Although her formal education was limited due to chronic ill health, she
studied such subjects as natural science, moral philosophy, logic, Greek, and
Hebrew under the tutelage of her brother, a Dartmouth graduate. In 1843 she
married George W. Glover, who died before the birth of their first child. Her
second marriage, to David Patterson (1853), ended in divorce. In 1877 at age
fifty-six she married one of her first Christian Science students, Asa Gilbert
Eddy.
Suffering poor health throughout most of her life, Mary was preoccupied with questions of health. In search of healing she submitted herself to the metaphysical teachings of Phineas P. Quimby and was healed. Suffering a serious fall in 1866, she was healed by reading the Bible and practicing metaphysical principles. She regarded that incident as the discovery of Christian Science. Her metaphysical system gradually evolved and was published as Science and Health with a Key to the Scriptures in 1875. Although her followers consider this work as divinely inspired, her critics contend that it is deeply indebted to the works of Francis Lieber and Quimby. The following year she founded the Christian Scientist Association, which three years later became the Church of Christ, Scientist.
Eddy's theological position
has little in common with historic orthodox Christianity, it is something that
she "Thought up". It is built upon a metaphysical base, nor is it
derived from the Bible. She uses the theological vocabulary of traditional
Christianity, but substitutes metaphysical meanings for the terms. For her, God
is "All-in-All"; he is mind; he is the divine principle of all
existence, not a person. As the only cause of existence, God is reality and
nothing apart from him can be real. Since God is Spirit and is All, matter
cannot exist. Since all reality is divine, and God is good, all reality is
good. There cannot exist evil, sin, sickness, or death. Imperfections of every
sort are illusory and unreal, delusions of the carnal mind. In other words her
religion named "Christian Scientist," is not Christian, for she
denies just about every doctrine in the Bible pertaining to Christianity, for
instance, she has said in her book, that one sacrifice no matter how great,
could not pay the debt, for all sinners, this doctrine is the base doctrine of
Christianity. Her made up religion is not scientific, for she claims that if
you are sick, it is your imagination!
The Trinity is defined by
Eddy as the principles of life, truth, and love. The historic view of three
persons in one Godhead she labels as heathen. Christ is not considered a person
but rather the true idea of God, and His death or resurrection could not have
occurred since evil and sin have no existence.
In a few words, this women
who spent time in an asylum for the mentally insane, took the Bible and
contradicted practically everything it said. Her religion is not Christian, and
it is certainly not scientific.
Eddy's major writings
include The People's Idea of God (1886), her autobiography Retrospection and
Introspection (1891), Unity of Good (1891), Manual of the Mother Church (1895),
and Miscellaneous Writings (1896).
See also CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST.