Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910) was born in Bow, New Hampshire, and raised in a Calvinist household. The nascent intellectual in Mary rebelled against the concept of radical predestination. Early on her parents attempted to break her strong will; the combination of punishments and repeated bouts of ill health reduced her to near invalidism.
She married but her first husband died after six months, leaving her pregnant. A well educated Yankee girl, she remarried in 1853 and lost contact with her son, who had been farmed out to another family. Seeking relief from constant pain, she sought a magnetic healer, Phineas Quimby, who would be the foundation of her religious beliefs. In 1866, she slipped on ice, injuring her back. She later claimed to have healed herself, this experience becoming the basis of her teachings.
In 1875, she published Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, thereby inaugurating Christian Science. Adherents believe that matter is an illusion, as is death. Sin is acceptance of those illusions; healing is accomplished by becoming aware of reality. Although dropped after Mrs Eddy’s death, the idea of malicious animal magnetism (MAM) was the basis of a theory of quasi-black magic. MAM was seen as using the healing properties of the individual in reverse, to wreak harm upon opponents.
Christian Science at one time had a great appeal, gaining such notable converts as the comedian Milton Berle, Nancy Astor and the 11th Marquis of Lothian, scion of a Scottish Catholic family. He died at 58 having refused medical treatment, and left the family seat to the National Trust in order to keep it out of Catholic hands.
Christian Science Church began a rapid decline: although individual numbers are not published, the number of branch churches dropped from 3,000 in 1950 to 1,400 in 2002. The denomination’s well-respected newspaper, the Christian Science Monitor, went from a daily to a weekly print format in 2009.
