Table of Contents
- Exactly who was Mary Baker Eddy?
- The purpose of this website
- Some words on Christian Science
- A short biography of Mrs. Eddy
- Why doesn't this site have pictures of Mrs. Eddy?
Exactly who was Mary Baker Eddy?
Searching for an answer to this question online may lead you to one of three conclusions:
- She was simply an American author.
- She was a dangerous cult leader who sought both personal worship and desired to control others.
- She was the woman whose Godly nature, humility, and early trials led her to discovering the provable and reproducible Science behind the Christianity which Jesus taught and lived.
Our earnest hope is that this website will answer the question “Who is Mary Baker Eddy?” with enough clarity that you will see the correctness of that third option, and then seek to read and study her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. Only through reading and studying her works will you understand the legitimate answer to this question — an answer which, once found, will change how you see Mrs. Eddy and yourself!
The purpose of this website
This website will somewhat succinctly present the true history of Mary Baker Eddy's life — including a concise outline of what she did during her divinely-inspired mission to bring the revelation of Christian Science to the world. It has been said that only through seeing Mrs. Eddy correctly can one begin to properly apply Christian Science. But first...
Some words on Christian Science
It seems important now to state plainly a few truths which Mrs. Eddy placed firmly in the center of her teachings:
- God is not some superpowerful, jealous, and indifferent guy somewhere who started everything and then sits back sometimes answering prayers and occasionally making disasters. God, as defined by Mrs. Eddy, is “The great I am; the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-acting, all-wise, all-loving, and eternal; Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love; all substance; intelligence.” (S&H, p. 587) The true God of all is good, is Truth, and is Love, and that means when we are good, and truthful, and loving, only in those moments are we truly the image and likeness of God.
- God did not magically turn Himself into His own Son so He could come to Earth and give people an unattainable standard while saying, “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do.” (John 14:12) In such a case, those words would have been a lie, and he a liar. However, since God is Truth and Love, then God's son — the Christ — must be the understanding of Truth and the expression of Love (and not specifically the man, Jesus). To whatever degree each of us understand Truth and express Love, is the degree to which each of us are Christly, and by extension, Godly. Jesus was a man who so embodied this understanding of Truth and expression of Love that when he said, “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you” (John 14:18) we can know that this “I” which Jesus referred to was the Christ working directly in him then, and this is the same impersonal Christ working in you right now, and not a personal Jesus Christ working for you in a way that feels far removed from your daily life. Truth and Love are never distant and never absent. There is no separation between God and ourselves, ever.
- God is good, and only good. If something ‘not good’ appears to be happening, then God can not be the originator of it. God's creation included concretely defining the goodness of all He created, as shown in Genesis 1:1 through 2:5. One might wonder why God allows evil to continue, but does a parent create bad behavior while laying out the rules of the house, or is it the children's disobedience which is the issue? The story of the second creation starting in Genesis 2:6 is a tale of wrong thinking and action — otherwise known as sin and false belief — trying to claim power and authority outside of Truth and Love; this error is what the teachings of both Christ Jesus and Mrs. Eddy show us the way out of.
- Christian Science excludes no one. Being “all-knowing, all-seeing, all-acting, all-wise, all-loving,” God knows all of His children, even the disobedient ones, and though He might pose the question “Adam ... Where art thou?” (Genesis 3:9) when we are thinking and doing wrongly, His desire is that we find the path back to Him from the hell we have created for ourselves. To hate or be apathetic toward our fellow beings is to be inherently unchristian. Christ Jesus unambiguously told us to “love thy neighbour as thyself.” (Mark 12:31) As Mrs. Eddy wrote on page 113 of Science and Health: “The vital part, the heart and soul of Christian Science, is Love.” What else could ‘Hell’ be, than not understanding Truth and not feeling Love? Christian Science, the Comforter, was given to mankind for just this reason — that we may find the way to what Jesus promised all of us: “Behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:21)
- Right thinking, feeling, and acting, which can only come through embracing our divine individuality and Christ-nature, is the only way in which we can live the life God intends for us. The mere fact that Mary Baker Eddy's intention was to provide each of us the tools to go to God on our own should be enough to make one feel warmly toward her. Christian Science, when properly practiced and lived, provides no place for anyone to assert control over another or to believe that another be worshipped. Mrs. Eddy herself addressed this when she said, “The most precious of all possessions is power over ourselves, power to withstand evil, to bear trials, to front danger, power over pleasure and pain, power to follow our convictions however resisted by menace and scorn, the power of calm reliance in scenes of darkness, and fell revenge. No truth is more certain than this, that man is the arbiter of his own fate.” (Essays and Other Footprints, page 133) Christian Science doesn't steal your real identity, it reveals it to you!
- If anyone professes to be the sole conduit through whom God's blessings, forgiveness, or mercy may come to you, do not believe them. If anyone claims the name of Christian or Christian Scientist and proceeds to be hateful or try to do your thinking for you, then at best they are misguided, and at worst they are trying to scam you! If someone were to tell you that the work which Mary Baker Eddy (or anyone) did was God-inspired, you wouldn't have to blindly believe — you would be able to take your understanding of Truth and Love to prove it for yourself. You would do this by studying her written works and feeling whether they ring true, and finally seeing if they help you to be more truthful and loving, and therefore proving that you are more aligned with Truth and Love (which, when capitalized, are synonyms of God). The Bible states that “God is no respecter of persons.” (Acts 10:34) God is Love and God is intelligence, therefore instead of thinking poorly of Christianity or Christian Science, use your God-given intelligence to see the truth that such a person's talk doesn't match their walk. Mrs. Eddy wrote on the very first page of Science and Health that “The time for thinkers has come.”
- And finally, for the people who would “expose” Mrs. Eddy and Christian Science as a fraud because either they or a family member weren't healed by it, remember: This is a Science. If one person fails in their application of mathematics while balancing their checkbook, should they expose mathematics as a fraud? No, that would be silly, since we need only look to all the advanced examples of math being used to enhance our everyday life through technology and engineering to see that mathematics properly applied can bring about great results. The same goes for Christian Science: We have our great examples in Christ Jesus and Mary Baker Eddy, and others to be sure, and this should be enough to make us realize that it is our own selves who are lacking, not the Science. In no area of life should we expect to put in partial effort and achieve maximum results. Christian Science is a discipline which blesses at every level, but as Mrs. Eddy said, we “cannot in the beginning take the attitude, nor adopt the words, that Jesus used at the end of his demonstration.” (Miscellaneous Writings, page 215) Be honest with where you are in your journey, and be true to it.
A short biography of Mrs. Eddy
Mary Baker Eddy faced many trials and opposition in the years before and after her discovery of Christian Science. Her early years saw times of sickness, invalidism, and great personal loss. Her faith remained strong, however, and she looked always to God for guidance, and finally while she laid on what seemed to be her deathbed, (as she later wrote on page 24 of her book Miscellaneous Writings) “I called for my Bible and opened it at Matt. IX.2. As I read, the healing Truth dawned upon my sense; and the result was that I rose, dressed myself, and ever after was in better health than I had before enjoyed.”
This healing spurred her on to three years of studying nothing but the Bible, during which she discovered Christian Science. She then went on to follow and fulfill Christ Jesus command to “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils:” (Matthew 10:8) and thus prove that Christian Science was indeed the true Science of Christianity.
Then came writing the first edition of her book Science and Health in 1875 which simultaneously gave people the ability to learn in their own homes how to heal themselves and others, while also stirring up much hate and envy from all directions. She met every bit of the opposition with Truth and Love, going on to form her church and work to help others learn the Science. Her students learned directly from her how to heal and how to work for mankind while keeping God in every detail of their daily life — no matter how humanly unimportant the task may have seemed. Mrs. Eddy understood all this was necessary for Christian Scientists to live up to her revelation and do the work that God had for them to do.
In the end, it seems a relative few of her students truly understood what she was doing or how the high standard she demanded blessed each one of them and the world as a whole. Those who were obedient and progressed spiritually saw the divine wisdom of Mrs. Eddy’s teachings and became excellent Christian Science workers and healers. We have many fine works by these early workers, such as Gilbert Carpenter, Herbert Eustace, Martha Wilcox, and others.
Those who turned from Mrs. Eddy soon lost their way and their ability to be useful to God. Some even set about trying to humanly control the people who came to Christian Science for the freedom which the Christ brings. Those who had learned to understand Truth and express Love saw this as disobedience to God and happily stayed the course Mrs. Eddy showed them. Others who were happy to have another think for them were glad that someone else seemed to take responsibility for their spiritual journey. They ultimately paid the price for it by not being able to truly live and demonstrate this Science, while allowing the world and their families to think it was Christian Science that had failed them, when in reality it was they, themselves, which failed Christian Science, mankind, and their families.
Despite the disobedience of children, it must be said of Mary Baker Eddy's words as Christ Jesus said of his own: “Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.” (Luke 21:33) We are grateful to this woman for persisting in her effort to bring Christian Science to all mankind. We do not worship her, we simply seek to follow her lead and gain that clear understanding which blesses and heals.
Why doesn't this site have pictures of Mrs. Eddy?
Mary Baker Eddy, herself, wrote the following (starting on page 119 of Miscellaneous Writings): “St. John found Christ, Truth, in the Word which is God. We look for the sainted Revelator in his writings, and there we find him. Those who look for me in person, or elsewhere than in my writings, lose me instead of find me. I hope and trust that you and I may meet in truth and know each other there, and know as we are known of God.” We seek to introduce no impediment into the process of you meeting Mrs. Eddy in truth.