BAKER, Mary Eddy. - Founder of the medico-religious association known under the name of *Christian Science*, b. in 1821, d. 3 Dec. 1910.
I. Life
She was born on a farm near the town of Concord in the State of New Hampshire (United States), the youngest of six children in the B. family. From her earliest years she was subject to nervous illnesses, which lasted throughout her life; for this reason her schooling was deficient. In December 1843 she married George W. Glover, who died a few months later, leaving her pregnant with a son whom she almost abandoned for many years. In 1853 she entered a second marriage with Dr. Patterson, from whom she divorced in 1866, finally marrying for the third time in 1873 with G. Eddy, of whom she was widowed in 1882. Hence the various names by which she is known; but the most common is that of M. E. B. or Mary Baker Eddy. While still married to Dr. Patterson, to alleviate her ailments she underwent treatment by Dr. Phineas P. Quimby, who held that all diseases were mental and not physical. This doctrine enthused her, and having experienced some relief, she approved it; she opened a school with a few pupils and began her career as a founder. With the help of her third husband the foundation of the new sect took shape, and in the years following the death of G. Eddy, between 1882 and 1896, it reached regular stability and organization, overcoming serious internal opposition from her students and external opposition from enemies and opponents of her theories. In 1896 she moved from Boston to Pleasant View, near her native town of Concord, where she remained under the watchful eye of her most faithful followers until 1908, when, following some unpleasant incidents and disputes, she moved definitively to the magnificent residence prepared for her by her admirers, called Chestnut Hill, near Boston, where she remained until her death.II. THE FOUNDER OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE
Dr. Quimby had called his doctrine “Truth,” “Science,” or “Christian Science.” According to him, the spiritual man knows that there are no diseases of the senses, because the only reality is God, the divine Substance or Mind (with a capital M), spiritual; all the rest is but mortal mind (with a small m), which disappears and is replaced by spiritual Mind, a reality that exists; but since this spiritual Mind suffers no pain or punishment, all these things exist only for mortal mind, which is not real. To this doctrine and to the name of Christian Science Mrs. B. adhered. At first she acknowledged that she owed everything to Dr. Quimby, but later she denied this: “No writing, no teacher taught me the science contained in this book (*Science and Health*), and no pen nor tongue can destroy it.”Mrs. B. in 1875 published the first of the numerous editions of her book *Science and Health* (*Scienza e Salute*), to which a few years later (1882) she added the *Key to the Scriptures* (*Chiave per la Scrittura*). This is the symbolic and almost sacred book of the Christian Scientists: in it one can distinguish what she plagiarized from the writings of Dr. Quimby and what she added of her own, which consists of: the *Key to the Scriptures*, interpreted in function of the doctrine of *Christian Science*; the theory of M.A.M., “Malicious Animal Magnetism,” by which she explains the oppositions she encountered and the failures of her cures; and finally the framing of her doctrine within a new Church.
Already before the publication of the book, but even more after, Mrs. B. devoted herself with incredible activity to the propagation of her doctrines. Among the students attending her private classes, the idea arose in 1879 to constitute a Church entirely based on the new theories. Mrs. B. drew up its statutes, was elected “pastor,” and in 1887 the “First Church of Christ, Scientist” was founded in Boston and legally approved, later taking the name of “Mother Church.” During these labors, in 1882 Mrs. B. opened in Boston the “Massachusetts Metaphysical College,” where she trained physicians or “practitioners,” as those who were to heal according to her theories are called among the Scientists. In 1883 she published the *Christian Science Journal*, followed in 1898 by the *Christian Science Sentinel*, a weekly, and two years before her death she began the publication of a daily newspaper, the *Christian Science Monitor*. If to this are added the public debates in newspapers and magazines about the new theories and the nascent Church, the disputes over failed cures and with rebellious disciples, and many other events, one can easily understand the notoriety she achieved. Everything in the movement was directed by her, even when she was hidden away in the villa at Pleasant View or at Chestnut Hill: nothing was done without her permission and direction. She showed herself implacable toward those who contravened her, be they friends or enemies. No one was admitted into the new Church without a formal renunciation of all doctrines and ties with the sect from which they came. With the title of “pastor emeritus,” she held absolute and total authority as long as she lived. The whole of article 22 of the statutes, in its 18 sections or points, sanctions this absolute authority. *Christian Science* is a Church without ministers, without special feasts, without Sacraments. At Sunday meetings a chapter or passage from the Bible is still read, but it is followed by the reading of the esoteric interpretation found in the *Key* or in other books by Mrs. B. Instead of ministers there are two readers, who every Sunday must read precisely what has been designated in a timely manner by the Mother Church in Boston. Besides the two readers there are one or two “practitioners,” i.e., physicians approved by the Mother Church in Boston, whose task is to impress upon the sick person’s mind that God or spiritual Mind is all in all, and that disease does not exist. For lack of these requirements, the two small communities or “scientific societies” in Rome and Turin are not Churches in Italy, whereas that in Florence is. The individual Churches cannot unite with one another, but each depends directly on Boston. After Mrs. B.’s death, the government of the Church is in the hands of a committee of eight directors (105 Falmouth St., Boston), who jealously preserve the organization given by the founder.
III. THE DOCTRINE
Some indication of the doctrine has already been given. The writer Fleta Campbell Springer summarizes it very well in these words: “In matter there is no life, nor truth, nor intelligence, nor substance: all is infinite Mind and infinite manifestation, because God is all in all. Spirit is immortal Truth, matter is unreal and temporal; Spirit is God, man is His image and likeness; therefore man is not material, he is spiritual.” From this fundamental principle Mrs. B. derives consequences such as these: “Sin, disease, death are but the real appearance of things unreal in the human mind” (ch. 14 of her symbolic book). “Man is not matter, nor is he composed of brain, blood, bones, and other material elements... man iscapable of sinning, of falling ill, of dying, because its essence comes from God and it has not a single original element that does not come from God; therefore real man cannot be separated from Holiness» (ibid.). «You say that a boil hurts, but this is not possible, since mindless nature does not cause pain. The boil simply manifests your belief in pain through inflammation and swelling, and you call this boil your belief; mentally place a strong dose of Truth in your patient, and this will cure the boil» (ch. 1). The evils of the flesh, that is, are due to the belief in the flesh, to a false sense of life in matter separated from spirit, and «Christian healing» is achieved to the extent that Christians learn to master the sinful sense that believes in the reality of what is not, because it does not come from God (illness, death). Not, therefore, miracles, but healings by those and in those who believe that man is not subject to evil, by those and in those who abandon the erroneous vision of themselves as corporeal, heavy, and suffering beings. Jesus did not intend to perform miracles, but only made known the technique of healing through the «right concept» that existence is, with all its activity and phenomena, truly only a mental state, and that evil does not exist.
Scientists have a special way of interpreting Sacred Scripture. It is enough to read the Key and the Glossary that follow this to get an idea of the strange interpretations they give. It is therefore not surprising that both in the Catholic and Protestant fields (e.g., the famous writer Mark Twain) this pantheistic doctrine has been severely criticized, which has nothing of Christian science but the name, and is rather a therapeutic school than a Church or sect.
IV. CHRISTIAN SCIENCE FROM THE MEDICAL POINT OF VIEW
The difficulty of judging the efficacy of Christian Science’s curative effect depends on the relatively small importance it gives to medicine and on the conviction of what we might call the subjectivity of illness, tied to the idea of a certain non-existence of the body. Indeed, it asserts that the patient’s exact knowledge of the illness is rather an obstacle to healing, and that, to a certain extent, admitting to being ill makes the body less curable. This mental stance does not encourage seeking secure diagnoses and prognoses nor studying whether the healing corresponds to expectations. Hence, in the accounts of healings, there is a certain vagueness in diagnosis, almost a disinterest in knowing what illness it is («I thought I had Bright’s disease», «a so-called incurable spinal disease», «what medicine would probably call a fibroid tumor», «dyspepsia, liver congestion, and many other things»), coupled with vague reports on the time taken to heal («in a few days», «slowly», «in a few weeks»). As even Philpion, a physician favorable to Christian Science, has noted, «what distinguishes it from other sciences of the same nature is a certain a priori character, a certain contempt for experience and sensory data».Reading the accounts of healings attributed to Christian Science, few stand up to comparison with those used by the Church for canonization processes, but, like all others of lesser importance, these are not documented from a medical standpoint. For this reason, it is not possible to give a judgment on their true nature. However, what can reasonably be said is this. When it comes to «pains» that disappear instantaneously, we must bear in mind that pain depends on the sum of affective dispositions and that the regular practice encouraged by Christian Science can, through the optimism it inspires or the emotions it arouses, suppress II. In other cases, the efficacy of the psyche on functions, which «psychosomatic medicine» has again highlighted, must be considered. The very recommendation of M. B. E. «you must mentally not see the illness» undoubtedly corresponds to the common observation that in certain cases an illness that is not seen or not wished to be seen is less disturbing or heals (Breitner; Max Lowy recalls in this regard the Hindu saying: «do not pay attention to it, and all illnesses heal»). Finally, when the healed illness is of a psychological nature, it must be borne in mind that Christian Science also puts one in some way in contact with Christ and, however confusedly, with His redeeming power; sincere trust in God and the desire for inner purification can favorably modify the «bad conscience» that plays its part in mental pathology (cf. P. Cossa, op. cit.). Mayo observes that Christian Science somewhat compensates for the psychological and affective deficiencies of Protestantism. In short: insofar as it preserves something Christian in its inspiration, patients who are not entirely aware of the novelty of this «science» (which in itself has nothing Christian about it, if properly understood) may benefit from prayer understood in a Christian sense. Insofar as it achieves autosuggestion (healing through meditation), Christian Science recalls the «psychic healings» known also outside Christianity, in times and places where this «science» was and is unknown (possible analogy with the «psychic healings» of the Indian, with which Christian Science shares some elements).