BAKER, MARY EDDY. – Founder of the medical-religious association known as Christian Science, born in 1821, died on 3 December 1910.
I. LIFE
She was born on a farmstead 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 Giorgio W. Glover, who died a few months later, leaving her pregnant with a son whom she virtually abandoned for many years. In 1853 she married the dr. Patterson for a second time; she divorced him in 1866, and finally married for the third time in 1873, to G. Eddy, who died a widower in 1882. Hence the various names by which she is known; the most common, however, is M. E. B. or Mary Baker Eddy. While she was still married to the dr. Patterson, in order to alleviate her ailments she placed herself under the care of the dr. Phileas P. Quimby, who maintained that all illnesses were mental and not physical. This doctrine inspired her, and having experienced some relief, she appropriated 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 became established, and in the years following G. Eddy’s death, between 1882 and 1896, it attained regular stability and organization, overcoming serious internal opposition from her students and external opposition from the enemies and opponents of her theories. In 1896 she withdrew from Boston to Pleasant View, near her native town of Concord, where she remained under the close watch of her most trusted followers until 1908, when, following certain unpleasant incidents and quarrels, she moved permanently 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 no diseases of the senses exist, because the only reality is God, divine Substance or spiritual Mind (with a capital M); everything else is merely mortal mind (with a lowercase m), which disappears if it is replaced by spiritual Mind, the only existing reality. But since this spiritual Mind suffers neither pains nor afflictions, all these things exist only for mortal mind, which is not real. B. adhered to this doctrine and to the name Christian Science. At first she acknowledged that she owed everything to Dr. Quimby, but later audaciously denied it: “No writing, no teacher taught me the science contained in this book (Science and Health), and no pen or tongue will be able to destroy it.”In 1875 B. published the first of the very numerous editions of her book Science and Health (Science and Health), to which a few years later (1882) she added the Key to the Scripture (Key to the Scripture). This is the symbolic and almost sacred book of the Scientists; in it one can distinguish what she plagiarized from the writings of Dr. Quimby from what the author added herself, which consists of: the Key to the Scripture, interpreted in accordance with the doctrine of Christian Science; the theory of M.A.M., “Malicious Animal Magnetism,” by which she explained the opposition she encountered and the failure of her treatments; and finally the incorporation of her doctrine into a new Church.
Even before the publication of the book, but still more thereafter, B. devoted herself with incredible energy to propagating her doctrines. Among the students who attended her private classes, the idea arose in 1879 of establishing a Church based entirely on the new theories. B. drafted its Statutes, was elected its “pastor,” and in 1887 the “First Church of Christ, Scientist” was founded in Boston and legally approved; it later took the name “Mother Church.” During this period, in 1882 B. opened the “Massachusetts Metaphysical College” in Boston, where she trained the physicians or “practitioners,” as those who were to treat according to her theories were called among the Scientists. In 1883 she published the monthly Christian Science Journal, followed in 1898 by the weekly Christian Science Sentinel, and two years before her death she began publishing a daily newspaper, the Christian Science Monitor. If to this are added the public discussions in newspapers and journals concerning the new theories and the nascent Church, the lawsuits arising from unsuccessful treatments and from disciples who rebelled, and many other events, one can easily understand the notoriety B. attained. She directed the entire movement, even when she remained concealed in the villa at Pleasant View or in that at Chestnut Hill: nothing was done without her permission and direction. She showed herself implacable toward those who opposed her, whether 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 he or she came. Under the title of “pastor emeritus,” she retained absolute and total authority throughout her life. The whole of art. 22 of the Statutes, in its 18 sections or points, sanctions this absolute authority. Christian Science is a Church without ministers, without special feasts, and without Sacraments. At Sunday meetings a chapter or passage from the Bible is still read, but this is followed by the reading of the esoteric interpretation found in the Key or in other books by B. Instead of ministers, there are two readers, who must each Sunday read precisely what has been duly designated by the Mother Church of Boston. In addition to the two readers, there are one or two “practitioners,” that is, physicians approved by the Mother Church of Boston, whose task is to instill in the sick person’s spirit that God or spiritual Mind is all in all, and that illness does not exist. Because they lack these requirements, in Italy the two small Scientist communities or societies in Rome and Turin are not Churches, whereas the one in Florence is. The individual Churches cannot unite with one another, but each depends directly on Boston. After B.’s death, the government of the Church lies in the hands of a committee of eight directors (Falmouth Str. 105, Boston), who zealously preserve the organization established by the founder.
III. THE DOCTRINE
Something has already been indicated concerning the doctrine. The writer Fleta Campbell Springer summarizes it very well in these words: «In matter there is neither 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 B. derives consequences such as these: «Sin, disease, and death are but the real appearance of unreal things in the human mind» (chap. 14 of her symbolic book). «Man is not matter, nor is he composed of brain, blood, bones, and other material elements... man is incapable of sinning, becoming ill, or dying, because his essence comes from God and he has not a single original element that does not come from God; therefore real man cannot separate himself from Holiness» (ibid.). «You say that a boil hurts, but this is impossible, since mindless nature does not hurt. The boil simply manifests your belief in pain through inflammation and swelling, and you call this belief a boil; mentally put into your patient a strong dose of Truth, and this will cure the boil» (chap. 1). The ills of the flesh, that is, are due to belief in the flesh, to a false sense of the life of 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 (disease, death). Thus, not miracles, but healings effected by and in those who believe that man is not subject to evil, by and in those who abandon the erroneous vision of themselves as bodily, heavy, and suffering beings. Jesus did not intend to work miracles, but merely made known the technique of healing through the «right concept» that existence, with all its activity and phenomena, is really only a mental state, and that evil does not exist.The Scientists have a special way of interpreting Sacred Scripture. It is enough to read the Key and the Glossary found after it, to gain an idea of the strange interpretations they give II. There is therefore no cause for surprise that, both in Catholic and in Protestant circles (e.g. the celebrated writer Mark Twain), this pantheistic doctrine has been severely criticized; it has nothing of Christian science except 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 the curative effect of Christian Science depends on the relatively minor importance it assigns to medicine and on the conviction of what we might call the subjectivity of disease, linked to the idea of a certain non-existence of the body. Indeed, it asserts that the patient’s exact knowledge of the disease is rather an obstacle to healing, and that, up to a certain point, admitting that one is ill makes the body less curable. This mental position does not encourage one to seek reliable diagnoses and prognoses, or to study whether the healing does or does not correspond to expectations. Hence, in the accounts of healings, a certain vagueness in the diagnosis, almost an indifference to knowing what disease is involved («I thought I had Bright’s disease,» «a so-called incurable spinal disease,» «what medicine would probably call a fibroid tumor,» «dyspepsia, congestion of the liver, and many other things»), together with vague information about the time taken to recover («in a few days,» «slowly,» «in a few weeks»). As Philipon, a physician favorable to Christian Science, has also noted, «what distinguishes it from the other sciences of the same nature is a certain a priori character, a certain contempt for experience and sensory data.»
On reading the accounts of healings attributed to Christian Science, very few are found that can withstand comparison with those used by the Church in canonization proceedings; but, like all the others of lesser importance, even these are not medically documented. For this reason, it is impossible to pass judgment on their true nature. Yet the following may reasonably be said. When dealing with «pains» that have disappeared instantaneously, we should bear in mind that pain depends on the totality of affective dispositions and that the regular and encouraging practice of Christian Science may, through the optimism it inspires or the emotions it arouses, suppress II. In other cases, one must bear in mind the efficacy of the psyche upon functions, which «psychosomatic medicine» has once again brought to light. B.’s own recommendation, «you must mentally not see the disease,» undoubtedly corresponds to the common observation that, in certain cases, a disease that is not seen or that one does not wish to see causes less disturbance or heals (Breitner; Max Lowy recalls in this connection the Hindu saying: «pay no attention to it, and it cures all diseases»). Finally, when the disease cured is psychological in nature, it should be borne in mind that Christian Science also, in some way, brings one into contact with Christ and, however confusedly, with his redemptive 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 somehow makes up for the (psychological and affective) deficiencies of Protestantism. In short: insofar as it preserves something Christian in its inspiration, patients who are not wholly imbued with the novelty of this «science» (which, properly understood, has nothing Christian in itself) may derive benefit from prayer understood in a Christian sense. Insofar as it produces autosuggestion (healing through meditation), Christian Science recalls the «psychic healings» known even outside Christianity, in times and places where this «science» was and is unknown (a possible analogy with the «psychic healings» of Hinduism, with which Christian Science shares certain elements).