Research and Reference
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Christian Science: Credo ReferenceA Credo Reference landing page on Christian Science. This page includes links to reference works, articles, library resources, and related concepts.
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Christian Science: BritannicaChristian Science, religious denomination founded in the United States in 1879 by Mary Baker Eddy (1821–1910), author of the book that contains the definitive statement of its teaching, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (1875). It is widely known for its highly controversial practice of spiritual healing.
Internet Resources
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Beliefs and TeachingsMary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, was asked if Christian Scientists had a religious creed. She answered, “They have not, if by that term is meant doctrinal beliefs” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, pp. 496–497). She did provide a few tenets—or key points—that briefly summarize the teachings of Christian Science. They are rooted in the Bible.
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9 Things You Should Know About ‘Christian Science’The issue of religious exemptions for vaccine mandates has raised the profile of “Christian Science,” a group that previously helped push through similar exemptions in American jurisprudence. Yet despite Christian Science’s having been around for 142 years, most people don’t know much about this small and declining religious movement.
Streaming Media
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The Church of Christ, ScientistIn this program, Dennis Wholey has a conversation about Christian Science with Phil Davis of the Third Church of Christ, Scientist, in Washington, D.C. Topics of discussion include milestones in the life of founder Mary Baker Eddy, the main principles of Christian Science, Christian Science reading rooms, the solution-based journalism of The Christian Science Monitor, and the application of Christian Science to the healing of discord at the individual, community, and global levels. In addition, Mary Alice Rose of the Christian Science Committee on Publication for Maryland describes the Sunday scriptural service and the Wednesday testimonial service. (27 minutes)
Perspectives
Christian Science: A Sourcebook of Contemporary Materials
Because Christian Science emphasizes reliance of God alone for healing, this religion has been the subject of debate & sometimes controversy. Much of the controversy is based on distorted facts about the Discoverer of the religion, Mary Baker Eddy, & the practices of the church she founded. This sourcebook is a convenient compilation of published documents that accurately reflect Christian Science beliefs & practices. It was developed in response to a request from a major theological seminary that such a book be published. The sourcebook offers the reader basic facts about Christian Science with emphasis on its theology. Topic range from Christian Scientists' perspective on the Bible to the practice of spiritual healing.
God's Perfect Child: Living and Dying in the Christian Science Church
From a former Christian Scientist, the first unvarnished account of one of America's most controversial and little-understood religious movements. Millions of americans-from Lady Astor to Ginger Rogers to Watergate conspirator H. R. Haldeman-have been touched by the Church of Christ, Scientist. Founded by Mary Baker Eddy in 1879, Christian Science was based on a belief that intense contemplation of the perfection of God can heal all ills-an extreme expression of the American faith in self-reliance. In this unflinching investigation, Caroline Fraser, herself raised in a Scientist household, shows how the Church transformed itself from asmall, eccentric sect into a politically powerful and socially respectable religion, and explores the human cost of Christian Science's remarkable rise. Fraser examines the strange life and psychology of Mary Baker Eddy, who lived in dread of a kind of witchcraft she called Malicious Animal Magnetism. She takes us into the closed world of Eddy's followers, who refuse to acknowledge the existence of illness and death and reject modern medicine, even at the cost of their children's lives. She reveals just how Christian Science managed to gain extraordinary legal and Congressional sanction for its dubious practices and tracks its enormous influence on new-age beliefs and other modern healing cults. A passionate expose of zealotry, God's Perfect Child tells one of the most dramatic and little-known stories in American religious history.