Christian Science

Abstract

The Church of Christ, Scientist, was founded in America in 1879 by Mary Baker Eddy (1821–1910). She herself suffered much physical ill-health, and became preoccupied with the question of God’s responsibility for human suffering. She experimented with various alternative healing methods and eventually experienced personal healing after reading of the healing power of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. This episode, in 1866, marked the point of her discovery of Christian Science. In 1875 she published ‘Science and Health’, later revised as ‘Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures’. The Bible and this work formed the textbooks of the new faith, which grew rapidly in America and elsewhere. There are now about 2700 congregations in some 60 countries, including some 220 in the United Kingdom.