Discoverer: Science of Christianity

Christian Science

Her discovery had no name, as yet. She saw it as the reinstated practice of primitive Christianity with its “signs following.” At first she called her system “Moral Science,” emphasizing its mental nature. In time she would name the religion “Christian Science,” emphasizing its Christian character. She later wrote:

I named it Christian, because it is compassionate, helpful, and spiritual. God I called immortal Mind. That which sins, suffers, and dies, I named mortal mind. The physical senses, or sensuous nature, I called error and shadow. Soul I denominated substance, because Soul alone is truly substantial. God I characterized as individual entity, but His corporeality I denied. The real I claimed as eternal; and its antipodes, or the temporal, I described as unreal. Spirit I called the reality; and matter, the unreality.

Retrospection and Introspection

She insisted that healings experienced by a growing number of patients were but a vestibule to moral regeneration and spiritual growth. She would write:

Healing physical sickness is … only the bugle-call to thought and action, in the higher range of infinite goodness. The emphatic purpose of Christian Science is the healing of sin; and this task, sometimes, may be harder than the cure of disease; because, while mortals love to sin, they do not love to be sick.

Rudimental Divine Science

(NOTE: For a fuller understanding of the Christian Science religion, consult the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures; other writings by Mary Baker Eddy; and other books and periodicals published by The Christian Science Publishing Society, all available in public Reading Rooms maintained by Christian Science churches.)