Mary Baker Eddy: The Founder of Christian Science

Mary Baker Eddy is the founder of Christian Science. She founded the Church of Christ, Scientist in 1879 after much study of the healings and teachings of Jesus Christ.

Mary Baker Eddy lived her early life in New Hampshire, living with parents who strongly emphasized God’s presence in everyday life and the importance of the study of Scriptures. Growing up, Eddy was often sick, and tried to alleviate her pain through different methods such as dietary cures, spiritualism, hydropathy, mesmerism, and other techniques but had no success. One cold night when she was in her 40s, she fell on an icy street and was taken to a nearby house with serious injuries. After three days she was not improving and it was thought that she was going to die. On her deathbed, she asked for her Bible. After reading a story about Jesus Christ healing a man with a withered hand, she began to be cured, surprising her doctor, friends, and family. Eddy continued studying the Bible, and as a result was healed of all her injuries without the help of any medication.

Eddy didn’t stop there, as she truly wanted to understand the reason behind her inexplicable healing, and ended up taking endless notes on the scientific reasoning behind Jesus’s healings. Eddy studied the Bible for three years, and gained a new appreciation for Jesus’s teaching and demonstration and the concepts of metaphysical healing and spiritual Science (in essence, Christian Science).

After those years of study, Eddy eventually wrote a textbook on Christianly scientific healing, called Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. It was published in 1875, and has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. Just by reading Science and Health many people have been healed of their own illnesses.

In 1879, Eddy founded the church, and ordained Science and Health and the Bible as pastor of the church. A typical sermon consists of the reading of a weekly Bible Lesson, which is then studied throughout the week and read aloud on Sundays. Nowadays, the headquarters of the Christian Science Church is located in Boston, Massachusetts, and local “branch churches” can be found throughout the world.