Mary Baker Eddy

QUESTION: Who was Mary Baker Eddy?

ANSWER:

Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910) was born in New Hampshire and raised in a strict Congregationalist environment. Her childhood was filled with illness and emotional hardship.

In her early 20s, Mary Baker Eddy married George Glover, but he passed away from yellow fever only seven months after their wedding. A decade later, Mary Baker Eddy then married Dr. Daniel Patterson, but that marriage later ended in divorce. When Mary was 56 years old, she married for the third and final time. Her husband, Asa G. Eddy, later died.

A man named Phineas Quimby influenced Mary Baker Eddy in the area of spirituality in the 1860s. Mary Baker Eddy visited him, seeking healing from an illness she was experiencing. "Dr" Quimby is perhaps the real initiator of Christian Science as he entitled his system of healing "The Science of Man" and "Christian Science." Upon study, you will find numerous plagiarisms of Quimby in books authored by Mary Baker Eddy. This fact was confirmed in The New York Times on July 10, 1904.

In 1866, Eddy fell on a slippery sidewalk and claimed that she was pronounced "incurable" and given only three days to live. On the third day, Mary Baker Eddy read Matthew 9:2 and was supposedly healed. At this time, Eddy claimed to have discovered Christian Science. The "founding" of Christian Science happened only one month after Quimby's death. She began spreading Quimby's thoughts and ideas.

Mary Baker Eddy then completed writing her book titled Science and Health and opened The Massachusetts Metaphysical College where she taught around 4000 students over eight years. When she left the community at 61-years-old, she had only about 50 followers.

Mary Baker Eddy, in Science and Health 107:1-6, says, "In the year 1866, I discovered the Christ Science or divine laws of Life, Truth and Love and named my discovery Christian Science. God has been graciously preparing me during many years for the reception of this final revelation of the absolute divine Principle of scientific mental healing." Again in Science and Health, 109:20-23, she says, " I won my way to absolute conclusions through divine revelation, reason, and demonstration. The Revelation of Truth in the understanding came to me gradually and apparently through Divine Power."

By 1896, her churches and societies numbered over 400 and that number began increasing rapidly. The organization grew financially through book sales by requiring its members to purchase and sell the books or be excommunicated. By the time of her death in 1910, Eddy's fortune exceeded 3 million dollars.