Appreciation for Mary Baker Eddy and Science and Health

“Is it too much to say that this book is leavening the whole lump of human thought?” – Mary Baker Eddy

In lecturing last weekend at Chautauqua-Ocean Park Association I was again reminded of how vital and compelling Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures is to honest spiritual seekers. After the talk, I spoke to many people. For example, one woman came up to me and earnestly wanted to know more about the author Mary Baker Eddy and the ideas I referenced. Clearly on a spiritual journey, she is deeply seeking inspiration and meaning…and in need of physical relief from some aggravated symptoms. “Do you think healing could happen to me?” she asked. “Oh, absolutely!” I replied, then shared with her healings from my own life as well as more on the practice of Christian Science. She went off to buy Science and Health and promised to be in touch.

Mitch Horowitz explains the far-reaching and enduring impact of Science and Health on individuals in his recent article “10 Positive-Thinking Books That Might Change Your Life” from the Huffington Post:

“Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy (1875, multiple updates and editions) - This is not a positive-thinking book in any conventional sense, but none of the literature mentioned here would have been possible, or at least would read the same way, without the Christian Science founder’s influence. Unlike many of her contemporaries, Eddy became widely read and internationally known. Her highly original metaphysics (which critics too simplistically accuse her of lifting from the influential mental healer Phineas Quimby) touched nearly every thinker in the mind-power world for fifty years. Eddy’s work foresaw current uses of prayer and meditation for health.”

It is not a stretch to say that millions of people around the world – all cultures and faiths – have witnessed healings of all kinds as well as gaining a better understanding of God by reading and appreciating the spiritual insights in Science and Health. Why not accept the author’s invitation,

“You can prove for yourself, dear reader, the Science of healing, and so ascertain if the author has given you the correct interpretation of Scripture.”

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Virginia Harris is a practitioner and teacher of Christian Science spiritual healing with her office in Wellesley. She was on the faculty of Harvard Medical School’s symposium ‘Spirituality & Healing in Medicine’ and today is a public speaker to medical audiences. More from Ginny at www.VirginiaHarris.com.