- Paperback: 780 pages
- Publisher: Da Capo Press; New edition edition (3 Sep 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0738202274
- ISBN-13: 978-0738202273
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.7 x 5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
1,420,208 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #17 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Protestant > Christian Science
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Description
Product Description
In 1866, a frail, impoverished invalid, middle-aged, widowed and divorced, rose from her bed after a life-threatening fall, asked for her Bible, and took the first steps toward the founding of the Christian Science Church. Four decades later, she was revered as their leader by thousands of churches in the U. S. and Europe, had founded a national newspaper, and had become probably the most powerful woman in America. Who was this astonishing woman, the mother of the Mother Church? How did she prepare for her illustrious career during her years of obscurity, and what was her inspiration for the healing practices and doctrine of Christian Science? Gillian Gill, a non-Christian Science Scientist scholar, who managed to win unparalleled access to the Church archives, offers here an entirely new look at Mary Baker Eddy. For the first time readers will see the extraordinary leadership skills exercised by Mrs. Eddy despite the repressive forces facing women in her time. For the first time we learn the full story of the bizarre attack on Mrs. Eddy by Joseph Pulitzer and his New York Worldalleging that she was at least senile and possibly not even alive. In this enthralling biography, we rediscover Mary Baker Eddy as a radical Christian thinker, pioneer in the recognition of mind/body connections, survivor of scandal, and target of both admiration and scorn from such eminent contemporaries as Mark Twain. Gillian Gills sense of drama, her critical acumen, and her delicious wit bring to life a brilliant religious leader whose message has new meaning in our time.
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First Sentence
ON A HOT, SUNNY JULY DAY IN 1821, MARY MORSE Baker was born in Bow, New Hampshire, in the little farmhouse where her father and her own brothers and sisters had been born before her. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
ON A HOT, SUNNY JULY DAY IN 1821, MARY MORSE Baker was born in Bow, New Hampshire, in the little farmhouse where her father and her own brothers and sisters had been born before her. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It's taken me six years to get round to reading this book. It's sat in my cupboard exerting a certain magnetism because the Mary on the front resembles a girl I met at university, who I've had a bit of a crush on ever since.
Mary Baker Eddy has been a huge figure in my life. When I was very young my mother became a Christian Scientist. My father deeply resented her decision and his family didn't understand it. As far as they were concerned it was a weird American cult and Mary Baker Eddy was a dangerous eccentric. My mother became a practitioner, studied Science and Health every day and went to America to seek preferment in the church.
Since that conflict was very intense, and it ultimately ended in my parents divorce, it has been very difficult to have a dispassionate view of Mary Baker Eddy.
Reading Ms Gill's book has been enlightening because she explains how Mrs Eddy was a complex, unique, troubled, dynamic, intelligent, intuitive and peculiar individual, with extraordinary gifts and flaws. She writes with compelling style and she's fair. Mary Baker Eddy is an enigma. She aroused intense hostility, her ideas are deeply unconventional, she overcame incredible obstacles and suffered many pains. So I find Gill's work a 'healing' if you like because it has enabled me to separate the negative propaganda (which my father repeated and my schoolmasters and friends have told me) from the unquestioning faith and adoration which she gets from my mother.
I came to this book having read a biography of Bill Wilson, who was another Great American who discovered the power of spiritual healing. So it's interesting to compare the two characters. They both struggled to manage the power they created with their movements - with different solutions. They both wrote a definitive book which became a source of their revenue and authority. I note that Bill Wilson was not accused of plagiarism, while like Eddy, he was a great agregator of ideas. It seems to me that if you accept the principles of AA, you will probably be intrigued by Science and Health.
For me, this biography also reveals how powerful ideas are in your upbringing. My mother has loads in common with Mrs Eddy. Was she attracted to Mrs Eddy because she resembled her, or did she become like Mrs Eddy because she inwardly digested her principles? I'm sure I'll keep thinking about the stuff this book brings up for many months.
Mary Baker Eddy has been a huge figure in my life. When I was very young my mother became a Christian Scientist. My father deeply resented her decision and his family didn't understand it. As far as they were concerned it was a weird American cult and Mary Baker Eddy was a dangerous eccentric. My mother became a practitioner, studied Science and Health every day and went to America to seek preferment in the church.
Since that conflict was very intense, and it ultimately ended in my parents divorce, it has been very difficult to have a dispassionate view of Mary Baker Eddy.
Reading Ms Gill's book has been enlightening because she explains how Mrs Eddy was a complex, unique, troubled, dynamic, intelligent, intuitive and peculiar individual, with extraordinary gifts and flaws. She writes with compelling style and she's fair. Mary Baker Eddy is an enigma. She aroused intense hostility, her ideas are deeply unconventional, she overcame incredible obstacles and suffered many pains. So I find Gill's work a 'healing' if you like because it has enabled me to separate the negative propaganda (which my father repeated and my schoolmasters and friends have told me) from the unquestioning faith and adoration which she gets from my mother.
I came to this book having read a biography of Bill Wilson, who was another Great American who discovered the power of spiritual healing. So it's interesting to compare the two characters. They both struggled to manage the power they created with their movements - with different solutions. They both wrote a definitive book which became a source of their revenue and authority. I note that Bill Wilson was not accused of plagiarism, while like Eddy, he was a great agregator of ideas. It seems to me that if you accept the principles of AA, you will probably be intrigued by Science and Health.
For me, this biography also reveals how powerful ideas are in your upbringing. My mother has loads in common with Mrs Eddy. Was she attracted to Mrs Eddy because she resembled her, or did she become like Mrs Eddy because she inwardly digested her principles? I'm sure I'll keep thinking about the stuff this book brings up for many months.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
In her intro, Gill admits she took up the subject of MBE not out of a burning interest but at the casual suggestion of an associate. Her admitted enthusiasm for her subject arose later, and a certain measure of the arbitrary provenance shows in the final product. Gill probably realized with chagrin that her subject had been pretty handily treated in recent years by other scholars both better trained in the praxis of historic research (rather than literary analysis) and with richer access to primary source material. All too often, for instance, Gill's book reads like an extended book report on Robert Peel's far more profound and accomplished three-volume MBE bio. Moreover, Gill jarringly and habitually intrudes on the integrity of her own work with commentary beginning "I can't help but feel," and "in my opinion," etc. No doubt any biographer does form strong opinions (pro or con) of her subject, but the manner of presenting facts and persuasively documenting them better serves to communicate those opinions -- reserve the first-person, if you must, for your foreword. Still, Gill has put certain aspects of MBE's life and achievements in interesting, pop-feminist perspective. She is especially interesting, for instance, in dramatizing the claustrophic ennui and social immobilility imposed on proper early Victorian women, and on communicating a sense of the nutty abusiveness of female-related medical theory and practice (by a male-dominated medical establishment). All in all, a colorful tour of a life and times, with the surfaces all faithfully rendered, but any abiding thirst engendered by this work will have to be slaked at deeper pools.
Format:Hardcover
Gillian Gill's biography of Eddy is better than most Eddy biographies because it is neither diatribe nor hagiography. However, the scholarship of the book still leaves something to be desired.
Gill's "research note" explains that she never entered the church archives directly. Instead, she reviewed all previously published bibliographies and listed the sources mentioned in those bibliographies that she also wanted to see.
A church-paid research assistant checked the archives on Gill's behalf, and located some of these sources. (Some items "could not be found," the assistant told her.) Next, a lengthy church approval procedure whittled the list of sources down further before Gill was permitted to see them.
This "method" of gathering sources virtually guaranteed that Gill would not uncover anything new or upsetting to the CS church.
True, Gill is not to blame for the restrictions placed on her by the church. At least Gill looked at some of the primary evidence--a strategy that Gill (best known as a translator) says she didn't intend to follow when she began the project. But any bibliography is only as good as the research which underlies it, and in this case, the research was necessarily partial.
Additionally, Gill did not address the work of other feminism and religion scholars, such as Susan Hill Lindley or Cynthia Grant Tucker, who have also researched Eddy and Christian Science. No explanation is given for this omission.
Finally, Gill is prone to making judgments which do not seem supported by the evidence she cites. For example, Gill accepts Eddy's claim that Eddy espoused abolitionist views prior to the Civil War seemingly because Eddy said so later in life. She also accepts Eddy's claim that, at the age of 12, Eddy impressed church elders with her advanced understanding of God, again without corroborative evidence, and without commenting on the obvious biblical parallel.
Given Gill's research note, one wonders if Gill's judgment in these matters might be influenced by her reliance on the CS church for sources. Gill's church-paid research assistant was also her fact-checker.
While Gill's biography is certainly better than any Eddy biography previously published, it cannot by any means be called definitive.
The definitive biography will have to wait until the CS church allows scholars true access to the historical archives.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Feminist perspective illuminates life of Mary Baker Eddy
The Gillian Gill biography, Mary Baker Eddy, is eminently worthwhile reading for any student of Christian Science, of historical figures, or of the art of writing. Read more
Published on 19 Jan 1999
An extraordinary achievement
Ms Gill is not a Christian Scientist but you would suppose she has lived with her subject for a very long time. Her considerable forensic skills are just what her subject needs. Read more
Published on 16 Nov 1998
Tour de force
Ms Gill is not a Christian Scientist. Through persistence she was able to gain access to the closely guarded Christian Science Church archives. Read more
Published on 6 Nov 1998
A sympathetic, feminist biography
As a Christian Scientist, it was refreshing to see a non-Christian Scientist's admiring response to the life of Ms Eddy. Read more
Published on 15 Oct 1998
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