MARY BAKER EDDY: A LIFE from BEGINNING to END (Biographies of Christians series)(kindle) by Hourly History
Published in 2019 by Hourly History
Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910) is the founder of the controversial Christian sect knows as Christian Science or The Church of Christ, Scientist in the late 1800s. I picked this short biography because I know something of the teachings of Christian Science, I knew next to nothing about its founder.
Mary Baker Eddy grew up in small town New Hampshire and was often sickly as a child and young adult. It is unclear whether her illnesses were due to physical or nervous problems. As was typical for the time, life was hard and there were many tragic deaths in the early part of her life, including an older brother who served as a mentor, her husband while she was pregnant, a fiance and her mother. Her family took over raising her son and did not let her see him for years. Her son's caretakers moved away and let him believe that Mary Baker Eddy was dead. They did not speak to one another again until he was 34 years old.
None of this, of course, make Mary Baker Eddy a national religious figure, although it would be reasonable to suppose that these experiences had an impact on her religious views.
From 1862 to 1866, Mary Baker Eddy became involved with a mesmerist named Phineas Quimby. Quimby claimed to be able to heal people with his powers and Mary Baker Eddy believed him. She believed that Quimby had stumbled upon an important principle, even though he was not religious. She continued his work after he passed away in 1866.
The beauty and the weakness of this series is the brevity of each book. They are designed to be read in about an hour, which means I can explore a whole new area or person with little time commitment. But, I always end up with questions. In this book, I was left wondering how this woman turned a fairly small religious movement into an established church with its own publishing house and tens of thousands of members at a time when women did not even have the right to vote. This book is skewed too much to the early years and covers the last 40+ years of her life with a mere 3 pages of text. Too bad. A bit of judicious editing would have ensured some balance in the telling of the story of her life.
Because of that imbalance, I give this short biography a grade of 2 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: MARY BAKER EDDY: A LIFE from BEGINNING to END.
Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910) is the founder of the controversial Christian sect knows as Christian Science or The Church of Christ, Scientist in the late 1800s. I picked this short biography because I know something of the teachings of Christian Science, I knew next to nothing about its founder.
Mary Baker Eddy grew up in small town New Hampshire and was often sickly as a child and young adult. It is unclear whether her illnesses were due to physical or nervous problems. As was typical for the time, life was hard and there were many tragic deaths in the early part of her life, including an older brother who served as a mentor, her husband while she was pregnant, a fiance and her mother. Her family took over raising her son and did not let her see him for years. Her son's caretakers moved away and let him believe that Mary Baker Eddy was dead. They did not speak to one another again until he was 34 years old.
None of this, of course, make Mary Baker Eddy a national religious figure, although it would be reasonable to suppose that these experiences had an impact on her religious views.
From 1862 to 1866, Mary Baker Eddy became involved with a mesmerist named Phineas Quimby. Quimby claimed to be able to heal people with his powers and Mary Baker Eddy believed him. She believed that Quimby had stumbled upon an important principle, even though he was not religious. She continued his work after he passed away in 1866.
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| Mary Baker Eddy in the 1850s |
Because of that imbalance, I give this short biography a grade of 2 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: MARY BAKER EDDY: A LIFE from BEGINNING to END.
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