Congregationalism and Christian Science

If you have ever wanted to know more about either of these churches and their sometimes surprising historical connections, this talk is for you!

The founder of the Christian Science church, Mary Baker Eddy, was a Congregational church member for almost forty years, from 1838 to 1875. She spent half of her adult life as a Congregationalist. She even stayed a member for a decade after the event she came to call her "discovery" of Christian Science in 1866. She was a member the entire time she wrote the first edition of her book Science and Health, which she claimed explained the principles behind Jesus's healings.

Eddy founded her own church in 1879. Her Church of Christ, Scientist, inherited many legacies from the Congregational church that show up in surprising ways. This talk focuses on those. After sketching Eddy's biography and historiography, including the many cultural trends with which she interacted, Dr. Voorhees will discuss precedents, parallels, and problems that have surfaced in her comparison of Christian Science and Congregational organization, rule-making, rhetoric, and assumptions about faith and life.