Eddy, Mary Baker
EDDY, MARY BAKER (1821–1910), the American discoverer of Christian Science, founded the Church of Christ, Scientist, "to commemorate the word and works" of Christ Jesus and "to reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing" (Eddy, 1895, p. 17). The subject of vehement attack by the popular press and male theologians of her day, and of staunch defense by proponents of her teaching, Eddy remains a controversial figure.
Prayer, biblical readings, and religious discussion were prominent features of her rural New England upbringing, and Baptist, Methodist, and Congregational clergy frequented the family home. As a child, Eddy rebelled against the stern Calvinism of her father's religion, preferring the more loving deity of her mother's teaching. Despite her reservations about the doctrine of predestination, Eddy joined the Congregational Church and remained a member until she founded her own religious organization.
In the late twentieth century, feminist scholars turned to Eddy's life and leadership, hoping to find in her a model of empowerment for women. Eddy was not, however, primarily interested in political freedom but in a liberation theology that freed people from the "bondage of sickness and sin" (Eddy, 1875, p. 368).
Critics sought to dismiss Eddy by accusing her of being a hysterical female in the stereotypical nineteenth-century mode.
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