SOURCE: "Retrospection and Introspection: The Gospel According to Mary Baker Eddy," in Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 75, No. 1, January, 1982, pp. 97-116.

In the following essay, Stein explores Eddy's autobiography Retrospection and Introspection.

In 1891 Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910) opened her auto-biography, Retrospection and Introspection, with a romanticized account of her family tree entitled "Ancestral Shadows." Little more than one hundred pages later she closed her presentation with a confident prediction that in future centuries the "Tree of Life" would "blossom" under the influence of "Divine Science," benefiting all the nations. Between these extremities of genealogy and eschatology she grouped a potpourri of reflections—personal, historical, literary, and theological—which defy easy categorization and lack apparent organization. To this day her self-portrait remains a puzzle, a resource often ignored by those struggling to understand this "remarkable" woman. This essay is an attempt to unlock the enigma of Retrospection and Introspection by...