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P05362

Early Christian Science teaching

As the Christian Science movement grew beyond its Massachusetts origins in the mid-1880s, Mary Baker Eddy faced challenges in ensuring that accurate Christian Science teaching was available to all who sought it. In addition to her Primary classes in Christian Science at the Massachusetts Metaphysical College, she also started offering Normal classes to teach her students how to teach. She then encouraged them to open Christian Science institutes in their respective localities. Eddy's correspondence from this time reveals the challenges people faced in trying to study Christian Science and also the steps she was taking to ensure that genuine teaching was being made available in places far from Boston, Massachusetts.

Articles:

From the Papers: A college for teaching Christian Science
Read about the Massachusetts Metaphysical College and its curriculum.
From the Papers: A revised curriculum for the Massachusetts Metaphysical College
Find out about the evolution of this institution and its activities in the 1880s.
From The Papers: "Open a public institute at once"
Learn about an important early development in teaching Christian Science.
From the Papers: The Chicago institutes
Read about an effort to give Christian Science more visibility in a fast-growing metropolis.

Podcasts:

Episode 98. New insights at the Archives Open House
Hear about an exchange between Eddy and someone who wanted to take her class in this episode in which staff members share items from the Archives Open House.

Documents:

Letter: Mary Baker Eddy to Ellen Brown Linscott, October 20, 1884    (L12980)Click link to view "Letter: Mary Baker Eddy to Ellen Brown Linscott, October 20, 1884 "
Eddy outlines the requirements for someone to teach Christian Science.
Letter: Mary Baker Eddy to George B. Wickersham, March 26, 1886   (L07909)Click link to view "Letter: Mary Baker Eddy to George B. Wickersham, March 26, 1886"
Eddy writes of the challenges of students taught by false Christian Science teachers.
Certificate: Mary Baker Eddy to Edward H. Hammond, April 2, 1885   (L09533)Click link to view "Certificate: Mary Baker Eddy to Edward H. Hammond, April 2, 1885"
This certificate offers official documentation for students to show others that they had been taught by Eddy and were practicing genuine Christian Science.
Letter: Mary Baker Eddy to Edward H. Hammond, May 11, 1886   (L04553)Click link to view "Letter: Mary Baker Eddy to Edward H. Hammond, May 11, 1886"
Eddy writes of a particularly promising Normal class she just taught.
Letter: Mary Baker Eddy to Minnie B. Hall De Soto, September 1886   (L05499)Click link to view "Letter: Mary Baker Eddy to Minnie B. Hall De Soto, September 1886"
Eddy explains that at present she is the only one able to teach a Normal class, but that she will take her students' students into her Normal class if she feels that they are ready.
Letter: Margaretta E. Beaton to Mary Baker Eddy, October 25, 1886   (643A.66.025)Click link to view "Letter: Margaretta E. Beaton to Mary Baker Eddy, October 25, 1886"
Beaton's letter reveals some of the confusion around finding a legitimate teacher of Christian Science.
Letter: Dora F. Noxon to Mary Baker Eddy, November 14, 1886   (698P2.81.005)Click link to view "Letter: Dora F. Noxon to Mary Baker Eddy, November 14, 1886"
Noxon writes asking to join Eddy's Normal class, even though she has been practicing for less than a year. She feels she has the necessary experience and desire to be able to teach others.
Letter: Edmund Russell Hardy to Mary Baker Eddy, December 22, 1886   (134.23.002)Click link to view "Letter: Edmund Russell Hardy to Mary Baker Eddy, December 22, 1886"
Hardy's letter to Eddy shows the challenges some students faced in finding someone to teach them genuine Christian Science.
Letter: Jennie B. Fenn to Mary Baker Eddy, December 23, 1886   (277.41.016)Click link to view "Letter: Jennie B. Fenn to Mary Baker Eddy, December 23, 1886"
Fenn writes to Eddy of trying to impress upon her students that they should go to Eddy for the Normal class before endeavoring to teach Christian Science to others.
Letter: Ursula N. Gestefeld to Mary Baker Eddy, December 27, 1886   (544.57.012)Click link to view "Letter: Ursula N. Gestefeld to Mary Baker Eddy, December 27, 1886"
Gestefeld suggests the idea of Christian Science lectures, which will support the work of Christian Science practitioners and teachers in the locations where they travel.
 

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