Ask a Researcher
Answers to questions our research team has received.
What prompted the Church By-Law about illegal adoption?
Here’s the story leading up to Mary Baker Eddy’s instruction on illegal adoption in the “Manual of The Mother Church.”
What’s behind the marginal headings in Science and Health?
Mary Baker Eddy first considered using marginal headings in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures in 1889, and the 50th edition of the book (published in 1891) was the first to contain them.
How did the term “The Mother Church” come about?
The first documented use of this term is found in notes from March 5, 1889, taken by Joshua Bailey during one of Mary Baker Eddy’s classes in Christian Science healing.
Did Mary Baker Eddy care about the environment?
Even though Eddy doesn’t fit her era’s image of an environmentalist, she still cared deeply for the environment. She loved animals and nature, and believed that the beauty of the natural world was a reflection of the beauty and majesty of God.
How did Mary Baker Eddy feel about animals?
So many people have a deep love for animals. Here’s what the discoverer of Christian Science had to say.
Were there ever film or audio recordings made of Mary Baker Eddy?
Unfortunately, none were. There is no discussion of film in her papers, so we have no information about why this was not done. However, one of her household workers, John Salchow, wrote in his reminiscence about Eddy being asked to have an audio recording made of her...
What was Eddy’s perspective on women’s rights?
Mary Baker Eddy made few statements about this, but we do know that she valued the efforts of the women’s rights movement of her day. In 1882 she wrote her student Clara Choate: “let us work as the industrious Suffragists are at work who are getting a hearing all over...
Were African Americans involved in the early history of Christian Science?
The answer is yes. One noteworthy individual was Marietta Webb. Her first experience with Christian Science was in 1897, when she called a practitioner to help her young son, who was very ill. He was quickly and permanently healed, and she began attending services in...
How did Mary Baker Eddy get around in the wintertime?
Whenever there was the least bit of snow, enough to make the roads at all passable, we used to take the wheels off of her carriage and put on the runners. We had a couple of strings of silver bells for the horses and on a nice frosty day it made a pretty sight to see...
Was grace said before meals in Mary Baker Eddy’s household?
We have found some information on this topic in reminiscences written by members of her household. At Chestnut Hill, where Eddy lived from 1908-1910, there was no established procedure for saying grace before meals. Sometimes Eddy would pass the word not to have any...
Did Francis Fluno write “Criticism”?
Read about the authenticity of this work. Text included.
Did Mary Baker Eddy write it? A letter to Septimus J. Hanna
Read about a document that mixes the authentic and inauthentic.
Did Mary Baker Eddy write it? “Day”
Read this background on a much-circulated manuscript.
Did Mary Baker Eddy write it? “Once every day in the morning…”
How did a letter from Eddy end up in the papers of a US Senator?
What is the background of the Bible Lesson subjects?
Here’s what we know about the 26 topics and their arrangement.