What can the overlap of two prominent Christian women leaders teach us—not only about each of them but also about the impact of women on culture and religion during their time, and beyond? This month we look at the connection between two nineteenth-century contemporaries. Frances Willard was president of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union and leader of the temperance movement. Mary Baker Eddy was the founder of Christian Science, and is our Library’s namesake. The two valued each other’s causes. They corresponded and thought highly of each other. And in 1932—decades after both of them had passed away—a nationwide poll of American women named Eddy and Willard among the 12 women who had contributed most meaningfully to American progress in the previous 100 years. Christopher Evans, author of Do Everything: The Biography of Frances Willard, joins us to explore the commonalities and differences between these two figures. He also discusses the ways in which the movements they led impacted society in their time—and continue to resonate today.
Access more on this topic:
- The Christian Science Monitor, “Portraits of 12 Women Leaders of Century Shown at Chicago” (PDF), July 21, 1933
- The Christian Science Journal, March 1890, “EDITOR’S NOTE BOOK: ‘Glimpses of Fifty Years,’ by Miss Frances Willard: Selection from Chapter, ‘The Mind Cure,’ Page 636. ‘Prove all Things.’”
- Featured Articles: Book review: A New Christian Identity
- The Christian Science Monitor, “Sober as a college student? Why Gen Z shrugs at alcohol,” January 2, 2024
- Podcast: Christian Scientist women and Alice Paul’s campaign for women’s rights
Dr. Christopher Evans is Professor of the History of Christianity and Methodist Studies at Boston University. He has authored several books, including his latest title, Do Everything: The Biography of Frances Willard (Oxford University Press, 2022). His book The Kingdom is Always but Coming: A Life of Walter Rauschenbusch (Eerdmans, 2004) received an Award of Merit from Christianity Today magazine. Evans is also the editor of The Faith of Fifty Million: Baseball, Religion and American Culture (with William R. Herzog II, Westminster John Knox, 2002), and Expanding Energy: The Dynamic Story of Christianity in North America (with Mark Lamport), to be published later in 2024.
Jonathon Eder is Manager of Programs and Scholarly Engagement for The Mary Baker Eddy Library, where he has worked since its 2002 opening. Besides serving in a number of capacities—such as exhibit development, library reference services, and programming—he has made scholarly contributions on Christian Science history to journals and book volumes. These have included his 2021 article “Mary Burt Messer—Christian Science Healer as Sociologist and Scholar,” a chapter in Challenging Bias against Women Academics in Religion (Chicago: Atla Open Press, 2021); and “Manhood and Mary Baker Eddy: Muscular Christianity and Christian Science,” published in the December 2020 issue of Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture (Cambridge University Press).
