What were Mary Baker Eddy’s views on technology?

Mary Baker Eddy’s long life spanned nine decades, from 1821 to 1910. These were years of intensive technological development, particularly in America. Much evidence suggests that Eddy was accepting and appreciative of innovation. In later years, she possessed various labor-saving devices in her home and spoke of new inventions as representing progressive thought.

For example, a May 1, 1901, interview in the New York Herald quotes Eddy as having this to say about “the pursuit of modern material inventions”:

Oh, we cannot oppose them. They all tend to newer, finer, more etherealized ways of living. They seek the finer essences. They light the way to the Church of Christ. We use them, we make them our figures of speech. They are preparing the way for us.¹

In the article “Our Leader in Retrospect,” published in the July 1936 issue of The Christian Science Journal, Emma Easton Newman—a student of Eddy’s—recalled a New Year’s Day dinner at Pleasant View (Eddy’s home in Concord, New Hampshire). “While all were still at table…,” Newman wrote, “someone spoke of a useful invention which a man who was a student of Christian Science had just patented. Mrs. Eddy’s comment was, ‘I look for many such inventions from Christian Scientists.’”

Click here to read about the use of various technologies in Eddy’s household.