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| Parent company | The First Church of Christ, Scientist |
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| Founded | 1898 |
| Founder | Mary Baker Eddy |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Headquarters location | 210 Massachusetts Ave. Boston, Massachusetts |
| Publication types | Books, periodicals |
| Official website | jsh |
The Christian Science Publishing Society was established in 1898 by Mary Baker Eddy and is the publishing arm of The First Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston, Massachusetts.
The Christian Science Publishing Society and the Board of Trustees that manage it were established by Mary Baker Eddy in a deed of trust on January 25, 1898. [1] [2] Although she had not wanted to create a separate trust to handle the church's publications, legal considerations made it necessary. [3] Written in the deed is Eddy's express intent for the Publishing Society, that it is "for the purpose of more effectually promoting and extending the religion of Christian Science as taught by me." Always concerned about the purity of the teaching, she was reported by her student Septimus J. Hanna to have said just days before signing the deed, that she wanted "to protect and preserve the literature of [Christian Science] in its purity". She wanted to protect her teachings from "aggressive attempts" to adulterate them, which she felt would wreak havoc within the church and would cause misrepresentations of her teachings, both within and outside the church. [1]
In addition to Mary Baker Eddy’s works, they publish a number of periodicals, including the monthly The Christian Science Journal , the weekly Christian Science Sentinel , The Herald of Christian Science published in a number of languages; and the Christian Science Quarterly , also published in a number of languages. [2] The Quarterly contains the Bible lessons used as sermons in Sunday services in all Christian Science churches around the world. They also publish biographies of Eddy and other books and study materials on Christian Science.
There is also an international weekly newspaper, The Christian Science Monitor , which has won several Pulitzer Prizes. [4] The Monitor is a secular newspaper; however, there is one religious article in each issue.
The Publishing Society is managed by a three-person Board of Trustees [2] under the authority of the Christian Science Board of Directors. It is located, along with the Mary Baker Eddy Library, in the Publishing Society building at the Christian Science Center in Boston's Back Bay. It is the primary publisher of the writings of Mary Baker Eddy and other Christian Science literature.
The Church of Christ, Scientist was founded in 1879 in Boston, Massachusetts, by Mary Baker Eddy, author of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, and founder of Christian Science. The church was founded "to commemorate the word and works of Christ Jesus" and "reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing". Sunday services are held throughout the year and weekly testimony meetings are held on Wednesday evenings, where following brief readings from the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, those in attendance are invited to give testimonies of healing brought about through Christian Science prayer. The church rotates so-called "readers", who lead these biblical readings.
Mary Baker Eddy was an American religious leader and author who founded The Church of Christ, Scientist, in New England in 1879. She also founded The Christian Science Monitor in 1908, and three religious magazines: the Christian Science Sentinel, The Christian Science Journal, and The Herald of Christian Science. She wrote numerous books and articles, the most notable of which were Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures and Manual of The Mother Church. Other works were edited posthumously into the Prose Works Other than Science and Health.
Christian Science is a set of beliefs and practices which are associated with members of the Church of Christ, Scientist. Adherents are commonly known as Christian Scientists or students of Christian Science, and the church is sometimes informally known as the Christian Science church. It was founded in 19th-century New England by Mary Baker Eddy, who wrote the 1875 book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, which outlined the theology of Christian Science. The book became Christian Science's central text, along with the Bible, and by 2001 had sold over nine million copies.
The Destiny of The Mother Church is a book by Bliss Knapp published by Christian Science Publishing Society in 1991. Knapp and his parents, Ira O. and Flavia Stickney Knapp, all knew Mary Baker Eddy. His parents were students of hers and his father was one of the original members of the Board of Directors of The Mother Church. Until 1991, the book was repeatedly rejected for publication by the Christian Science Board of Directors because of the depiction of Eddy as the fulfillment of biblical prophecy and equating her with Christ Jesus, a position which Eddy considered blasphemous. Eddy identified the woman in the Book of Revelation not as a person, but as "generic man". Destiny's publication caused divisions within the church, including several resignations of prominent church employees. Critics claimed that the failure of the church's then-recent television venture, which had cost the church several hundred million dollars, had motivated the Board's reversal on publishing Knapp's book. Knapp, his wife and her sister left wills that granted bequests totalling over $100 million promised to the church if the book were to be published. The wills set a time limit of 20 years for the book to be published, otherwise the bequests were to be divided between Stanford University and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the church would receive nothing. The 1973 death of Knapp's wife set the date of the time limit to May 1993.
Bliss Knapp, the son of Ira O. and Flavia S. Knapp, students of Mary Baker Eddy, was an early Christian Science lecturer, practitioner, teacher and the author of The Destiny of the Mother Church.
A Christian Science Reading Room is a facility operated as a public service by a Christian Science church in the community where that church exists. The local branches of The Mother Church in Boston, Massachusetts, maintain these rooms as a place where one may study and contemplate the Bible and Christian Science literature in a quiet atmosphere, similar to a library.
The Church Manual of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts commonly known as the Manual of The Mother Church is the book that establishes the structure and governance of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, also known as The Mother Church, functioning like a constitution. It was written by Mary Baker Eddy, founder of the church. It was first published in 1895 and was revised dozens of times. The final edition, the 89th, was published in 1910.
Robert Arthur Peel was a Christian Science historian and writer on religious and ecumenical topics. A Christian Scientist for over 70 years, Peel wrote editorials for the Christian Science Monitor, a publication owned by the Church of Christ, Scientist. He was also a counsellor for the church's Committee on Publication, set up by Mary Baker Eddy (1821–1910), the religion's founder, to protect her own and the church's reputation.
The First Church of Christ, Scientist is the administrative headquarters and mother church of the Church of Christ, Scientist, also known as the Christian Science church. Christian Science was founded in the 19th century in Lynn, Massachusetts, by Mary Baker Eddy with the publication of her book Science and Health (1875).
The Mapparium is a three-story-tall globe made of stained glass that is viewed from a 30-foot-long (9.1 m) bridge through its interior. As of August 2021, it is part of the "How Do You See the World?" exhibit of the Christian Science Publishing Society in Boston, Massachusetts.
Augusta Emma Stetson was an American religious leader. Known for her impressive oratory skills and magnetic personality, she attracted a large following in New York City. However, her increasingly radical theories, conflicts with other church members including a well-known rivalry with Laura Lathrop, and attempts to supplant Mary Baker Eddy as the leader of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, led to her eventually being excommunicated from the church on charges of insubordination and of false teaching. Afterwards she began preaching and publishing various works on her theories which she named the "Church Triumphant," and started a controversial radio station to advance her cause.
The Mary Baker Eddy Library is a research library, museum, and repository for the papers of Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science.
The Pleasant View Home is an historic senior citizen residential facility located at 227 Pleasant Street in Concord, New Hampshire, in the United States. On September 19, 1984, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
A Reader in a Christian Science church is a member of the congregation who has been elected to serve in one of two positions responsible for church services. Each week's sermon in Christian Science churches is outlined in the Christian Science Quarterly, prepared months in advance, and is the same in all Christian Science churches, worldwide. As a lay church, the congregation elects readers from the congregation and they serve as readers for a set period of time. The sermons consist of passages from the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, and are studied as lessons during the week and read aloud to the congregation on the Sunday following.
Annie MacMillan Knott was a practitioner and teacher in The First Church of Christ, Scientist. She was a student of Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the religion, and served the church in various capacities including First Reader, Associate Editor of the Christian Science periodicals, member of the Bible Lesson Committee, one of the first women on the Christian Science Board of Lectureship, Trustee under the Will of Mary Baker Eddy, and the first woman to become a member of the Christian Science Board of Directors.
John Valentine Dittemore was director of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, the Christian Science church, in Boston from 1909 until 1919. Before that he was head of the church's Committee on Publication in New York, and a trustee for ten years of the estate of Mary Baker Eddy (1821–1910), the founder of the church. Dittemore is best known as the co-author, with Ernest Sutherland Bates, of Mary Baker Eddy: The Truth and the Tradition (1932).
Sibyl Wilbur O'Brien Stone, best known as Sibyl Wilbur, was an American journalist, suffragist, and author of a biography of Mary Baker Eddy. She was a San Diego Branch Member of the National League of American Pen Women and a member of the New England Woman's Press Association.
Adam Herbert Dickey, was an author, member of the Board of Directors of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and a secretary to Mary Baker Eddy.
Sue Harper Mims, C.S.D., was a social leader in Atlanta, Georgia and the wife of Livingston Mims, the 37th mayor of Atlanta. She was a member of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and helped found its branch church in Atlanta.
The "Next Friends" suit of 1907 was a lawsuit instigated by the New York World regarding Mary Baker Eddy, a religious leader from New England.
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