What do Christian Scientists believe?

Everything you need to know about the Christian Science movement, its discoverer and founder Mary Baker Eddy, and her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (Updated August 2024).

In the 1940s Christian Science was at its peak of popularity; However, the movement has steadily declined and is largely unknown today. It is often confused with Scientology or a cult. The 2024 organization bears little resemblance to the original church movement.

A casual internet search proves there is much disinformation about this religion and its adherents, so this comprehensive guide is needed. When possible, the author of this website quotes directly from Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder, to avoid misinterpretation.

How Do Christian Scientists View the World?

  1. God is All-Powerful, a Supreme Spirit that is All-in-All. God is not a man in the sky who must be pleaded with for favors or blessings.
  2. God made people in His "image and likeness" (Genesis 1:26) making us spiritual, not material. We are not a blend of matter and spirit.
  3. Christ Jesus is the Messiah. His resurrection proves man's eternal unity with God, and Life is deathless. The Christ is the perfect image and likeness of God. Jesus was human.
  4. Spiritual healing as in Jesus' day has come again through Mary Baker Eddy's discovery. By it sin, sickness, disease, fear, grief, loneliness, marital problems, career, and financial troubles are healed.
  5. Mary Baker Eddy discovered Christian Science through Biblical inspiration and revelation from God, and that no 'human pen or tongue' taught her the Science contained in her book, Science and Health.
  6. Students of Christian Science choose to seek physical healing with prayer and complete reliance on God in place of using medicine and doctors; however, Christian Scientists can visit a doctor for any reason without condemnation or guilt. MBE is clear on this point.
  7. Good and evil cannot both be real. God made everything after His "image and likeness". God is not evil, and evil is not His likeness. Therefore evil, sin, sickness, disease, and death are not reality. Christ Jesus proved Spirit is Supreme and matter, sin, sickness, evil, etc. are powerless unrealities.
  8. A student striving to follow the teachings of Christ Jesus not just to the letter, but to the spirit, is less inclined and even has no desire for alcohol, tobacco, and caffeinated beverages. Mrs. Eddy says, "The use of tobacco or intoxicating drinks is not in harmony with Christian Science."

Table of Contents

  • What is Christian Science?
  • What is a Christian Scientist?
  • What do Christian Scientists believe about Jesus?
  • What is Spiritual Healing?
  • Who is Mary Baker Eddy?
  • What is Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures?
  • Is Christian Science a cult?
  • The Christian Science Organization and Reading Rooms
  • Christian Science after 1910: The Fall of the Mainstream Movement
  • Independent Christian Science

What is Christian Science?

God's laws of the universe including man cannot be constrained or defined as merely "a religion" that applies only to a group of followers or members. God's laws govern and apply to everyone regardless of one's belief like the rules of mathematics and aerodynamics which are universal. His laws are ever-present.

Christian Science is a radical departure from traditional religion and medicine which blend matter and spirit and treat materiality as 1. reality and 2. the cause of sickness. The Scientific Statement of Being sounds absurd because it is the opposite of what the five senses claim to be true. The five senses are upside down and cannot "see" God and must be corrected. For example, astronomy reverses the evidence that the sun rises in the East and travels around the earth to set in the West. The senses are wrong. Optical illusions seem real to the senses. Christian Science reverses the so-called facts about life in matter and states "There is no life, truth, intelligence nor substance in matter. All is Infinite Mind and Its infinite manifestation."

According to Mary Baker Eddy, anyone can prove this Science when this platform is understood and "the letter and the spirit bear witness…" In other words, one who honestly and humbly strives to find God and Christ will prove to themselves the truth contained in Science and Health. But to those who skim the book and expect a quick healing or "sign" and whose hearts are far from the Christ spirit, will make "shipwreck" of their faith. It is these people who tend to slander Christian Science or call it a cult following. Mrs. Eddy is clear on this point when she states: "It is not wise to take a halting and half-way position or to expect to work equally with Spirit and matter, Truth and error. There is but one way — namely, God and His idea — which leads to spiritual being. The scientific government of the body must be attained through the divine Mind. It is impossible to gain control over the body in any other way. On this fundamental point, timid conservatism is absolutely inadmissible. Only through radical reliance on Truth can scientific healing power be realized. Substituting good words for a good life, fair seeming for straightforward character, is a poor shift for the weak and worldly, who think the standard of Christian Science too high for them." Mary Baker Eddy.


What is a Christian Scientist?

Scientists are students who study and strive to live up to the teachings of Christ Jesus and the revelation of Truth contained in Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.

Mrs. Eddy states that they are the "salt of the earth":

"A Christian Scientist occupies the place at this period of which Jesus spoke to his disciples, when he said: "Ye are the salt of the earth." "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid." Let us watch, work, and pray that this salt lose not its saltness, and that this light be not hid, but radiate and glow into noontide glory.

The infinite Truth of the Christ-cure has come to this age through a "still, small voice," through silent utterances and divine anointing which quicken and increase the beneficial effects of Christianity. I long to see the consummation of my hope, namely, the student's higher attainments in this line of light."

What do Christian Scientists believe about Jesus?

In the platform, we read: "Jesus was born of Mary. Christ is the true idea voicing good, the divine message from God to men speaking to the human consciousness. The Christ is incorporeal, spiritual, - yea, the divine image and likeness, dispelling the illusions of the senses; the Way, the Truth, and the Life, healing the sick and casting out evils, destroying sin, disease, and death. As Paul says: "There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." The corporeal man Jesus was human."

"Jesus demonstrated Christ; he proved that Christ is the divine idea of God - the Holy Ghost, or Comforter, revealing the divine Principle, Love, and leading into all truth."

Christ Jesus instructed everyone to follow in his footsteps and continue Spiritual healing. Christ Jesus instructed his followers "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give." (Matthew 10:6)

What is Spiritual Healing?

There are many examples of Spiritual healing in the Bible. Before the birth of Jesus and two to three centuries after his resurrection in the early Christian churches, we have records of healing. Abraham's wife, Sarah, gave birth in old age, Elisha raised a young boy from death, and Paul who was not an apostle of Jesus, performed many healings.

"To-day the healing power of Truth is widely demonstrated as an immanent, eternal Science, instead of a phenomenal exhibition. Its appearing is the coming anew of the gospel of "on earth peace, good-will toward men." This coming, as was promised by the Master, is for its establishment as a permanent dispensation among men; but the mission of Christian Science now, as in the time of its earlier demonstration, is not primarily one of physical healing. Now, as then, signs and wonders are wrought in the metaphysical healing of physical disease; but these signs are only to demonstrate its divine origin, — to attest the reality of the higher mission of the Christ-power to take away the sins of the world." Page 150.

Jesus proved the higher laws of God, and the supremacy of Spirit over the so-called laws of matter. "He healed sickness in defiance of what is called material law, but in accordance with God's law, the law of Mind." Page 168

"If God had instituted material laws to govern man, disobedience to which would have made man ill, Jesus would not have disregarded those laws by healing in direct opposition to them and in defiance of all material conditions." Page 228

Who is Mary Baker Eddy?

Mary Baker Eddy discovered the Science of Mind-Healing in February 1866 after she fell on ice and sustained a spinal injury. The doctors declared there was no surgery or medicine to save her. She was studying Matthew 9:2 when she was instantaneously healed and rose.

Mrs. Eddy devoted her life to discovering a positive rule for mental healing. She explored common and alternative methods of healing prevalent in her day, for example, homeopathy. She witnessed patients healed when no medicine was present. The patient's belief in the medicine was all that remained. By 1844 she "was convinced that mortal mind produced all disease." (CSJ 1877). After her healing in 1866, the next nine years were dedicated to researching the Bible, writing Scriptural articles and notes from her practical application of what she would later name, Christian Science. "I was learning Christian Science step by step, gradually developing the wonderful germ I had discovered." (Ess, 127) In 1875 she published the first edition of Science and Health. In the back of the current edition are healing testimonies from ordinary people who were healed by reading the book.

In 1995 Mary Baker Eddy was inducted into the National Woman's Hall of Fame.

What is Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures?

Science and Health is the textbook of Christian Science. Whosoever learns the letter of this book, must also gain its spiritual significance in order to demonstrate Christian Science. Mary Baker Eddy, Prose Works

From the first appearance of Science and Health in 1875, critics have slandered Mary Baker Eddy as a heretic, a blasphemer and more recently have called it a cult. Her discovery undercuts religious doctrines and medical theories. Instead of adopting the higher laws, they attacked her character and criticized her book. Just as Jesus' teachings threatened and discredited the Pharisees' doctrines, Mary Baker Eddy's discovery stirred up hatred and envy against her.

Is Christian Science a cult?

Christian Science is confused with Scientology. It is not related nor is it a cult.  

I have met hundreds of Scientists at churches across America and in classroom settings. Cults brainwash people to live in compounds and stay aloof from society. No members are manipulated or coerced by a leader. There is no central leader in the local church. But there is a profound love for the Founder, Mary Baker Eddy Eddy, who passed away in 1910.  Some people in the mainstream movement act weird about being sick or using medicine. Some refuse to admit they are sick and are labeled as kooks. Today if someone is labeled a conspiracy theorist, it is done so to discredit their ideas and prevent and discourage people from researching the topic and finding the truth. This label has been used successfully, I might add, to prevent people from learning about Mary Baker Eddy, her discovery, and her history. After she discovered this, she devoted the last 40 years of her life to giving Christian Science to the world. Scientists follow her example and follow after Christ.

Her students revered her because she reestablished Christian healing. It is true that she self-sacrificed her life in obedience to God. Lives were changed, characters reformed, morals strengthened, sin and disease healed. She proved Jesus' healing works were based on a scientific Principle, and her followers love her deeply for this revelation and selfless sacrifice to establish Christian Science and her published books.

In the late 19th century and early 20th century, Mrs. Eddy was the most famous personality in the world. Newspapers sent reporters to stake out her home at Pleasant View hoping to photograph her on a carriage ride and create a story for their papers. One persistent writer, Sibyl Wilbur, was granted an interview with her and given a tour of her home at Pleasant View. Miss. Wilbur's notoriety was that of a socialite journalist who interviewed important and interesting people. She had to meet and interview the most famous person of her day! What happened next changed Miss Wilbur's life.

After a brief encounter with Mrs. Eddy, Miss Wilbur was famously quoted as saying "at the conclusion of the interview Miss Wilbur seemed to be overcome. 'Why did not somebody prepare me? It affects me right here - (pointing to her heart). I did not know there was anyone on earth like that.'"

Miss Wilbur became a staunch defender of Mrs. Eddy. She was outraged by the constant lies and rumors that circulated in the papers about her. Miss Wilbur wrote several articles about the extraordinary life of Mary Baker Eddy and later wrote two books: Cradled Obscurity and The Life of Mrs. Eddy. Christian Science is not a cult, but students of the Science who understand the life and sacrifice Mrs. Eddy made defend her passionately and bestow a great deal of love and respect on her.

The Christian Science Organization and Reading Rooms

As the healing wave swept over America and Europe, the Christians who were receptive to the higher laws of God left their churches and became Christian Scientists. They gathered in homes to read the Bible and Science and Health as there were no Christian Science churches or centralized organizations. The First Church of Christ Scientist was erected in Boston and on December 29th, 1894, the Mother Church held the first service. Mary Baker Eddy didn't want to create an organization or build churches. She envisioned the Christian churches would adopt her book as 'the new tongue" and a spiritual revolution would begin, but as of old when the Pharisees rejected the message of Jesus, they threw her and the discovery out of the church.

Christian Science branch churches and reading rooms were built by students who dedicated their lives to studying and teaching the Science that had healed and saved them. It was a normal and natural outpouring of gratitude to raise money and build a church to honor God. Her students were healing and adding new people to the cause by the thousands.

Christian Science after 1910: The Fall of the Mainstream Movement

As the movement grew, Mrs. Eddy wisely created The Church Manual, the spiritual instructions for how to run the church even after its Pastor Emeritus had passed on. She expressly stated in the manual that a central organization shall not control the branch churches. She knew that independent, self-reliant churches must turn to God for guidance and wisdom and that no central authority could replace that need. But in 1910, at the time of her passing, the board of directors disobeyed the manual and claimed she had made a mistake. Instead of disbanding the Mother Church functions and its support of the branches, the Board of Directors sued to gain full control over the church. Operating outside of the authorized functions of the manual, the church organization Mrs. Eddy ordained and carefully watched over has disappeared, and a full record of those decisions and mistakes is outlined in Christian Science after 1910. 

The centralized organization drifted away from the Principle set down by Christian Science so that it no longer can be considered pure Christian Science unadulterated by human theories. The church no longer represents Mary Baker Eddy or the Science she discovered. The current organization is in steep decline and has lost its worldwide standing. As a direct result of this disobedience to the manual, churches are closing, membership is dwindling, and spiritual healing is lost. People have suffered, and people have died under the care of this watered-down, and unprincipled organization. Those who suffered leveled their hatred and criticism at the name Christian Science and Mary Baker Eddy - unaware of the history. This is the primary reason for the negativity about the church, and its founder. 

Another reason for the decline is the church erased Mrs. Eddy's legacy and her historic home, Pleasant View. Now the book and letter of Christian Science remains, but if the spirit is slacking, there can be no spiritual power. Mrs. Eddy said, "If you fail to succeed in any case, it is because you have not demonstrated the life of Christ, Truth, more in your own life, — because you have not obeyed the rule and proved the Principle of divine Science."

"Adherence to righteousness: If the student adheres strictly to the teachings of Christian Science and ventures not to break its rules, he cannot fail of success in healing."

Independent Christian Science

The laws of God and Nature cannot be overthrown by mankind, and so it is with Christian Science. The truth remains to be discovered and lived independently of any centralized church or institution. Spiritual Healing is still possible today.

There is one Christian Science church that broke away from the Mother church and withstood the lawsuits and legally proved the name Christian Science is not owned by the Mother Church. It is located in Plainfield, New Jersey. This on-line church and its members appear to be living in accordance to the original charter and Principles as set down by the Discoverer and Founder, Mary Baker Eddy.