Journal of Christian Science [Facsimile Edition]

Boston: Christian Scientists' Publishing Co. First facsimile edition. A facsimile edition of the first sixteen issues of this landmark periodical, published and edited by the founder of the Christian Science movement. This facsimile printing was produced because of the demand for copies of the Journal. In the 1880's there were but a few hundred Christian Scientists. In the 1950's there were several hundred thousand, and the demand for copies increased proportionally. The original printing of the Journal is excessively rare. Mary Baker Glover Eddy (1821-1910) advocated Christian Science as a spiritual practical solution to health and moral issues. Her Journal was "An Independent Family Paper, to Promote Health and Morals." It included instructive articles and verified reports of Christian healing. Each issue also contained questions and answers about Christian Science, book reviews, interviews, poems, and a worldwide directory of Christian Science practitioners, teachers, churches, reading rooms, organizations at universities and colleges, nurses, and Committees of Publication. The first nine issues of the Journal were published on each alternate month and edited by Eddy. Beginning with the tenth issue (Sept. 6, 1884), the Journal became a monthly and was edited by one of Eddy's students, Emma Curtis Hopkins (1849-1925). Although Hopkins was acting editor of the Journal for just over a year, she was relieved of the post for an editorial syncretizing too wide an Asian influence for Eddy's identification with Christianity. Hopkins soon left the Christian Science of Eddy to develop her own more eclectic form of metaphysical idealism known later as New Thought..