Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Discovery

by Robert Peel

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0030866480
• ISBN13: 9780030866487
• Release Date: January 1972
• Publisher: Holt McDougal
• Length: 370 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.

Customer Reviews

One of the finest biographies about Mrs. Eddy

This book is the first of a three-volume set chronicling the life of Mary Baker Eddy, a woman who discovered Christian Science and founded the Christian Science Church. Her textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, has sold millions of copies since being published in 1875. Unlike several other biographies out there, Peel had tremendous access to the Church's Archives in Boston, and it shows in this book. The 300-page book generates about 50 pages of endnotes! This first volume chronicles the history of Mary Baker Eddy's life from 1821 through 1875, the publication of Science and Health. Like many historical biographies, it starts slow (much of Mrs. Eddy's life before discovering Christian Science was that of a typical nineteenth-century New Englander), but becomes much more absorbing in later chapters. I yet to read the other two books, but Peel's biography is widely regarded as one of the best of the many Mrs. Eddy biographies. Of the few Mary Baker Eddy biographies I have read, I would have to put this one alongside Gillian Gill's biography in terms of overall quality. It is interesting to compare the works of Gill and Peel on this subject. Both Gill and Peel had the greatest access to the Church Archives, and both are well-crafted examples of rigorous scholarship. Peel, unlike Gill, is a Christian Scientist, and hence takes great care in placing various historical events in their spiritual and religious context. Most Christian Scientists will appreciate this, while some non-Christian Scientists might find some of these efforts to be extraneous. It may be surprising that Gill, on the other hand, takes more time to debunk several of the outrageous historical myths out there about Mrs. Eddy and Christian Science (i.e., that Mary Baker Eddy plagiarized Science and Health from Quimby and other nonsense). Non-Christian Scientists interested may want to start with Gill's book first, but I think Christian Scientists would enjoy reading both Gill's and Peel's biographies (these are not the only good biographies out there).