This year marks the bicentennial of the birth of Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910), an inductee of the National Women's Hall of Fame for her humanitarian work. Her book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, was selected by members of the Women's National Book Association as one of 75 Books by Women Whose Words Have Changed the World. But apart from that, who is Mary Baker Eddy and how did she contribute to the liberation of women?
Mrs. Eddy was widely recognized and acclaimed as a pioneering religious leader, as the discoverer of Christian Science, and as the founder of acclaimed international newspaper, The Christian Science Monitor. Her life and accomplishments illustrate how we can't afford to overlook the needed component of spirituality to make real progress on the issues that confront our lives and well-being.
Instead of solely gravitating toward the belief in a benign God, Eddy needed something more. Even though she believed in a benign God, Eddy began asking how the reality of a God of love could be reconciled with the existence of a world filled with so much misery and pain. Because of this, Eddy found herself confronting the basic problem undermining Christian faith in her time.
How can we celebrate the empowering and brave aspects of women's history this year?
After being injured in a severe fall shortly in early 1866, Eddy turned to a Gospel account of healing, experiencing a moment of spiritual illumination and discovery, bringing not only immediate recovery, but a new direction to her life. "
That short experience," Eddy later wrote, "included a glimpse of the great fact that I have since tried to make plain to others, namely, Life in and of Spirit; this Life being the sole reality of existence. I learned that mortal thought evolves a subjective state which it names matter, thereby shutting out the true sense of Spirit."
In celebration of Women's History Month a free web lecture entitled, "Mary Baker Eddy, 19th Century Discoverer and her Great Discovery" by Michelle Nanouche, practitioner of Christian Science healing and international speaker is being presented by Ninth Church of Christ, Scientist Los Angeles.
To access this talk go to christiansciencelosangeles.com.
The lecture will explore a variety of questions, including: "What did Eddy discover about healing that goes beyond purely physical factors based on a patient's biology and genetic make-up?" "What does Christian Science offer beyond positive thinking or faith healing?" "How is Mary Baker Eddy's life and work relevant to us today?"
