Christian Scientists, founded by Mary Baker Eddy, believe prayer heals and read the Bible together with her book Science and Health.
Mary Baker Eddy published Science and Health in 1875 and founded the Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston in 1879, teaching that sickness is healed by prayer and spiritual understanding rather than medicine. The Christian Science Monitor (1908) is its newspaper. Small today, its reading rooms remain in many cities.
The tree's references for this branch: Britannica: Christian Science · Christian Science (official): What we believe · Wikipedia: Christian Science.
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Christian Science is a church founded in Boston in 1879 by Mary Baker Eddy, on the teaching that God is wholly good, that sickness and sin are not part of what God made, and that both can be healed through prayer and a right understanding of God. Its institutions include public Reading Rooms and The Christian Science Monitor, a newspaper with seven Pulitzer Prizes.
Eddy was born Mary Morse Baker in 1821 in a farmhouse at Bow, New Hampshire, to a Congregationalist family, and was ill often as a child 4. She moved away from the Congregationalism she was raised in, was for a time influenced by the ideas of the mental healer Phineas Parkhurst Quimby, and in 1866, after a fall on the ice at Lynn in Massachusetts, said she recovered suddenly while reading the Bible 4. She dated everything that followed to that recovery and to the years of Bible study she gave to working out what had happened.
She began writing in February 1872 and published Science and Health in 1875 5. The subtitle with a Key to the Scriptures was added in 1883 and later shortened, and she went on revising the book for the rest of her life, through a final edition in 1910 3,5. It had sold more than nine million copies by 2001 and passed ten million by 2024 5. Christian Scientists call it the textbook.
The church came four years after the book. In 1879 Eddy and twenty-six followers were granted a charter by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to found the Church of Christ (Scientist), reorganised in 1892 under the name Church of Christ, Scientist 3. The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, was built in Boston in 1894, with a much larger extension added in 1906 3. In 1895, in the Manual of The Mother Church, Eddy did something no other founder has quite done: she ordained the Bible and Science and Health as pastor over the Mother Church, which is why the church has no ordained ministry to this day 3.
She also built a publishing house. The Christian Science Journal began in 1883, the Christian Science Sentinel in 1898, The Herald of Christian Science in 1903, and the Christian Science Publishing Society was founded in 1898 3,4. In July 1908, after hostile press coverage of her in McClure's and the New York World, Eddy asked the church to found a newspaper as a platform for responsible journalism, and The Christian Science Monitor was the result: a secular paper rather than a religious one, which has won seven Pulitzer Prizes and is still known for its foreign reporting and its refusal of partisanship 3. Eddy died in 1910, aged eighty-nine 4.
The movement grew quickly and has contracted since. It was described in its heyday as the thinker's religion and was for a time the fastest growing religion in the United States, with nearly 270,000 members by 1936 3. The number of practitioners in the United States began falling in the 1940s 3. What that decline means is discussed below, along with the difficulty of counting a church that does not publish its own numbers.
See it on the family treeIn Christian Science teaching, God is entirely good, and is the only real cause; what God did not make, including sin, disease and death, has no reality of its own, and healing is what happens when a person sees that clearly. Eddy described the whole enterprise as a return to primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing 3.
The church describes healing as the outcome of a better understanding of a person's relationship to God. It teaches that this understanding grows through studying the Bible and Science and Health, prayer and, for those who choose it, working with a Christian Science practitioner 2. It roots the practice in the gospels rather than in a theory, citing Jesus in John 14 that whoever believes in him will do the works he does 2. Its understanding of healing includes: physical health, mental health, general well-being such as relief from fear, anxiety and loneliness, and moral health, meaning release from destructive habits 2.
The church is emphatic about what it is not, and this is worth quoting because it is the point outsiders most often get wrong. Christian Science, it says, is not New Age, faith healing or positive thinking, because it relies on God, the divine Mind, as the source of healing; the human mind, mind over matter and positive thinking are not factors in it. It adds that Christian Scientists do not accept suffering as God's will 2.
Christian Science differs from Nicene Christian teachings on several doctrines. It is nontrinitarian, and its positions on the Trinity, on the divinity of Jesus, on the atonement, on the resurrection and on the eucharist all depart from those of the mainstream denominations 3. It performs no baptisms and has no rituals, and because it has no clergy of its own, ministers of other faiths often conduct marriages and funerals for its members 3.
The relationship between prayer and medical treatment is an important area of inquiry. The church does not require members to avoid medical or surgical care; many use dentists, optometrists, obstetricians, physicians for broken bones, and vaccination where the law requires it, and Eddy did not forbid her students to study medicine 3. What the church holds is that Christian Science prayer works best when it is not combined with medical treatment 3. It should also be said plainly that reliance on prayer instead of treatment has been blamed for deaths of adherents and of their children, and that between the 1880s and the 1990s a number of parents and others were prosecuted, and in a few cases convicted, of manslaughter or neglect 3. The account distinguishes the church's teachings from the documented consequences of particular decisions.
A Christian Science Sunday service centers on readings from the Bible and Science and Health rather than a sermon composed by a minister.
Each church has two Readers, elected rather than ordained, who read aloud a Bible lesson, called the Lesson-Sermon, made up of passages from the Bible and from Science and Health 3. The same lesson is read in every branch church in the world that week. There is no sermon, no minister and no interpretation offered from the platform, which follows directly from Eddy's ordaining the two books as pastor in 1895 3. The service also includes singing.
Wednesday evening meetings include opportunities for members to speak. Each meeting opens with a shorter set of readings and then gives the time to the congregation, who stand up and describe healings and answered prayer in their own lives 3. The Christian Science Sentinel has been publishing accounts of healings for well over a century, and the church says they are verified before publication 2.
Between services the work is done by practitioners and in Reading Rooms. A Christian Science practitioner is certified by the church and prays for people who ask, in person, by telephone or in writing, and charges a fee for it; there were 1,249 practitioners worldwide in 2015, and in the United States in 2010 a consultation cost between 25 and 50 dollars 3. Reading Rooms are the church's public face: quiet shops open to anyone, where the books can be read or bought. In April 2010 the Christian Science Journal listed 1,068 of them in the United States and 489 elsewhere 3.
Christian Scientists read the King James Version, and they read it alongside Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, which is why this page quotes the King James and no other translation 3.
The two books are not held to be equal, but they are used together in a way that is particular to this church. The Bible is Scripture; Science and Health is the key that Christian Scientists hold unlocks its spiritual sense, and the Lesson-Sermon each week is built from passages of both, alternating, with the correlative readings from Science and Health printed against the Bible verses 3,1. A member reading at home is likely to be reading both at once.
The book itself has a shape worth knowing: a preface, the main chapters, a Key to the Scriptures section that treats Genesis and Revelation and includes a glossary of biblical terms, and a Fruitage chapter of testimonies from readers who said they were healed by reading it 5. Eddy revised it continually for thirty-five years, so editions differ, and the 1910 text is the settled one 3,5.
Free to read here: King James Version. The full note on which Bible Christian Science use, with sources ›
These passages illustrate themes discussed in this profile; they are not a survey of members' favorite verses. Each is quoted from the King James (Authorized) Version and links to its chapter. You can explore the text for study or personal reflection; memorization is optional.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.
The works that I do shall he do also. The church quotes this verse first when it explains healing, and reads it as addressed to everyone rather than to the disciples only.
Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;
Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases. Forgiveness and healing in one line, which is how this church understands them.
This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. The whole system starts here: if God is wholly good, then what is not good is not God's work.
And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.
Teaching, preaching, and healing every sickness. Christian Scientists read the healing as part of the commission rather than as decoration on it.
While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
The things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. The verse behind the teaching that the material picture is not the final one.
This is a church that does not publish its own membership, and that fact shapes every number here. Independent estimates put it at just over 100,000 in the United States in 1990 and under 50,000 by 2009, against a peak of nearly 270,000 in 1936 3. The church itself gave a figure of about 400,000 worldwide in 2008, while independent studies at the same date put it nearer 100,000 3. Both numbers are on this page because both were published, and a reader should know that they come from different sources and counting methods.
The church's institutions remain part of its public presence. Churches and Reading Rooms remain in many countries, there have been reports of growth in Africa in recent years, and The Christian Science Monitor is still a respected paper, notable for its international coverage and its approach to nonpartisan reporting 3.
Healing remains central to the church's practice and a subject of disagreement. The church's own material sets out what it holds and takes care to distinguish it from faith healing and positive thinking 2. Critics point to the deaths, and to the prosecutions between the 1880s and the 1990s 3. Both the church's account and the documented concerns are relevant to understanding the subject.
Not as a rule of the church. It does not require members to avoid medical or surgical care, and many use dentists, optometrists, obstetricians, doctors for broken bones, and vaccination where the law requires it; Eddy did not forbid her students to study medicine 3. What the church teaches is that its prayer is most effective when not combined with medical treatment, so many members choose prayer first 3. The practice has also been the subject of prosecutions between the 1880s and the 1990s where children died, and a few of those ended in conviction 3.
Two elected Readers lead the readings rather than an ordained minister delivering a sermon. There is no ordained clergy, because in 1895 Eddy ordained the Bible and Science and Health as pastor of the church 3. Two elected Readers read a Lesson-Sermon made up of passages from both books, the same lesson in every branch church in the world that week, and no one comments on it 3. On Wednesday evenings the congregation speaks instead, describing healings and answered prayer.
The church calls the Bible its Scripture and Science and Health its textbook, and holds that the second unlocks the spiritual sense of the first 1,3. In practice the two are read together, and the weekly Lesson-Sermon alternates passages from each 3. The role given to Science and Health is a significant difference from the scriptural authority recognized by other Christian traditions.
A quiet shop, open to the public, where the Bible, Science and Health and the church's periodicals can be read or bought, staffed by members and usually on an ordinary street rather than attached to a church building. In April 2010 the Christian Science Journal listed 1,068 in the United States and 489 elsewhere 3. They are how most people who are not members encounter this church.
No. Eddy asked for it in July 1908, after hostile press coverage of her, and it was founded as a secular paper committed to responsible journalism rather than as a church publication 3. It has won seven Pulitzer Prizes and is known for foreign reporting and for not taking sides 3. It carries one religious article a day and is otherwise an ordinary newspaper.
Numbered references link the account above to its sources. These include the tradition's own documents and outside reference works. The review status below distinguishes source checking from completed member and scholarly review.
BibleVerse. “Christian Science: where they came from, what they hold, and the Bible they read.” bibleverse.site, version 2026-09-09, https://bibleverse.site/denominations/christianscience/
Awaiting review by a member of the tradition. First published 2026-09-08; last changed 2026-09-09. Years before the common era are written BC, and later years plainly, as the site's Christian pages do.
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How this page was made, and the standards it was held to: How these pages were made.
Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases. Christian Scientists read the healing language of this psalm as relevant to spiritual practice today.
Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;