Article October 4, 1999 Issue

SISTER REFORMERS

M. DeLacy

Like Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Mary Baker Eddy was raised in a Calvinist family in the early 1800s. In later years, both these women recounted incidents during childhood when they were made physically ill by certain elements of a religious dogma that taught that God is a stern and punishing male, saving a select few and damning the rest.^{Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Eighty Years and More (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1993), p. 43; Eddy, Ret., p. 13 .}

While loving the church, Mrs. Eddy protested against the harsh doctrine of predestination. It was through her understanding of God as a loving Father-Mother, wholly good, neither creating nor allowing any evil or disease, that she was able to duplicate the healings of Scripture.

Both Mrs. Eddy and Mrs. Stanton were drawn to the logic of scientific inquiry. Mrs. Stanton saw science as the antidote to what she considered arbitrary religious dogma and directed her energy toward reform outside the church. Mrs. Eddy, on the other hand, turned her scientific inquiry toward reforming the teachings of the church. She approached religion with the same goal a scientist has—to understand, explain, and prove through practical application the laws that govern creation. What she discovered gives her a pivotal role in redefining the relation between science and religion. Did these women know each other?

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