The negative reviews of this book on here are disingenuous, unintelligent, and shrill.
But they are typical. The Church and its members don't want to own up to how dangerous it is adhering to the strictest tenets of Christian Science. Of course, anyone who believes that diabetes, a broken bone, a terminal illness, or any other life-threatening illnesses can be done away with by wishing and praying need a serious reality check.
My paternal grandmother was a Christian Science practitioner. She told me I could give a "demonstration" by curing myself of my congenital hearing defect.
These are the issues behind the religion, its founder, and the Church, that Caroline Fraser has so scrupulously, relentlessly researched - and is the basis for this spellbinding book.
Fraser's level of scholarship, reasoning, analysis, presentation, and cogent, stylish writing is, in a word, extraordinary.
Her work here, without (naturally) the "cooperation" of the Church, is of an unbelievable breadth, reporting, and super-completeness. Every possible angle is investigated, elaborated upon, and made manifestly clear.
You can almost discern Fraser's incredulous tone in places where the ignorance and shocking indifference directed toward those in need of medical care which results in horrific tragedy; not just dying, but of needless suffering due to withholding of medications. It is difficult to read some of the sheer stupidity of the actions of some of the "followers," and their heinous complacency and indifference to obviously ill and suffering people; your heart breaks for the many children in these pages who didn't have to die.
Then there is the matter of money, and "mishandled" funds. Lawsuits. Infighting in the Church. All of it, appalling.
The Church did in fact have a chance to redeem itself. The most revealing factor in this examination, of great interest, is that one of the Church's teachers, Arthur Corey, had the potential to modernize the extremist, fear-propagating tenets of Christian Science, but - no surprise - he was vilified and stymied by the powers that be running the institution.
As Fraser writes: "But Corey also had an unerring sense of where the Christian Science movement had gone wrong. He identified the Church's gradual insistence after (Mary Baker) Eddy's death on "radical reliance" as a bad political mistake, forcing Scientists to take a hard line that made the religion unappealing to outsiders and critics. Corey is virtually the only Christian Scientist ever to acknowledge honestly and directly the dangers that the religion posed to children, publishing a description of children who had suffered and died as a result of overzealous reliance on Christian Science. "
"The irony of Arthur Corey's life and career as an outcast Christian Scientist lies in the fact that he represented, on many levels, the best qualities of his religion. He embodied the kindness, compassion, and temperateness of the moderate Scientist, the Scientist who chooses not to force his beliefs on others or push his patients and students beyond what they can stand. He acknowledged, as no Christian Scientist publicly has before or since, the mental anguish that is caused by not knowing the potential severity of any given illness: "I have seen more than one patient relieved of unbearable terror by a medical diagnosis which revealed that a particular disorder was benign or malignant," he wrote. "It is nonsense to think the doctors produce the disease." His teachings stripped the religion of its darkest impulses toward paranoia and extremism. He stood for what Christian Science might have been at its best: a devotion to exploring the meaning of life, health and true morality. Arthur Corey died in 1977, dismissed by the Church but, nonetheless, a popular and enthusiastic Christian Science teacher to the end." (end quote)
I have known many Christian Scientists who visit their doctors regularly and get the proper medical intervention as needed. The religion, for them, is greatly helpful in giving them inner strength to cope with life. My fear, though, is that innocent people, especially children, will continue to be the institution's casualties.
Until now, I had never understood why my grandmother functioned the way she did; she alienated practically everyone in her midst by being a fanatic of CS, and caused much ill-will and bad tidings. She only became human and real when she wasn't under CS's dictum. I only wonder what she would have been like had she not been so *fanatical,* so unyielding.
This peerless, supremely presented study of Fraser's can hardly be bettered - and may stand as the definitive history and examination of Christian Science.
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Reviews with images
Excellent book.
If you're wanting a secular, well-written and well-researched read of Mary Baker Eddy and Christian Science this is an excellent read.
Top reviews from other countries
LMS
Excellent exposition of the many cracks in the edifice.
Reviewed in Canada on May 30, 2020