Does Christian Science really heal?  Yes!

Julie Swannell

A visitor to our Reading Room today has inspired me to write this evening.  I love the way this can happen.  Our book, Christian Science in Germany, gives ample proof that Christian Science heals.  Almost every page contains evidence of it.  Of course, the world is awash with healing methods.  It is of vital interest to everyone to be healthy. 

Some Delving by Joyce Voysey

While in the Burleigh Heads Reading Room recently, I did some delving into Christian Science in Germany.  In 1940-41 there were three Christian Science Churches and one Society, and eleven practitioners in Dresden

Illuminating research on the period 1889 to 1913

Joyce Voysey

So, what did I discover about our book from re-reading Historical Sketches from the life of Mary Baker Eddy and the History of Christian Science by Clifford P. Smith?  Mary Beecher Longyear was the woman who spent the winter in Dresden, became acquainted with Christian Science, and “did some healing and three informal talks on Christian Science which were attended by American, English and German people.” It was she who persuaded practitioner and teacher Laura Lathrop to encourage someone to go to Dresden to establish Christian Science there.  She also furnished financial support for the work for several years.

Get out our dictionaries
 Julie Swannell

One thing that impressed me as I read Christian Science in Germany is that the new (German) students of Christian Science had to get out their dictionaries in order to understand Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.

I wonder if we English speakers sometimes assume we know what a word means – maybe for years actually having only a vague idea or perhaps even a completely incorrect  idea – instead of consulting a good dictionary to really get the essence of the meaning. 

Take for instance the word “immanent”

An Interlude

(Joyce Voysey)

The name Frances Thurber Seal, author of Redcliffe Book Club’s book for August “Christian Science in Germany”, had me wondering about James Thurber, the author.  Is he any connection to Frances Thurber Seal?  Why do I remember his name?

This amazing book

by Joyce Voysey

Now I have completed the reading of the book.  I too have been making a list of qualities expressed by our inspired writer of this amazing book:

Martin Luther started steps which led to Protestantism

Joyce Voysey

From Martin Luther * - www.spurgeon.org/-phil/history/95 theses:

		Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences Commonly Known as The 95 Theses by Dr. Martin Luther

Out of love and concern for the truth, and with the object of eliciting it, the following heads will be the subject of a public discussion at Wittenberg under the presidency of the reverend father, Martin Luther, Augustinian, Master of Arts and Sacred Theology, and duly appointed Lecturer on these subjects in that place. He requests that whoever cannot be present personally to debate the matter orally will do so in absence in writing.

The 95 Theses can all be read in this entry on the Internet – The Spurgeon Archive*.  I like number 93: Hail, hail to all those prophets who say to Christ's people, "The cross, the cross," where there is no cross. **

“Nothing in me could have done these works”

Julie Swannell

 When I first opened my copy of Christian Science in Germany earlier this month, I was surprised and delighted to see that it had a greeting on the inside front cover.  It was a gift from dear friends in Perth in 1994!  How special this makes it and how beautifully it marries with the opening paragraph of our book, where it tells of another book gift (the book was Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy) way back in 1896.

I’ve been noticing all the qualities of uplifted thought described in the text

9.8.12. Beginning Christian Science in Germany.  Author Frances Thurber Seal

 Joyce Voysey

Christianity and Germany have a long history.  And Germany and Christian Science have, as well.  German was the first foreign language into which Science and Health was translated.  And I seem to remember that Mrs. Eddy said that she felt she could establish Christian Science in Germany more easily than in any other country.  Frau Bertha Gunther-Peterson, who established Christian Science in Hannover, Germany, presented Mrs. Eddy with a beautiful and valuable copy of a German Bible.

 Gutenberg invented the printing press which made possible the printing of the Bible by machine, rather than by hand. 

Here’s a lovely note from one of our very special readers, Pam Gasteen:

Grateful thanks to Redcliffe Reading Room for making Christian Science in Germany the book to read this month. ...This afternoon I started reading and have been enthralled at what I have read.  For anyone just going into the Practice it should be a must read.  I am just so grateful to be once again reading it.

A million thanks for sharing Redcliffe's RR's love with us on the other side of the Bay.

Historical background - 1896

  

Image of Dresden during the 1890s, before extensive World War II destruction. Landmarks include Dresden Frauenkirche, Augustus Bridge, and Katholische Hofkirche.

Our book “Christian Science in Germany” begins in 1896 and concludes in 1903. 

·       1866 had seen Mary Baker Eddy experience a physical healing after a severe fall on the ice. 

·       1875 saw the publication of her major work “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures”.
·       In 1892, Mary Baker Eddy had settled on her title as “Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science”, and of which she wrote in a letter to Julia Field-King “I beg of you to be temperate in using it.” (See p. 37 Years of Authority by Robert Peel.)
·       In 1894 The Mother Church was completed and in 1896 Mrs Eddy paid her third and final visit to that church in Boston.

Meanwhile, around the world