Weighing up the evidence

In my reading so far, it seems that biographer Gillian Gill is endeavouring to provide a balanced view of her subject Mary Baker Eddy by weighing up the various points of view against available evidence and attempting to set the record straight.  

Thus, she firmly debunks critical writers such as Milmine, Dakin, and Bates and Dittemore, whose accounts, Gill avers, are often simply hostile fabrications, while also pointing to specific evidence brought to bear on related circumstances by biographers such as Robert Peel and Jewel Spangler Smaus. One example is Eddy's marriage to Daniel Patterson. 

At this time, the then Mary Baker Glover had been widowed for about nine years, her son George had been taken from her, her mother had passed on, and her father had remarried. Mary was residing with her older sister Abigail Tilton in a situation in which she had little or no autonomy. Gill weighs up Mary's reasons for accepting Patterson's marriage proposal and concludes that it was "desperation" (Gill's Mary Baker Eddy, 1998, page 100) that persuaded her.

This book offers the reader a thoughtful and thorough view of a complex life and reminds the student of Christian Science to always consult their textbooks, the Bible and Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures when weighing up a matter and seeking light and direction. 

"In Christian Science mere opinion is valueless." (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 341:11 (only))

It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man. (Psalms 118:8)

Here, this week's Bible Lesson is helpful where the Psalmist states that "the upright ... will have no fear of bad news" (Ps 112: 4, 7) where "news" may be rendered "rumour", because "their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord".

Julie Swannell

Excellent notes on Robert Peel

This is quite a book (Mary Baker Eddy by Gillian Gill) we are reading this month!  We have neglected a treasure, I feel.

I went in search of the beginning of the notes and opened on a page and a half about Robert Peel. Excellent.

It is in the Appendix under The Essential Published Source Books. Page 581*.

Joyce Voysey

Ed: * Gill writes: "No biographer in the history of Christian Science has known the archival materials at The Mother Church as well as Robert Peel did, and no one has read them more closely or more astutely... Peel's massive three-volume work--Mary Baker Eddy: Years of Discovery (1966), Years of Trial (1971), Years of Authority (1977)--was first published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston and later by the Christian Science Publishing Society."

Note that all three Peel biographies are now available online to subscribers of jsh-online.com. 

Gill has my attention better now

 Book Club Sept. 2021  – Mary Baker Eddy by Gillian Gill

There is something of interest already. All the other biographies that I can think of have a colon and a few words to show the approach the writer has taken of Mrs Eddy’s life and work.

I must say that I have resisted reading this book ever since it was first published. The cover is so black for one thing, and I couldn’t seem to come to terms with the writing.

Thank you editor Julie for giving me a push.

As I have been reading the Preface (which is long), I wondered if Gill refers to and quotes Robert Peel’s Trilogy of Mary Baker Eddy – The Discovery, The Trial, The Discovery. So I looked his name up in the Index. I was delighted with the first reference:  “...Robert Peel, Mrs. Eddy’s most brilliant, informed, and judicious biographer…”  (top of page 40)  There are over 60 mentions of Peel in the Index. Gill has my attention better now.

It seems Peel had a more full access to The Mother Church Archives than was extended to Gill. Peel’s books were published in 1966 (Discovery), 1971 (Trial), 1977 (Authority). Gill’s in 1998.

So Gill is going to give us a "warts and all" record of dealings of the Board of Directors of The Mother Church that seemed to be less than perfect. As she found it. “...nothing covered that shall not be revealed" Luke 12:2 (KJV). The full citation reads: "For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known."

Perhaps this book might have been the catalyst which prompted the more recent publications such as Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer, and the expanded We Knew Mary Baker Eddy.

I will get on with the Introduction.

Joyce Voysey