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
No comments:
Post a Comment