- Paperback: 776 pages
- Publisher: Da Capo Press; New edition edition (Sep 3 1999)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0738202274
- ISBN-13: 978-0738202273
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.7 x 5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 1.1 Kg
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#484,955 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #14 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Protestantism > Christian Science
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
The feminist perspective of historian Gillian Gill (author of a previous biography of Agatha Christie) adds three-dimensionality to the life story of the controversial, charismatic founder of Christian Science. Neither unblemished saint nor unscrupulous manipulator, Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910) emerges in this substantive reassessment as a powerful woman so constrained by conventional notions of femininity that she suffered decades of frustration and ill health before liberating herself with radical new ideas. Her emphasis on spiritual healing and women's empowerment made enemies virtually from the first publication of Science and Health in 1875; the schisms and lawsuits that plagued her church gave Eddy's opponents ammunition. In her thorough coverage of such touchy matters, Gill doesn't deny her subject's imperiousness and tendency to paranoia, but her sympathetic analysis stresses Eddy's gifts as a religious leader, administrator, and propagandist. The author gained access to the closely guarded Christian Science archives without ceding editorial control, and her scrupulous effort to freshly judge every issue justifies this trust. Gill's dry wit and first-person presence in the text's opinions ensure that her lengthy, exhaustively documented narrative doesn't feel unduly daunting or academic. --Wendy Smith
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Gill (Agatha Christie: The Woman and Her Mysteries, LJ 1/92) writes about the amazingly resilient founder of the Christian Science Church, a woman who weathered indigence, a life-threatening fall, three marriages, various defections of students, and legal challenges. Gill, who was given access to church archives, provides an unbiased portrait of an extraordinary woman who exercised spiritual leadership at a time when women's concerns were supposed to be in the home, not the public arena. Unlike earlier biographers, Gill does not make Eddy into a saint or a devil?she sees Eddy's successes as an expression of her talents, making this book of interest to feminists and historians as well as those interested in Christian Science. Recommended for all libraries.?Carolyn M. Craft, Longwood Coll., Farmville, VA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most helpful customer reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
Waste of time,
By
This review is from: Mary Baker Eddy (Paperback)
Gill's book is 2 inches thick. Nothing is new and Eddy as all CS approved literature always comes out on top. She is the infallible prophet that without Rev. Wiggin's revisions of Science and Health, making sense of non-sense, she would have never suceeded in having individuals follow what she herself never did. Morphine was her friend when pain was present. For a more objective view see: Fraser's "God's Perfect Child" or Bliss "Destiny of the Mother Church" which really shows Eddy=Christ. Kessinger Publishers publish a lot of out of print Eddy Books/Christian Science books and is worth a look at.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Masterpiece of Women's Studies,
By
This review is from: Mary Baker Eddy (Paperback)
This is MUCH more than a biography on Mary Baker Eddy. It is a MASTERPIECE of women's studies as Gill explores what it was like for a widow to make her way in the world in the late 1800s and how people reacted to an uppity woman who dared to start a new religion. In a sense it is also a mystery, unraveled bit by bit as Gill explores the way early biographers of Eddy misrepresented her and purposely went looking for information to discredit her, and how Eddy's former friends sold information to the media. There is also the intriguing story of how Gill came to write the book, the hoops she had to jump through with the Christian Science church, and her unflagging search for truth.I was only vaguely interested in Eddy when I picked up this book, but soon I could not put it down. Eddy led a fascinating life with many strange twists and turns, and all this alone makes interesting reading. But in the hands of Gill the book is deep, thought-provoking, mesmerizing (to use a term current in Eddy's life). It is wonderfully well-written and thought out, and really is just a joy to read. It resurrects Mary Baker Eddy as a pioneering woman, and with all of her flaws, shows her to be a truly remarkable person.
4.0 out of 5 stars
MBE for the soccer mom/ 'you go girl!' modern woman?,
This review is from: Mary Baker Eddy (Paperback)
All in all, not a bad effort. Admittedly, it was annoying at times to read the author's personal interjections within the body of the manuscript. But then I reasoned that Gill's effort here is largely a surveyed reassessment of all previous major works on Mrs. Eddy's life. As such, (and as she mentions repeatedly throughout the text), there is no point in her going over ground already covered in herculean fashion ala' Robert Peel. Unless Gill had new information on Mrs. Eddy previously unpublished or discussed, an exhaustive work would simply have been akin to reinventing the wheel. Better on an event-by-event basis (the most important ones, anyway) to reconsider some of Mrs. Eddy's more controversial and significant moves and this Gill does with reasonably good aplomb. The author's take on Mrs. Eddy as the proverbial twenty-first century woman trapped in a repressive, nineteenth century Victorian society should play well with a number of women today (particularly those who find themselves divorced, widowed, homeless, raising children on their own, or single by choice). That may sound like a cynical statement to some, but it's not meant to be. It simply may be the best way for MBE to 'fit in' with this age. That being said, I still feel there is a great deal about Mrs. Eddy that Gill misses capturing or simply glances over in an effort to get to more juicy details (the chapter on the plot to murder Daniel Spofford, while entertaining, I thought to be a bit much). Nothing, I suppose, sells so well about Mrs. Eddy than controversy.
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