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Title: Mary Baker Eddy (Radcliffe Biography Series) by Gillian Gill ISBN: 0-7382-0227-4 Publisher: Perseus Publishing Pub. Date: 01 October, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (15 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A Masterpiece of Women's Studies
Comment: 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.
Rating: 5
Summary: An extraordinary achievement
Comment: Ms Gill is not a Christian Scientist but you would suppose she has lived with her subject for a very long time. Her considerable forensic skills are just what her subject needs. In the sections dealing with P.P Quimby, the Misses Ware and Eddy's second husband Daniel Patterson, she contributes solid new material. Frequently she demolishes myths promulgated by the Mimine/Dakin/Braden biographies (and in a devastating appendix, analyses the motivations of these biographers). A new Mary Baker Eddy emerges, something of diamond in the rough but a diamond to be reckoned with, nonetheless. But if Ms Gill's objectivity is the result of not being a Christian Scientist, it also gives her book a problem. Her grasp of Christian Science theology is not...well, not complete. This leads, for example, to a very good joke about what Christian Science calls 'animal magnetism' but a joke based on a misconception nonetheless. Without a more complete understanding of Mrs Eddy's thinking, it is impossible for Ms Gill to provide a balanced view of her later years. The frenetic outward activity of Mrs Eddy's life in her eighties and even nineties is described minus the ballast of the spiritual mediation that made this activity possible. But this is still a very good book and a fun read. Ms Gill says Mrs Eddy would have enjoyed meeting Mark Twain. It's certain Mrs Eddy would have relished meeting Ms Gill.
Rating: 1
Summary: Waste of time
Comment: 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.
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Title: Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (W.M.B.E.) by Mary Baker Eddy ISBN: 0879520388 Publisher: Writings of Mary Baker Eddy Pub. Date: 01 October, 1994 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: God's Perfect Child : Living and Dying in the Christian Science Church by Caroline Fraser ISBN: 0805044310 Publisher: Owl Books Pub. Date: 01 August, 2000 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Mary Baker Eddy, Speaking for Herself by Mary Baker Eddy ISBN: 0879522755 Publisher: Writings of Mary Baker Eddy Pub. Date: 01 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Blue Windows: A Christian Science Childhood by Barbara Wilson ISBN: 0312180543 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 01 April, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: A Course in Miracles by Foundation of Inner Peace, Foundation for Inner Peace ISBN: 0960638881 Publisher: Foundation for Inner Peace Pub. Date: 1975 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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