Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered and founded Christian Science, defined Christian Science as “the law of God, the law of good . . . ” (Rudimental Divine Science, p. 1). She’d learned that God is infinite Love, and completely good. A clear glimpse of this through prayer has power to heal and transform anyone.

Mary Baker Eddy was a lifelong student of the Bible. And she’d always wanted to find solutions to human suffering. When she was critically injured in 1866, she turned to God with her whole heart. While reading accounts of Jesus’ swift, powerful healings, she experienced a new sense of God. She saw that God, Spirit, is the only reality. And she was completely healed. She wanted to understand what happened, so she studied the Bible and found universal and dependable laws of God. These laws are the foundation of Christian Science.

Since then many people have been healed and redeemed as they learn about their relationship to God through this reliable Science of Christianity.

Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910) was a spiritual pioneer. Her work covered the disciplines of science, theology, and medicine.

She studied the Bible her whole life. In 1866, she experienced a dramatic recovery from a life-threatening accident after reading one of Jesus’ healings. From that moment, she wanted to know how she had been healed. She read the Bible and prayed for answers. It became clear to her that spiritual healing was based on divine laws of God, Spirit. She proved that these laws could be applied by anyone to heal every form of human suffering and sin.

Spiritual healing isn’t miraculous, but an effect of understanding God’s all-power and love. It’s as provable today as it was in biblical times. For the next forty years, Mary Baker Eddy practiced, taught, and shared this healing Science of Christianity.
As Mary Baker Eddy became known as a Christian healer, she was often asked to cure cases that had been given up by doctors. Once she went to see a woman who’d been given up as dying by a well-known physician. She wrote about this experience, “On seeing her immediately restored by me without material aid, he asked earnestly if I had a work describing my system of healing . . . he urged me immediately to write a book which should explain to the world my curative system of metaphysics” (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 105).

At the time, she was already writing notes that would expand into her textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. This book contains the full explanation of Christian Science and its biblical foundation of spiritual healing. For over a century, readers have shared how reading and studying Science and Health has given them a new spiritual sense of the Bible and of their unchangeable relationship to God. These new insights result in physical healing and moral regeneration.

Mary Baker Eddy went on to establish the Church of Christ, Scientist. It’s a Christian denomination and worldwide movement of spiritual healers. She published 15 more books and started several weekly and monthly magazines—the Christian Science Sentinel, The Christian Science Journal, and The Herald of Christian Science—that feature articles on Christian Science practice and verified testimonies of healing. In 1908, when she was 87, she founded The Christian Science Monitor, a global newspaper that provides balanced, humane coverage of world news. It is alert to progress and promise as well as to humanity’s need to address suffering and conflict. It was established to “injure no man, but to bless all mankind” (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 353). The Monitor publishes a daily digital edition on its website and a weekly print magazine. It distributes news coverage and commentary via articles, charts, audio, and video content.

Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, was asked if Christian Scientists had a religious creed. She answered, “They have not, if by that term is meant doctrinal beliefs” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, pp. 496–497). She did provide a few tenets—or key points—that briefly summarize the teachings of Christian Science. They are rooted in the Bible.

Tenets of Christian Science

1. As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life.

2. We acknowledge and adore one supreme and infinite God. We acknowledge His Son, one Christ; the Holy Ghost or divine Comforter; and man in God’s image and likeness.

3. We acknowledge God’s forgiveness of sin in the destruction of sin and the spiritual understanding that casts out evil as unreal. But the belief in sin is punished so long as the belief lasts.

4. We acknowledge Jesus’ atonement as the evidence of divine, efficacious Love, unfolding man’s unity with God through Christ Jesus the Way-shower; and we acknowledge that man is saved through Christ, through Truth, Life, and Love as demonstrated by the Galilean Prophet in healing the sick and overcoming sin and death.

5. We acknowledge that the crucifixion of Jesus and his resurrection served to uplift faith to understand eternal Life, even the allness of Soul, Spirit, and the nothingness of matter.

6. And we solemnly promise to watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus; to do unto others as we would have them do unto us; and to be merciful, just, and pure.

It’s common for people to look to a pastor when they need guidance, comfort, healing, or a deeper sense of purpose. The Christian Science Pastor is available to offer this kind of nurturing and mentoring around the clock. That’s because the worldwide Church of Christ, Scientist has just one universal, permanent Pastor.

Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered and founded Christian Science, wanted her Church’s Pastor to be as pure, constant, and powerful as God’s Word itself. To this end, in 1895 she ordained as Pastor both the Bible and her book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, which opens up the Bible in its application to all human needs. Together, these two books are a mentor, spiritual resource, and timeless guide open to all—a Pastor for the world.

As the universal Pastor for the Church of Christ, Scientist, the Bible and Science and Health embrace church congregations with a message of Christian love, preach the Word with clarity, minister to those needing care in every place and circumstance, and prove their worth through healing transformation.

Because of its timeless spiritual message, the Pastor is a powerful preacher at all Christian Science worship services. On Sundays, a Bible Lesson-Sermon of passages from these books is presented by Readers. Wednesday services include topical readings from the Pastor and time for congregants to share how it has illumined their inseparable relationship with God and brought about healing through prayer.

The Bible says that “God is love” (I John 4:16). God’s love is at the core of Christian Science. Mary Baker Eddy wrote that “Divine Love is the substance of Christian Science, the basis of its demonstration, yea, its foundation and superstructure.” Those who practice Christian Science do their best to live the bold, generous, and compassionate love that Christ Jesus laid out in his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5–7). This is the heart of its Christianity.

Christian Science is also a science because it’s based on God as infinite Principle as well as unchanging Love. God loves all of us unconditionally and is the only true power and source of all good. Christian Science explains the spiritual laws of Love that Jesus relied on to heal sickness and sin. These laws are reliable and can be proven. People are doing the same kind of healing today as they learn more about what God really is.