Christian Science and the Bible

Christian Science and the Bible is a response to a talk critical of Mary Baker Eddy’s book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. The talk was given by Reverend H. B. Heacock, D.D., a prominent clergyman in California, at a convocation of ministers in San Francisco. It was then published in the January 20, 1886, issue of the California Christian Advocate. The corrective response to Heacock was written by “Phare Pleigh” (James Henry Wiggin) and was published as a pamphlet (sometimes called a book) of about 70 pages, including an index, at the request of and funded by members of the Christian Scientist Association. Its full title is Christian Science and the Bible, with reference to Mary Baker G. Eddy’s Science and Health; or Christian Science Its Platform and its Critics. It was announced in an article on page 15 in the April 1886 issue of The Christian Science Journal. The article included a detailed description of the pamphlet’s contents and stated its price as $0.35 for a single copy, four copies for $1.00 and ten copies for $2.25.

Much of Christian Science and the Bible is concerned with showing that healings and other demonstrations of spiritual power can be found throughout the Bible and continued on into the Apostolic Age. The contents of the many sections in the pamphlet – with headings such as Adam, Satan, Prayer, Incarnation, Five Senses, Promises of Jesus, Wonders in Scripture, and The Divine Personality – are written to give an accurate explanation of how Biblical topics are viewed in the theology of Christian Science. In addition, Dr. Heacock’s misinterpretations of purely metaphysical statements in Science and Health are addressed with accurate information. Wiggin also shares with readers some of the views of the academic Bible scholarship of the time, such as the story of the woman taken in adultery in John’s gospel not being in its earliest manuscripts and the ending of the gospel of Mark (Mark:16:9-20) showing signs of being added later by a scribe.

Although Wiggin was not a Christian Scientist, he had acquired at least a degree of intellectual comprehension of it through his work for Eddy as indexer and copy editor for her book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. He was also serving as editor of The Christian Science Journal at the time that Christian Science and the Bible was written and published. A former Unitarian minister, Wiggin also had an extensive knowledge of the Bible and of early Christian history and kept up with the findings of Biblical scholarship.

Wiggin ends his pamphlet by restating Dr. Heacock’s belief that Christian Science is unscriptural and then challenges the reader to examine the genuine teachings of Christian Science to find whether or not they are in accord with Scripture. Following its publication, issues of The Christian Science Journal published appreciations of the pamphlet by Christian Scientists. For example, on page 41 of the the May 1886 Journal an article about the monthly meeting of the Christian Scientist Association states:

After the regular business had been finished, it was moved, and unanimously voted, that the thanks of the Association be tendered to Mr. J. Henry Wiggin, for the excellence and extreme justice of his treatise called Christian Science and the Bible; and that the Association highly appreciates the valuable aid it affords in making clear the theology of Christian Healing, and its conformity with the Scriptures.

And on page 66 of the June 1886 Journal, “H.” writes:

There is no need of saying that Phare Pleigh is a shrewd writer and an able advocate... He succeeds in making a consistent showing that Christian Science is in harmony with the Bible; or rather, that there is very much in the Bible unquestionably in harmony with Christian Science; and moreover that the Bible, as a whole, can be interpreted in such sense as not to be antagonistic to Christian Science. The work is well done. I was so much interested that I went through the book at one reading.

Following its publication, Christian Scientists began ordering copies of Christian Science and the Bible by mail. A scan of the pamphlet can be viewed hereClick link to view 000000000015 document in new window.