SOURCE: "With Banners Still Flying: Christian Science and American Culture," in With Bleeding Footsteps: Mary Baker Eddy's Path to Religious Leadership, Alfred A. Knopf, 1994, pp. 291-310.

In the following essay, Thomas surveys Eddy's impact on modern American social and religious thought

Mary Baker Eddy's death in 1910 was not the passing of an ordinary woman. Obituaries appeared in big-city tabloids and small-town weeklies across the country. Thumbing through a sample of these editorial comments today, one is struck by their lack of neutrality. Even when progressive America admired her accomplishments, it was uncomfortable with her, not knowing where to fit her into its notions of authority, leadership, and gender.

The Rochester Times observed that Mrs. Eddy's death marked the passing of a woman who was "probably the most notable of this generation; certainly none other has had more widespread influence or is regarded with greater reverence by more people...