SOURCE: "Mental Healer," in Famous American Books, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1971, pp. 147-54.

In the following essay, Downs discusses Science and Health and Eddy's career.

America has given the world two major religions—the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormonism, and the Church of Christ, Scientist, or Christian Science. The latter has the distinction of being the only religion founded by a woman.

Throughout the nineteenth century, during which both the Mormon and Christian Science churches were established, occult philosophies nourished. Nonconformist and Utopian movements attracted numerous adherents. Particularly appealing in the latter part of the century were such Oriental faiths as Vedanta, Baha'ism, Rosicrucianism, Theosophy, and Yoga, and there were churches of Divine Science, Religious Science, the Science of Mind, and New Thought.

In this highly charged atmosphere, so preoccupied with the supernatural and theological disputation, a new faith was born, Christian Science, destined for...