SOURCE: "Conclusion: Christian Science and the American Pragmatic Orientation," in The Emergence of Christian Science in American Religious Life, University of California Press, 1973, pp. 275-93.

In the following essay, Gottschalk examines the continuing influence of Christian Science.

Christian Science can be best understood as a pragmatic interpretation of Christian revelation. It is the pragmatic character of Christian Science which most adequately conveys its distinctiveness as a religious teaching, most clearly illumines its relations with the patterns of American culture, and most fully explains the source of its appeal. To have used the term pragmatic in connection with Christian Science before this point would have been ahistorical, since the term never occurs in Mrs. Eddy's writings and, to my knowledge, was not used by Christian Scientists nor by others in reference to her teaching during the period with which we are concerned. Despite William James' passing interest in Christian...