NEW THOUGHT MOVEMENT. The New Thought movement is a diverse and loosely affiliated collection of religious communities that share an idealistic theology, an optimistic worldview, and an emphasis on religious rituals that focus on personal well-being, health, and material success. The movement emerged in the United States in the last quarter of the nineteenth century and was well established by the first decade of the twentieth. It is the largest movement in what is often broadly referred to as the "metaphysical" tradition, which also includes Christian Science, Theosophy, and Spiritualism. In theory and practice, New Thought, like Christian Science, is a popular expression of religious idealism, and idealism is the unifying foundation of all forms of New Thought. Emma Curtis Hopkins (1849–1925) is properly cited as the founder of the movement, with its immediate precursors including Mary Baker Eddy (1821–1910) and her Church of Christ, Scientist...