In founding The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, Mrs. Eddy met and overcame conditions not unlike those that confront the Christian Science movement today. New England churches in the 1880's were faced with the new theory of evolution that questioned the Bible account of man's origin, and they had to endure the onslaughts of what was called the higher criticism, which threw doubt upon the authenticity of certain Bible texts. Dogma based on a literal approach to the Bible was severely shaken. The churches sought to bolster their position by dealing with moral and social issues rather than by remaining devoted strictly to the worship of a God about whom they were becoming increasingly confused.
In this milieu of uncertainty and doubt, Mrs. Eddy established her Church on the basis of an absolute reliance on God as revealed in the textbook, Science and Health, of which she is the author. With this final revelation of the Principle of healing supported by healing works, which proved the inseparability of Science from primitive Christianity, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and its branches loomed like a mountain range above the receding waters of faith in popular Christianity.
Here was a church in which men could worship and pray, confident that their needs would be met; a church whose far-reaching revelation of God found increasing support in the advance of scientific thought; a church whose God was so immediate and practical that anyone, from simple fishermen like those on the shores of the Galilean Sea to the most erudite scientist, could lay their burdens down before Him in effectual prayer.
