The History of Christian Science class teaching begins in 1866, the year Mary Baker Patterson (later Mary Baker Eddy) suffered a serious injury in an accident. Three days later, to the amazement of her friends, she was healed. Her gratitude included a deep desire, as she later put it, to "know the Science of this healing" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 109). She began an intense study of the Bible to understand what had happened, so she could help others. And by the end of the year she was teaching her first pupil, a Lynn, Massachusetts, shoemaker.
One of the first ways that Christian Science spread—before there was any literature or any church—was through teaching. It's truly a cornerstone of the Christian Science movement. Class instruction was a well-established part of the Christian Science movement long before the Manual of The Mother Church came together in 1895. So the By-Laws necessarily reflect the evolution of teaching; they illustrate how teaching grew from a single woman sharing Christian Science healing one-on-one, to a worldwide network of qualified teachers presenting and illuminating the Science of Christ.
There are many Manual By-Laws that relate to teaching, and there are often historical connections between By-Laws. A timeline approach can help us see how these By-Laws evolved over a period of many years.
