If you were a Bible scholar and heard the name Abraham, you might think of the patriarch Abraham written of in the Old Testament. If a presidential scholar, Abraham Lincoln might come to mind. But if you were a scholar in the field of medicine, you might think of Abraham Flexner.
In 1910, Abraham Flexner issued the Flexner Report. According to some, the Flexner Report was the most important occurrence in the history of North American medical education, calling for higher standards and protocols in medical schools. While that clearly made sense within the context of the medical profession itself, this shift also arguably began to stifle openness of thought to other options for healing. In particular, some Christian Scientists have looked back to that year and wondered if the Flexner Report significantly increased the medical world’s challenge to Mary Baker Eddy’s conviction that true Christian healing was indeed not only a Science but the most effective and powerful remedial agent, and the only true scientific method of healing.
Mrs. Eddy wrote, “Thought imbued with purity, Truth, and Love, instructed in the Science of metaphysical healing, is the most potent and desirable remedial agent on the earth” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 4). Some may say that this claim might have had some merit during Mrs. Eddy’s time, but that the post-Flexner era of modern medicine makes Christian Science treatment appear less impressive. Just look, one might argue, at the huge medical complexes, the incredible modern medical technology, the “miracle” drugs that continue flowing into the marketplace, and the vast governmental participation in, and insistence on, material medicine as the truly realistic way to care for yourself in this day and age.
