I live in a region of New York dubbed the “corridor of conscience” in the 19th century. Here, the women’s rights movement in the United States was born, anti-slavery sentiments blazed, and activists such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Harriet Tubman lived and worked.
Mary Baker Eddy, a contemporary of theirs in New England, announced in the Preface of the first edition (1875) of her trailblazing text, Science and Health: “The time for thinkers has come; and the time for revolutions, ecclesiastic and social, must come. Truth, independent of doctrines or time-honored systems, stands at the threshold of history” (p. 3).
While others focused on social and political rights, Eddy labored for humanity to know and exercise our spiritual rights and freedoms. Months after the American Civil War ended, she glimpsed in the pages of the Bible a liberating spiritual message that had long been obscured by religious doctrines and dogmas. Her discovery—which she ultimately called Christian Science—not only transformed her health but lit the path of her lifework as a healer, teacher, author, and religious reformer.
