What Science and Health Means to Me

Dear Friends — Here are photos of my first copy of Science and Health given to me by my grandfather as part of my Sunday School book set in the early 1950’s. Although not my only copy, I still keep it by my study desk and refer to it and make notations in it.

My valuing of Science and Health continues to deepen in several ways. I may study it on an intellectual level as a student studies a textbook. But on a higher moral and spiritual level, I learn it’s true meaning from daily putting into practice the Bible-based truths explained in its pages and illustrated in the lives of Christ Jesus and his followers. My appreciation for this book has grown all the more when I consider what it took for Mary Baker Eddy to be able to write and publish it, constantly impelled and supported by God in order to bring it to completion in order to bless all humanity.

With love,
Connie Turner, Des Plaines IL

The Holy Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures have been the most important books in my life. Science and Health has unlocked the Bible for me. This book has demonstrated how the ideas in the Bible can be made practical in my own experience. I have found health restored, relationships renewed, finances improved. Every aspect of my life has experienced progress through the ideas I have gained from my study of Science and Health and its explanation of the truths of the Bible. 

Nancy Bachmann, Huntley IL

I’ve had this book available to guide me since I was a child. It has helped me to understand how to think outside of blind faith and instead utilize a fresh perspective by applying logic, reasoning, and experience-based evidence to understand God and Jesus’ teachings.

Below is a Science and Health given to me by my grandfather, pocket-sized to replicate the one he used while serving abroad in the 1950s.

Brittany Robinson, Naperville IL

My journey with Science and Health began thanks to my Mom who found the book during the depression in the United States in the 1930s. She walked by a Christian Science Reading Room everyday on her way to work at the local Red Cross office in Syracuse NY. Wondering if the book would help her understand the meaning of life, she found her life’s purpose reading it and experienced healing after healing in her immediate family and then in helping others explore and experience the spiritually revolutionary ideas it contains. It was the best gift she ever gave me and my most trusted companion as I navigate life.  (Pictured below is my Mom’s first copy of Science and Health.)

Carol Hohle, Chicago IL

My younger brother found Christian Science through a friend in college, and I witnessed his transformation.  I knew he had found an answer I needed. He gave me my first copy of Science and Health at a time when I was struggling to be free from several bad habits I had accumulated because of my agnostic beliefs and bad behavior.  It took a while for me to begin the serious study of the book, but shortly thereafter I had a wonderful instantaneous physical healing and immediate freedom from my past addictive habits and their consequences.  It was a rebirth that set my life on an upward path that led to fulfilling relationships, a loving family, and a business career including the ability to contribute to the Cause of Christian Science through various roles in several branch churches and at the Mother Church.  My ongoing daily study of Science and Health is an anchor of stability and hope in these tumultuous times.  I marvel at its timeless truths and Mrs. Eddy’s inspired insights into the Bible and the Christ message that heals. 

Jeff Clements, Evanston IL

I have been reading Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures all my life, and I continue to read it every day because I know the answers that I seek are in it: answers to relationship issues, navigating marriage and child-rearing, illness, business problems, and how to pray for the world. Science and Health along with the Bible are the rudder for my life. Science and Health explains the Bible in practical and inspirational ways, which is why its title includes the phrase “with Key to the Scriptures.” Passages that I’ve memorized take on new import and significance each time I read them. I own several copies of Science and Health – some are annotated, some I use to read in church services, and one copy I keep clean so that I can read it as for the first time. Even though Science and Health was published 150 years ago, what Mrs. Eddy wrote is eternal and relevant today.

Sally Turner, Wilmette IL