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Rolling Away the Stone: Mary Baker Eddy's Challenge to Materialism (Religion in North Am) Kindle Edition

by Stephen Gottschalk (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 78 ratings
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“Gottschalk distinguishes himself by placing Christian Science in the larger context of American religion . . . sheds new light on Eddy’s life and work.” —Publishers Weekly

This richly detailed study highlights the last two decades of the life of Mary Baker Eddy, a prominent religious thinker whose character and achievement are just beginning to be understood. It is the first book-length discussion of Eddy to make full use of the resources of the Mary Baker Eddy Collection in Boston. Rolling Away the Stone focuses on her long-reaching legacy as a Christian thinker, specifically her challenge to the materialism that threatens religious belief and practice.

“Gottschalk has provided readers with a masterful account of Christian Science in its heyday. This book is a first-rate read for students of American religion and provides a look into how one of the country’s more complex religious figures dealt with materialism in the late-nineteenth-century America.” —Religious Studies Review

“Gottschalk does a superb job of providing historical context for the chaotic events of Eddy’s final decades.” —Choice

“Gottschalk’s account is well told and enriched by fresh material now available from the Mary Baker Eddy Library for the Betterment of Humanity.” —Christian Science Monitor

“The book includes a great deal of fresh research and honest scholarship . . . for the individual wanting to sink his or her teeth into a serious study of Eddy . . . you have a lot to look forward to in reading this book.” —The Christian Science Journal
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  1. Print length
    505 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Indiana University Press
  5. Publication date
    February 23, 2011
  6. File size
    3145 KB
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Gottschalk, an independent historian and author of The Emergence of Christian Science in American Religious Life, completed this significant intellectual biography of Mary Baker Eddy before his death earlier this year. As with that earlier work, Gottschalk distinguishes himself by placing Christian Science in the larger context of American religion, rather than examining it as a mere curiosity or one-off sect. Eddy, he argues, should be taken seriously as a religious innovator whose radical theological teachings were intended not only to start a new religious movement, but also to reform all of Christianity from within. The biography focuses on the last two decades of Eddy's life, when the "retired" leader spent her seventies and eighties overseeing the construction of the Mother Church in Boston, revising Science and Health, battling external critics and internal dissension, and founding the Christian Science Monitor. Gottschalk, who was a Christian Scientist himself and once worked for the denomination, shows a clear pro-Eddy bias at times, especially when he is turning the tables on bombastic critics like Mark Twain or Joseph Pulitzer, but in general the book demonstrates copious and painstaking research. In fact, this is the first major biography of Eddy to be published since the opening of the denomination's archives to researchers a few years ago, and its command of primary sources sheds new light on Eddy's life and work.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"Mary Baker Eddy (1821, 1910) has had more than her share of biographers: admirers, detractors, scholars, and members of her church. In this posthumous work, Gottschalk, who belongs in the last two categories, accepts the daunting task of examining the years between Eddy's 1889 move from Boston to Concord, NH, and her death. This period, ostensibly her retirement from active leadership and public life, was punctuated by acrimony, lawsuits, and highly publicized conflicts over Eddy's physical and intellectual/spiritual property, and the usual attacks upon her character and theology. Gottschalk does a superb job of providing historical context for the chaotic events of Eddy's final decades. He analyzes frequently oversimplified disagreements between Eddy and Mark Twain, deftly highlighting the many points of agreement and parallel thinking that led Eddy and Twain to very different conclusions. Finally, Gottschalk makes accessible Eddy's mature theology, the product of controversy as well as deep reflection: a thoroughgoing rejection of all materialisms affirmed by her contemporaries (scientific, medical, ecclesiastical, spiritual) in order to seek something higher and better than matter, and apart from it. All libraries should own this book. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-level undergraduates through faculty/researchers; general readers."― D. Campbell, Colby College , 2006 oct. CHOICE

"Gottschalk's account is well told and enriched by fresh material now available from the Mary Baker Eddy Library for the Betterment of Humanity."―Christian Science Monitor

"Gottschalk does a superb job of providing historical context for the chaotic events of Eddy's final decades. He analyzes frequently oversimplified disagreements between Eddy and Mark Twain, deftly highlighting the many points of agreement and parallel thinking that led Eddy and Twain to very different conclusions. Finally, Gottschalk makes accessible Eddy's mature theology, the product of controversy as well as deep reflection: a thoroughgoing rejection of all materialisms affirmed by her contemporaries (scientific, medical, ecclesiastical, spiritual) in order to seek 'something higher and better than matter, and apart from it.'"―Choice

"The book includes a great deal of fresh research and honest scholarship . . . [F]or the individual wanting to sink his or her teeth into a serious study of Eddy . . . you have a lot to look forward to in reading this book.Vol. 129, No. 5 May 2011"―The Christian Science Journal

"Gottschalk has provided readers with a masterful account of Christian Science in its heyday. The book is a first-rate read for students of American religion and provides a look into how one of the country's more complex religious figures dealt with materialism in the late nineteenth-century America."―Religious Studies Review

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00FAQKG0S
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Indiana University Press; Annotated edition (February 23, 2011)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 23, 2011
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 3145 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 505 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 78 ratings

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Stephen Gottschalk

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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
78 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

jerri streeter
5.0 out of 5 stars Learning about early religious beginnings
Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2024
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Extremely well written. Author has blended knowledge with descriptive prose that neither panders nor confuses the reader. Hence an informative, educational reading covering both the time period and struggles in establishing a powerful new religion in the 1890s.
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Karen Molenaar Terrell
5.0 out of 5 stars Scholarly and Thought-Provoking
Reviewed in the United States on August 6, 2013
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*Rolling Away the Stone* was not an easy read for me, but it was a valuable one. Amazon tells me that I bought this book back in 2007. It took me six years to be in the right place, mentally, to start reading it - and it took me another three or four weeks to finish it once I'd begun. It is not a quick read. I found myself constantly stopping to digest and ponder what Gottschalk has to say about the last 20 years of Mary Baker Eddy's life, and to think about the direction her movement has taken since her death.

A theme that kept repeating itself throughout the book was the subject of "revival" and "renewal" for Eddy's movement. Gottschalk reports that, after an appearance at the Mother Church, Eddy wrote: "I find the general atmosphere of my church as cold and still as the marble floors..." and "I did feel a coldness a lack of inspiration all through the dear hearts... it was a stillness a lack of spiritual energy and zeal that I felt."

Later Gottschalk writes: "As with other movements after the death of their founder, Christian Science became to a significant degree routinized, in the process losing much of the spiritual animus that accounted for its early growth. The pattern is observable, whether we are speaking of the early Christian church after Jesus, the Islamic movement in the decades after the death of Mohammad, or the Franciscan order after the death of St. Francis. Eddy appears to have anticipated with great apprehension that the Christian Science church, too, would settle down into a kind of bland predictability, when she was no longer on the scene. To her, being a Christian Scientist in any meaningful sense involved not only a strong commitment, but, in a sense, a spirit of adventure."

As presented by Gottschalk in *Rolling Away the Stone*, I think "a spirit of adventure" is an apt description of Mary Baker Eddy's approach to life. Spontaneity, intuition, the courage to change course - these were all a part of who she was, how she lived her life, and how she led her movement. According to Gottschalk, formal, ecclesiastical, rigid doctrines and dogma were never what she intended for her movement. Gottschalk writes: "What apparently concerned her the most was the prospect that the church would devolve into yet another ecclesiastic organization, `barren,' to use her words in Science and Health, `of the vitality of spiritual power, by which material sense is made the servant of Science and religion becomes Christlike.'... This materialism could, she believed, take on ecclesiastical form. It did so when Christian Scientists, conditioned by their earlier adherence to orthodoxy, failed to break with outworn tradition, ritual, and other merely exterior forms of worship. `Long prayers, ecclesiasticism, and creeds,' she (Eddy) stated, `have clipped the divine pinions of Love, and clad religion in human robes. They materialize worship, hinder the Spirit, and keep man from demonstrating his power over error.'"

Yeah. Thought-provoking.

I'm really glad Stephen Gottschalk wrote this book, and I'm really glad I read it.

Karen Molenaar Terrell, author of *Blessings: Adventures of a Madcap Christian Scientist*
19 people found this helpful
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Gadgetgeek
5.0 out of 5 stars Very Good Biography of Eddy
Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2015
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This is a wonderful book about Eddy. My only criticism is that the author who is clearly a Christian Scientist (as I am) tries too hard sometimes to remain objective in his appraisal of Eddy. This "objectiveness" is probably not always believable to the non-Christian Scientist who may read this, and the author sometimes makes light or seems to make some editorial comments of the incredible healings done by Eddy which will not be taken very well by the true believing Christian Scientist who reads this. Also, the author often reminds us of Eddy's advanced age during much of her most productive years and seems to emphasize that Eddy had the typical weaknesses of a person at this age but does not discuss the amazing health and strength that was noted by many that knew her during this age. Many commented on how briskly she walked and how she could run up stairs into her advanced age. But, maybe that is the correct balance for a general audience.
5 people found this helpful
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S Brooks
4.0 out of 5 stars Very good reading.
Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2013
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This book was very interesting and gave me a better spiritual sense of life. Mary Baker Eddy was a remarkable woman.
2 people found this helpful
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Rosemary F. Petzold
5.0 out of 5 stars Mary Baker Eddy: Woman Warrior and Healer
Reviewed in the United States on December 23, 2012
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In her struggles with prevailing public opinion, established clergy, unyielding world thought, and controlling men in general, Mary Baker Eddy was a true woman warrior in the best sense of the term. This slight, yet powerful woman was on the verge of passing on from a fall on the ice-- her doctor had given up on her survival, let alone recovery-- when she reached out in prayer for healing. The methods she was led to take then, based on the teachings of Christ Jesus, she tried to share with all mankind ever since. Through her textbook, Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures, and the Christian Science religion she subsequently founded, Mrs. Eddy fought every adversary with confidence, courage, and determination. Embattled from the beginning, Mrs. Eddy's efforts were unyielding, and 120 years later, ultimately successful. Mrs. Eddy is regarded as one of the finest religious leaders in world thought, and certainly one of the most valiant. Highly recommended.
4 people found this helpful
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Dr. Robert B. Chamberlain
5.0 out of 5 stars Classic Gottschalk
Reviewed in the United States on December 10, 2007
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For those who remember Stephen's articles for the Christian Science periodicals, this is classic Gottschalk. In other words, it is highly detailed, well researched, well thought out, and tends to be much more theologically based than the writings that come out of the Publishing Society. He also has a marked tendency to drift from his focus on occasion, and to get side-tracked onto peripheral lines of thought. In general, a candid and thorough look at the later years of a remarkable life. More analytical and less folksy, this book belongs alongside the biography by Gillian Gill - as both a supplement to it, and as an effective insider's look from someone who truly understands Christian Science theology perhaps even better than many at The Mother Church.
13 people found this helpful
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Cathy Barnes
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on October 11, 2014
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The book is well-written and provides some new information about Mary Baker Eddy's life, documented from the Mary Baker Eddy Library. As a Christian Scientist, I was interested in learning about the last class Mrs. Eddy taught, and that it dealt with the Trinity. Quoting from new sources, I was able to learn more about what Mrs. Eddy believed about the Trinity. As the book dealt with just the last 20 years of her life, mostly when she lived at Pleasant View, I found it interesting how she came to find people to live with her there and help her, as well as new observations of students who lived with her. If you have read other biographies about Mrs. Eddy, I think you will find this a helpful adjunct.
5 people found this helpful
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Manfred Söllinger
4.0 out of 5 stars Rolling away the stone
Reviewed in Germany on March 19, 2013
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Der Autor hat lange in verschiedenen Bereichen der Kirche Christi, Wissenschaftler, gearbeitete und viele Veröffentlichungen auch in Lexika verfasst. Er beschreibt hier einige wichtige und sehr schwierige Jahre im Leben der Mary Baker Eddy, die die Bewegung der Christlichen Wissenschaft gegründet hat. Anfangs beschäftigt er sich híer ausführlich mit Marc Twain, der sich mit wechselnden Sympathien und Abneigungen mit der Christlichen Wissenschaft und ihrer Gründerin befasst hat. Das mag für den einen oder anderen Leser etwas mühsam sein, aber dann wird es sehr spannend, wenn es um die vielen Probleme und Kämpfe geht, die Frau Eddy in ihren letzten Jahren durchstehen und durchkämpfen musste. Dazu gehören Anfeindungen und Prozesse der "yellow press" und ernsthafte Probleme mit zwei Schülerinnen, die sich gegen sie gewandt hatten. Die sensationslüsterne Berichterstattung der damaligen Presse war für Frau Eddy der Anlass eine Zeitung zu gründen, die "keinem Menschen Unrecht tun und die ganze Menschheit segnen" sollte. In hohem Alter gründete sie den "The Christian Science Monitor", der auch heute noch als objektive und internationale Zeitung gilt. Gottschalk hatte während seiner Tätigkeit für die Kirche Zugang zu seinerzeit noch nicht allgemein bekannten Unterlagen und war dadurch in der Lage, die letzten Jahre dieser besonderen Frau neu zu beleuchten. Das Buch ist für alle, die sich für die Gründungsgeschichte der Christlichen Wissenschaft interessieren ein "Muss"!
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