Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures

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Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, written by Mary Baker Eddy was inspired by studies of the bible she undertook in 1867 following a healing experience.^[1] Although Eddy claimed to have first privately published biblical studies as early as 1862 (Eddy, 1934 : pp. viii:24-32), she wrote that her discovery of Christian Science, which inspired the book, took place in 1866^[1].

The first edition was copyrighted in 1875^[1] (Eddy, 1934 : p. ii) and went through more than four hundred revisions (Brosang, 1990 : p. 6) before Eddy's death in 1910. The copyright for Science and Health went through several renewals including a posthumous renewal in 1934 by the Christian Science Board of Directors (Eddy, 1934 : p. ii).

In 1972, at the urging of two Christian Scientists in the Nixon administration, John Erlichman and H.R. Haldeman,^{[citation needed]} Congress dramatically extended the copyright on Science and Health, effectively reserving it exclusively to the church^{[citation needed]}. Following a legal suit brought by Dr. David James Nolan of United Christian Scientists, a breakaway sect, this was found "offensively" unconstitutional in 1987 (MBE Institute, 2000), and private distributions have subsequently appeared.

During the 1990s, which saw other controversies including the attempted media ventures of the Christian Science Publishing Society and the publication of The Destiny of The Mother Church, a trade edition was released which included an index and an unprecedented introduction by a church director^{[citation needed]}. This unusual edition was marketed outside of the historical channels of individual distribution and Christian Science Reading Rooms.

Science and Health posits a wholly metaphysical view of Christianity in which sin, disease, and death are not of God, and are therefore not real. Further, it suggests that by striving toward a spiritual understanding of the world as God's perfect creation, these "false beliefs" are shed from our experience.

The book has three sections. The main section, which makes up the bulk of the book, comprises the first 500 pages. The second section, "Key to the Scriptures", examines parts of Genesis and Revelation and provides a Glossary of Eddy's metaphysical interpretations of commonly-used terms from the Bible. The final section, the last 100 pages, are testimonies of people who claim to have "been reformed and healed through the perusal or study of (the) book" (Eddy, 1934 : p. 600:4-5).

Science and Health encapsulates the teachings of Christian Science and Christian Scientists often call it their "textbook." At Sunday services, passages from the book are read along with passages from the Bible. Eddy called the two books Christian Science's "dual and impersonal pastor."^[2]

The title of the chapters are: