New Religious Movements of Nineteenth-Century America - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

New Religious Movements of Nineteenth-Century America

Volume 3:

New Thought Movements

Christian Science

Unity

School of

Christianity

Religious ScienceSlide2

New Thought Movements

Social dislocation in mid-to-late 19

th

century

Metaphysical correspondence

As it is above, so it is below

Mind over matter

faith-healing by power of mind

Mind greater than matter

Women centrally involved in these movements and the start of new denominations related to New ThoughtSlide3

Swedenborgianism

Emmanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772)

Articulates a Christian interpretation of matter as a spiritual essence

Received a series of visions and revelations, including witnessing what he claimed was the second coming of Christ in the spiritual realm in 1757Slide4

Swedenborgianism

There is a famous

Swedenborgian

Church in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights neighborhood.

John Muir attended it!

San Francisco's Swedenborgian ChurchSlide5

Johnny Appleseed (1774-1845)

Swedenborgian

thinker

Distributed

Swedenborgian

literature along with apple seeds, throughout his travels!Slide6

Andrew Jackson Davis (1826-1910)

Leading American spiritualist writer

Practiced mesmerism, magnetic healing, and claimed to write his books in a trance

Influenced Edgar Allan Poe and Edgar CayceSlide7

Spiritualism

Featured conversations with the dead, through

seances

Spirit Mediums were people with the talent to make these contacts

Cora L.V. Hatch, shown here, a star of the medium circuit in the 1850s

Spiritualism was attractive to many social activists, including Angelina

Grimké

, William Lloyd Garrison, Prudence Crandall

Banner

of

Light

newpaperSlide8

Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910)

Born in New Hampshire

Always sickly as a child and young woman

Father a strict and judgmental Calvinist Puritan; Mother a fount of loving warmth. Eddy would later famously refer to the Divine as Father/Mother God, suggesting that both qualities – judgment and nurturing – are present in GodSlide9

Mary Baker Eddy

Tried to find faith cures that would work for her

When she discovered Phineas P.

Quimby

, she became his most dedicated disciple, and even compared him once to Jesus (to his embarrassment)Slide10

Phineas P. Quimby (1802-1866)

Spiritual healer, based in Portland, Maine

Used techniques of mesmerism, animal magnetism, and mental healing

Became teacher and mentor to Mary Baker EddySlide11

Mary Baker Eddy

After

Quimby’s

death, she was distraught

She fell on the ice in February 1866

Doctors gave her up for dead

She picked up the Bible, and opened it to the passage where Jesus heals a paralytic, and was entirely healed. (Matt 9:1-8)

Discovers that Jesus did not heal by physical means, because matter does not existSlide12

Christian Science:

Formal Organization

Eddy publishes her book in 1875:

Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures

1879 -church founded, in Boston

1889 - church reorganization, with Eddy as head

1892 - concept of the "Mother" church - 1st Church of Christ Scientist, in Boston

1908 - founds Christian Science

MonitorSlide13

Basics of Christian Science

Only God, God’s manifestations, and the synonyms that express the completeness of God’s nature exist

The seven synonyms are Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love

This means that body, matter, error, evil, disease, and death are merely illusions, because logically they cannot existSlide14

Basics of Christian Science

The four basic principles (113):

1. God is All-in-all.

2. God is good. Good is Mind.

3. God, Spirit, being all, nothing is matter. (note

the careful diction

here)

4. Life, God, omnipotent good, deny death, evil, sin, disease. — Disease, sin, evil, death, deny good, omnipotent God, Life.

Which of the denials in Proposition four is true? Both are not, cannot be, true. According to the Scripture, I find that God is true, "but every [mortal] man a liar." Slide15

Science and Health Chapter 10

CHAPTER X - SCIENCE OF BEING

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life, . . . That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.


-

JOHN, First Epistle.


Here I stand. I can do no otherwise; so help me God! Amen!

-

MARTIN LUTHER.

Slide16

Science and Health Chapter 10

Materialistic challenge

1 In the material world, thought has brought to light

with great rapidity many useful wonders. With

3 like activity have thought's swift pinions been rising

towards the realm of the real, to the spiritual

cause of those lower things which give

im

-

6 pulse to inquiry. Belief in a material basis, from

which may be deduced all rationality, is slowly yielding

to the idea of a metaphysical basis, looking away from

9 matter to Mind as the cause of every effect. Material-

istic

hypotheses challenge metaphysics to meet in final

combat. In this revolutionary period, like the

shep

-

12 herd-boy with his sling, woman goes forth to battle with

Goliath. Slide17

Science and Health Chapter 10

Confusion confounded


In this final struggle for supremacy, semi-

metaphysi

-

15

cal

systems afford no substantial aid to scientific meta-

physics, for their arguments are based on

the false testimony of the material senses as

18 well as on the facts of Mind. These semi-metaphysical

(page 269)

1 systems are one and all pantheistic, and savor of Pan-

demonium

, a house divided against itself.

3 From first to last the supposed coexistence of Mind

and matter and the mingling of good and evil have re-

sulted

from the philosophy of the serpent. Jesus' demon-

6

strations

sift the chaff from the wheat, and unfold the

unity and the reality of good, the unreality, the nothing-

ness, of evil. Slide18

Science and Health Chapter 10

Divine metaphysics

9 Human philosophy has made God manlike. Christian

Science makes man Godlike. The first is error; the latter

is truth. Metaphysics is above physics, and

12 matter does not enter into metaphysical

prem

-

ises

or conclusions. The categories of metaphysics rest

on one basis, the divine Mind. Metaphysics resolves

15 things into thoughts, and exchanges the objects of sense

for the ideas of Soul.

These ideas are perfectly real and tangible to spiritual

18 consciousness, and they have this, advantage over the

ob

-

jects

and thoughts of material sense, - they are good and

eternal. Slide19

Science and Health Chapter 10

Biblical foundations

21 The testimony of the material senses is neither

abso

-

lute nor divine. I therefore plant myself unreservedly

on the teachings of Jesus, of his apostles, of

24 the prophets, and on the testimony of the

Science of Mind. Other foundations there are none.

All other systems - systems based wholly or partly on

27 knowledge gained through the material senses - are reeds

shaken by the wind, not houses built on the rock. Slide20

Science and Health Chapter 10

Rejected theories


The theories I combat are these: (1) that all is matter;

30 (2) that matter originates in Mind, and is as

real as Mind, possessing intelligence and life.

The first theory, that matter is everything, is quite as

(page 270)

1 reasonable as the second, that Mind and matter coexist

and cooperate. One only of the following statements can

3 be true: (1) that everything is matter; (2) that every-

thing is Mind. Which one is it?

Matter and Mind are opposites. One is contrary to

6 the other in its very nature and essence; hence both can-

not be real. If one is real, the other must be unreal. Only

by understanding that there is but one power, - not two

9 powers, matter and Mind, - are scientific and logical

conclusions reached. Few deny the hypothesis that in-

telligence

, apart from man and matter, governs the

uni

-

12 verse; and it is generally admitted that this intelligence

is the eternal Mind or divine principle, Love. Slide21

Science and Health Chapter 10

Prophetic ignorance


The prophets of old looked for something higher than

15 the systems of their times; hence their fore-

sight of the new dispensation of Truth. But

they knew not what would be the precise nature of the

18 teaching and demonstration of God, divine Mind, in His

more infinite meanings, - the demonstration which was

to destroy sin, sickness, and death, establish the definition

21 of omnipotence, and maintain the Science of Spirit.

The pride of priesthood is the prince of this world. It
has nothing in Christ. Meekness and charity have divine

24 authority. Mortals think wickedly; consequently they

are wicked. They think sickly thoughts, and so become

sick. If sin makes sinners, Truth and Love alone can

27 unmake them. If a sense of disease produces suffering

and a sense of ease antidotes suffering, disease is mental,

not material. Hence the fact that the human mind alone

30 suffers, is sick, and that the divine Mind alone heals. Slide22

Science and Health Chapter 10

The life of Christ Jesus was not miraculous, but it was
indigenous to his spirituality, - the good soil wherein

the

(

PAGE 271)

1 seed of Truth springs up and bears much fruit. Christ's

Christianity is the chain of scientific being reappearing

3 in all ages, maintaining its obvious correspondence with

the Scriptures and uniting all periods in the design of

God. Neither emasculation, illusion, nor insubordination

6 exists in divine Science.

Jesus instructed his disciples whereby to heal the sick
through Mind instead of matter. He knew that the phi-

9

losophy

, Science, and proof of Christianity were in

Truth

, casting

out all

inharmony

. Slide23

Christian Science Reading Rooms

Small store fronts (every Christian Science church is required to maintain one) where the literature of Christian Science is available for leisurely reading and discussionSlide24

Christian Science Reading Rooms

Do you know why America is a great country?Slide25

Christian Science Reading Rooms

Because in nearly every city, and many airports, you can go to a Christian Science Reading Room and debate the non-existence of matter with a pleasant person, often a senior citizen.Slide26

Christian Science Churches

No icons (they distract the mind with matter)

Influenced by Calvinism

Quotes from Bible and

Science and Health

on sides of altarSlide27

The Mother Church, Boston

Architectural marvel

Headquarters of the highly centralized church Eddy organized

Mother Church regulates readings, themes for services, and

The Christian Science Monitor

newspaperSlide28

Christian Science and Health Care

Christian Scientists pray for Divine Mind to clarify that the body is an illusion, rather than seeking medical care.

This decision to eschew medical care can be made by each individual Christian Scientist, but to seek medical care is to question the cosmology; it can be perceived as a sign of weakness.

Matthew Swan, d. 1977 of bacterial meningitisSlide29

Christian Science and Health Care

The Christian Science church has sparked controversy over the issue of medical treatment of children

Because the Christian Science church has fought for the right of people to choose their own medical care, they refuse to insist on child health care, while they do recommend it

Matthew Swan, d. 1977 of bacterial meningitisSlide30

Two Testimonials

Every Christian Science church has testimonials on Wednesday night

I took a class to one of these once; I will not do that again

BUT these gems resulted:

The belief in the illusion called “the flu” &

The hand burned by oil while preparing a nice dinner for guestsSlide31

Absolute Metaphysical Dualism + Bourgeois Middle-class Sentiment

Christian Science

connects metaphysical idealism to everyday

experience, making it

a practical

idealism

What

is around us everyday cannot be dismissed, and yet neither

is it given

the status of

Reality

Mary Baker Eddy’s sense

of the practical, of the everyday, is very

genteel

and bourgeoisSlide32

Unity School of Christianity

Charles (1854-1948) and Myrtle (1845-1931)Fillmore, co-founders of the Unity School movementSlide33

Unity School of Christianity

This is a text from their website:

Unity grew out of teachings based on the conviction that God is readily accessible to all people on the planet at all times. No matter what anyone's personal circumstances are -- location, age, language, culture, religion, history -- he or she can communicate with God directly and receive guidance from that personal connection.Slide34

Unity School of Christianity

two basic propositions:

One, God is good.
Two, God is available; in fact God is in you.

If God is good, God's will is good. It is impossible to believe that a good God -- a God who is love and intelligence -- could have made you in any other way except to be healthy, happy, prosperous, loved and loving, courageous and strong. If you are not healthy and happy, it can only be because you have separated yourself from God in mind -- the only place you can separate yourself from God and God's good. You have only to reunite in mind with God, and your life is certain to be full and fulfilling. You do this best by getting still and realizing your oneness with God. Every thought, negative or positive, comes one at time to the door of your conscious mind; there you let it in or turn it away. To have a good life, you have to learn to say no to the negative thoughts which deny your oneness with god's good and say yes to the positive thoughts which affirm your oneness with God's good.Slide35

Unity School of Christianity

Unity is not a proselytizing religion. We are happy to have you call yourself a Unity student and join a Unity group. But we are also happy when we can help you be a better Methodist, a better Catholic, a better whatever you are.

Unity began as an open-ended religion, and we pray it always will be. May we always be seekers after Truth rather than people who feel that they have found all the Truth and must form an exclusive little circle to preserve it.Slide36

Unity Village

Charles Fillmore had a vision that God was calling them to Kansas City

Here they established Unity Village, a center for the study of religion and a place for retreats

The centerpiece of Unity Village is Silent Unity, an unbroken prayer circle that has been performing silent prayer without pause (tag prayer-teams) for over 100 yearsSlide37

Unity as a way of Affirmation

“

The Daily Word covers such

topics as

Prosperity, Joy, Grace, Serenity, Security

, Healing

, Forgiveness, Harmony, Faith

, Divine

Order, Inner Peace and Balance

.”Slide38

Unity as a way of Affirmation

“

Affirmations are positive statements of Truth. By affirming Truth we are lifted out of false thinking into the consciousness of Spirit. Each time we pray positively and faithfully, we are calling forth the divine activity that is always within us

.”Slide39

Official December 2011 Affirmations

December 2011

Inner Peace


I abide in deep peace, and Christ is born in me.

Guidance


As I quiet my mind, I access inner wisdom.

Healing


I radiate health in my mind, body and spirit.

Prosperity


I live in an abundant universe, and I am prosperous.

World Peace


I embrace all people in my prayers for peace.Slide40

Theosophy/Theosophical Society

Syncretic movement attempting to combine the esoteric religious wisdom of the world

Co-founded by Helena Blavatsky (1831-1891) and Colonel Henry

Olcott

(1832-1907)

Founded 1875 in New York CitySlide41

Religious Science

Ernest Holmes (1887-1960) founder

Syncretic New Thought movement that attempts to synthesize science, comparative religion, and comparative philosophy

Also known as Science of the Mind

Founded 1927