Abstract/Summary

This thesis explores the Christian Science faith through a feminist lens, analysing how it was received by and disseminated among its early female followers during its formative years. This is achieved by tracing groups of individuals across the first half a century of its charter and examining the parallels in their belief systems and capacity to access influential positions. Such views and achievements, it is argued, was a direct consequence of a theological and structural framework of the religion that fostered progressive notions of the concept of womanhood. This thesis ultimately contends that Christian Science can be regarded as a feminist organisation within androcentric contexts. It moves away from classical feminist approaches that dissect the founder, Mary Baker Eddy, or the doctrine of Christian Science in order to gauge the degree to which ‘feminist’ is an appropriate characterisation. Instead, it observes the output of the religion, and uses its membership profile to highlight how women affiliated with the Church were able to utilise their faith to further their status or overcome adversity on the basis of their sex. This will offer a new perspective in how academics might approach Christian Science to better understand an organisation that appears otherwise ambivalent to the feminist concerns of its era. Broadly, three areas of examination are applied to this theory: religious leadership, marriage and domestic life, and political influence. It will be demonstrated that women within each domain actively pursued advantageous positions that had been either directly or inadvertently facilitated by Christian Science. Throughout the thesis, members’ own attitudes to contemporary developments of the ‘woman question’ will also be analysed. This will highlight the consistency in shaping and informing attitudes as it circulated across its followship and will further underscore a feminist effect of Christian Science.