Mary Baker Eddy

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Lively read; uneven tone and scholarship; too "personal" - Rated
In her intro, Gill admits she took up the subject of MBE not out of a burning interest but at the casual suggestion of an associate. Her admitted enthusiasm for her subject arose later, and a certain measure of the arbitrary provenance shows in the final product. Gill probably realized with chagrin that her subject had been pretty handily treated in recent years by other scholars both better trained in the praxis of historic research (rather than literary analysis) and with richer access to primary source material. All too often, for instance, Gill's book reads like an extended book report on Robert Peel's far more profound and accomplished three-volume MBE bio. Moreover, Gill jarringly and habitually intrudes on the integrity of her own work with commentary beginning "I can't help but feel," and "in my opinion," etc. No doubt any biographer does form strong opinions (pro or con) of her subject, but the manner of presenting facts and persuasively documenting them better serves to communicate those opinions -- reserve the first-person, if you must, for your foreword. Still, Gill has put certain aspects of MBE's life and achievements in interesting, pop-feminist perspective. She is especially interesting, for instance, in dramatizing the claustrophic ennui and social immobilility imposed on proper early Victorian women, and on communicating a sense of the nutty abusiveness of female-related medical theory and practice (by a male-dominated medical establishment). All in all, a colorful tour of a life and times, with the surfaces all faithfully rendered, but any abiding thirst engendered by this work will have to be slaked at deeper pools.

not great but better than most Eddy biographies - Rated
Gillian Gill's biography of Eddy is better than most Eddy biographies because it is neither diatribe nor hagiography. However, the scholarship of the book still leaves something to be desired.

Gill's "research note" explains that she never entered the church archives directly. Instead, she reviewed all previously published bibliographies and listed the sources mentioned in those bibliographies that she also wanted to see.

A church-paid research assistant checked the archives on Gill's behalf, and located some of these sources. (Some items "could not be found," the assistant told her.) Next, a lengthy church approval procedure whittled the list of sources down further before Gill was permitted to see them.

This "method" of gathering sources virtually guaranteed that Gill would not uncover anything new or upsetting to the CS church.

True, Gill is not to blame for the restrictions placed on her by the church. At least Gill looked at some of the primary evidence--a strategy that Gill (best known as a translator) says she didn't intend to follow when she began the project. But any bibliography is only as good as the research which underlies it, and in this case, the research was necessarily partial.

Additionally, Gill did not address the work of other feminism and religion scholars, such as Susan Hill Lindley or Cynthia Grant Tucker, who have also researched Eddy and Christian Science. No explanation is given for this omission.

Finally, Gill is prone to making judgments which do not seem supported by the evidence she cites. For example, Gill accepts Eddy's claim that Eddy espoused abolitionist views prior to the Civil War seemingly because Eddy said so later in life. She also accepts Eddy's claim that, at the age of 12, Eddy impressed church elders with her advanced understanding of God, again without corroborative evidence, and without commenting on the obvious biblical parallel.

Given Gill's research note, one wonders if Gill's judgment in these matters might be influenced by her reliance on the CS church for sources. Gill's church-paid research assistant was also her fact-checker.

While Gill's biography is certainly better than any Eddy biography previously published, it cannot by any means be called definitive.

The definitive biography will have to wait until the CS church allows scholars true access to the historical archives.

Feminist perspective illuminates life of Mary Baker Eddy - Rated
The Gillian Gill biography, Mary Baker Eddy, is eminently worthwhile reading for any student of Christian Science, of historical figures, or of the art of writing. The author, Gillian Gill, is not a Christian Scientist, and the book was sponsored by Radcliffe College as part of its Radcliffe Biography Series. Radcliffe's president characterizes the Series as "an expression of the value we see in documenting and understanding the varied lives of women." The resulting feminist gloss, presented from the viewpoint of one outside the Christian Science movement, gives the reader a very different perspective on Mary Baker Eddy's life from that offered by other Eddy biographies.

Gill approaches her task with a thoroughly sincere, even reverent respect for her subject. As if to illustrate why such respect is both deserved and overdue, Gill notes in her Preface that Mary Baker Eddy is not even mentioned in the 1993 essay of feminist historian Gerda Lerner, "One Thousand Years of Feminist Bible Criticism." Even the casual observer will recognize the absurdity of omitting, from such an essay, a woman who founded an international religious movement based on reinterpretation of the Bible. Lerner's essay notwithstanding, feminism, as a philosophical ally of liberalism, has routinely given religion short shrift, and Gill's Eddy biography thus helps to fill a gaping void in feminist scholarship.

Gill's feminist perspective is an occasional distraction, but she more than compensates with her paramount emphasis on careful scholarship, and a fluid prose that leaves one almost unaware of the reading. The mix of feminism and the viewpoint of a non-Christian Scientist is frequently evident. Usually, but not always, the mix produces entirely appropriate results. Thus, when Gill describes the original 1894 Church she speaks of a "womblike structure" that "seems to gather [her] in." It strikes her as "a deeply female space." These are perceptive observations which it seems unlikely would occur one whose intellectual moorings were in traditional culture rather than in feminist theory.

On the other hand, when Gill speaks of widowhood, not Mary Glover's widowhood but widowhood in general terms, her concern is solely that it leaves women "uncomfortably dependent on the goodwill of [their] family," and she notes that Mary Baker Eddy was fortunate to have received an important "lesson in survival" from her grandmother's many years of widowhood. Gill's feminist inclinations apparently blind her to a broader context of widowhood: although in some cases it leaves a woman "uncomfortably dependent," in all cases it leaves a man dead. It is therefore more likely he, not she, who needed but was denied "lessons in survival." Much more of this could be cited, but as noted the obviously careful scholarship behind this book, and its admirably readable prose, more than compensate for minor distractions.

One of the more interesting and informative aspects of Gill's work is the careful attention given to other Eddy biographers and commentators. Gill is forthright and thorough in discussing them, and pulls no punches in disagreements with them, especially those who are hostile to Mary Baker Eddy. From Milmine/Cather to Clemens to Peel, all come under Gill's careful and unflinching scrutiny. Gill herself is not uniformly kind to Eddy; however, from all appearances she does strive to be true to the historical record, which is something she rightfully feels she cannot in honesty say about several other Eddy biographers.

Beginning, as one would expect, with the birth of Mary Baker in Bow, New Hampshire, Gill ends her story describing the view from the site of Mrs. Eddy's New Hampshire home, Pleasant View, looking toward the Bow hills. She thus encloses and gathers in her subject in a distinctly maternal way, perhaps not unlike what she experienced on visiting the Mother Church. Just as the product of Mary Baker Eddy's work, coming down through the years, had enveloped Gill, the product of Gill's work similarly envlopes Eddy. It may be saying too much to suggest that this mutuality, a seeming flow of respect and esteem coursing between the author and her historical subject, is an important dynamic of the book. Such mutuality is consistent, however, with a central theme of equity-feminist scholarship: paying homage to female historical figures who, in their time and through their work, similarly paid homage to the generations of women who would come after them.

Between the beginning and end, Gill is no less a nurturing and caring mother to her historical subject, protective, proud and understanding, and in the end willing to acknowledge its faults as she sees them, and yet grant it unconditional acceptance. These are among the qualities that make this a biography well worth reading, and then rereading.

An extraordinary achievement - Rated
Ms Gill is not a Christian Scientist but you would suppose she has lived with her subject for a very long time. Her considerable forensic skills are just what her subject needs. In the sections dealing with P.P Quimby, the Misses Ware and Eddy's second husband Daniel Patterson, she contributes solid new material. Frequently she demolishes myths promulgated by the Mimine/Dakin/Braden biographies (and in a devastating appendix, analyses the motivations of these biographers). A new Mary Baker Eddy emerges, something of diamond in the rough but a diamond to be reckoned with, nonetheless. But if Ms Gill's objectivity is the result of not being a Christian Scientist, it also gives her book a problem. Her grasp of Christian Science theology is not...well, not complete. This leads, for example, to a very good joke about what Christian Science calls 'animal magnetism' but a joke based on a misconception nonetheless. Without a more complete understanding of Mrs Eddy's thinking, it is impossible for Ms Gill to provide a balanced view of her later years. The frenetic outward activity of Mrs Eddy's life in her eighties and even nineties is described minus the ballast of the spiritual mediation that made this activity possible. But this is still a very good book and a fun read. Ms Gill says Mrs Eddy would have enjoyed meeting Mark Twain. It's certain Mrs Eddy would have relished meeting Ms Gill.

Tour de force - Rated
Ms Gill is not a Christian Scientist. Through persistence she was able to gain access to the closely guarded Christian Science Church archives. The result is fascinating, largely because her study of archival material was backed by thorough analysis and further research. The book is worth reading for the appendix alone. The motivations of the scathingly hostile contemporary biographers are brilliantly analysed and she illustrates how the picture of Mrs Eddy they painted continues to have currency depite the now known, verifiable facts. The book does have a flaw which it is hard to see how Ms Gill could have remedied. She holds no brief for Christian Science but finds Mrs Eddy genuine in her aspiration to be a Christian leader. Thus she finds herself in much the same position as a Turk in writing about St Augustine. The facts are one thing, the inner life another. How can one know the true dimensions of a religious figure without some sense of the weight and mass of that figure's thinking? The result is a depiction of a life that can be seem to have been all too frenetic, controversial, even unbalanced because the countervailing forces of spiritual peace and religious insight which produce calm in the storm are not seen to be present. That said, Ms Gill says Mrs Eddy would have enjoyed meeting Mark Twain. I am quite sure Mrs Eddy would have enjoyed meeting Ms Gill.