Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: Encyclopedia - Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, written by Mary Baker Eddy, is the foundation of the Christian Science movement.
Its origin lay in notes growing out of biblical studies she undertook beginning in 1867 following a healing experience she reported in 1866. The first edition appeared in 1875 and went through over two hundred revisions before Eddy's death in 1910.
Science and Health encapsulates the teachings of Christian Science. Christian Scientists often call it their "textbook." At Sunday services, passages from Science and Health are read from the lectern along with complementary passages from the Bible. Eddy called the two books Christian Science's "dual and impersonal pastor."
The book itself posits a wholly metaphysical view of Christianity in which sin, disease, and death are not of God, and are therefore not real. Christian Scientists believe that by striving toward a spiritual view of the world as God's creation, they can overcome the "false beliefs" of these adversities.
The copyright for Science and Health went through several renewals. In 1972, at the urging of two Christian Scientists in the Nixon administration, Congress dramatically extended the copyright on it, effectively reserving it exclusively to the church, but this was later found unconstitutional, and private distributions have appeared through entities such as the Aequus Institute.
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. This unusual edition was marketed outside of the historical channels of individual distribution and Christian Science Reading Rooms.
The Book has three sections. The main section is the bulk of the book, the first 500 pages. The second section, "Key to the Scriptures", illustrates how to interpret the scriptures (i.e. The Bible), by examining parts of Genesis and Revelation, and providing a Glossary of commonly-used terms from the Bible with their metaphysical interpretation. The final section, the last 100 pages, are testimonies of people who had "been reformed and healed through the perusal or study of (the) book".
The title of the chapters are:
1. Prayer 2. Atonement and Eucharist 3. Marriage 4. Christian Science versus Spritualism 5. Animal Magnetism Unmasked 6. Science, Theology, Medicine 7. Physiology 8. Footsteps of Truth 9. Creation 10. Science of Being 11. Some Objections Answered 12. Christian Science Practice 13. Teaching Christian Science 14. Recapitulation 15. Genesis 16. The Apocalypse 17. Glossary 18. Fruitage
 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki | 
