How to Live

Christian Science (the Church of Christ, Scientist)

Movement·Founded 1879 CE·The church does not publish membership figures and is forbidden to by its own Manual, Article VIII, Section 28. Independent estimates for the late twentieth century range from under 100,000 to several hundred thousand and are not reconcilable. What can be counted is public: practitioners and teachers listed in the Christian Science Journal in the United States fell from 4,965 in January 1971 to fewer than a thousand, and branch churches from roughly 1,800 to about 1,000.

Judaism → Christianity → Catholicism → Protestantism → Christian Science (the Church of Christ, Scientist)

the ethic — what it asks of a life

The practitioner treats by prayer, charges a fee, and is listed in a directory. A Christian Science practitioner takes two weeks of class instruction from an authorised teacher, is listed in the Christian Science Journal, works full time, and bills for treatment — which some American insurers have reimbursed. The treatment is argument: the practitioner mentally denies the reality of the condition. Go deeper — context →