Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910) was a spiritual pioneer. Her work covered the disciplines of science, theology, and medicine.

She studied the Bible her whole life. In 1866, she experienced a dramatic recovery from a life-threatening accident after reading one of Jesus’ healings. From that moment, she wanted to know how she had been healed. She read the Bible and prayed for answers. It became clear to her that spiritual healing was based on divine laws of God, Spirit. She proved that these laws could be applied by anyone to heal every form of human suffering and sin.

Spiritual healing isn’t miraculous, but an effect of understanding God’s all-power and love. It’s as provable today as it was in biblical times. For the next forty years, Mary Baker Eddy practiced, taught, and shared this healing Science of Christianity. As Mary Baker Eddy became known as a Christian healer, she was often asked to cure cases that had been given up by doctors. Once she went to see a woman who’d been given up as dying by a well-known physician. She wrote about this experience, “On seeing her immediately restored by me without material aid, he asked earnestly if I had a work describing my system of healing . . . he urged me immediately to write a book which should explain to the world my curative system of metaphysics” (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 105). When she went home, Mrs. Eddy opened her Bible to the verse in Jeremiah, "Thus speaketh the Lord God of Israel, saying, Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book." (Jeremiah 30:2). That clear message to her from God prompted her to write Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.