With Bleeding Footsteps: Mary Baker Eddy's Path to Religious Leadership

Eddy (1821-1910), who founded the Christian Science Church, did not articulate her religious vision until she reached her 40s. Her transformation from a chronically ill widow into a highly organized and charismatic leader is recounted here in a carefully researched and readable study. Thomas ( The Man Who Would Be Perfect: John Humphrey Noyes and the Utopian Impulse ) sympathically describes the episodes of invalidism that caused Eddy to give up her child and seek the help of healers after her second marriage ended in divorce. Her dramatic recovery from a fall (which she credited to reading the Bible) led her to organize a church built on spiritual healing. Although her ideas were attacked by both the clergy and the medical profession, Christian Science grew as Eddy herself published several books and launched the Christian Science Monitor . Access to Church archives has provided Thomas with many interesting details about the autocratic Eddy's dealings with her followers, which serve to deepen an already substantial portrait. (July)