After the passing in 1910 of Mary Baker Eddy, founder of the rapidly increasing Christian Science movement, the governing Christian Science Board of Directors of The Mother Church in Boston faced the daunting task of unifying the sometimes unruly and overly exuberant members of a faith noted for its efforts to reintroduce healing to the religious scene. This essay demonstrates that over the next fifteen years the Directors skillfully consolidated their authority and so established centralized control over the fastest-growing religious group in the United States. Divisive litigation between the Directors and the independent-minded Trustees of the Christian Science Publishing Society, 1919–1921, was resolved in favor of the Directors and so provided the capstone for their efforts to bring order to the new faith. In their actions, the Directors often followed business and societal practices, as a means of attaining routinization of charisma.
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November 2020
Research Article|
October 20 2020
A “Green Oak in a Thirsty Land”: The Christian Science Board of Directors Routinizes Charisma, 1910–1925
Rolf Swensen
Rolf Swensen
Rolf Swensen, Queens College Retirees Association, Queens College Foundation, Kiely Hall, 9th Floor, Queens College, 65-30 Kissena Blvd., Flushing, NY 11367. Email: rolf.swensen@qc.cuny.edu.
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Nova Religio (2020) 24 (2): 32–58.
Citation
Rolf Swensen; A “Green Oak in a Thirsty Land”: The Christian Science Board of Directors Routinizes Charisma, 1910–1925. Nova Religio 20 October 2020; 24 (2): 32–58. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2020.24.2.32
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