Christian Science on trial
Subtitle: religious healing in America
By: Rennie B. Schoepflin
Series: Medicine, science, and religion in historical context
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press; The Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 2003
Place of publication: Baltimore
Language: eng
Number of pages: 301
Subjects: Christian Science -- History; Medicine -- Religious aspects -- Christian Science -- History; Medical care -- Law and legislation -- United States
Description: "In Christian Science on Trial, historian Rennie B. Schoepflin shows how Christian Science healing became a viable alternative to medicine at the end of the nineteenth century. Christian Scientists did not simply evangelize for their religious beliefs; they engaged in a healing business that offered a therapeutic alterative to many patients for whom medicine had proven unsatisfactory.

Tracing the movement during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Schoepflin illuminates its struggle for existence against the efforts of organized American medicine to curtail its activities.".

"Physicians' efforts to trivialize and control practitioners of the faith indicated a lack of confidence among the turn-of-the-century medical profession about who controlled American health care. The contested authority of the medical community becomes clear through Schoepflin's examination of the pitched battles fought by physicians and Christian Scientists in America's courtrooms and legislative halls over the legality of Christian Science healing.

While the issues of medical licensing, the meaning of medical practice, and the supposed right of Americans to therapeutic choice dominated early debates, later confrontations saw the legal issues shift to matters of contagious disease, public safety, and children's rights. Throughout, Christian Scientists revealed their ambiguous status as medical practitioners and religious healers."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [221]-292) and index
Table of contents: title: The world of Christian Science healers. Mary Baker Eddy: patient, healer, teacher; title: Becoming a practitioner and teacher; title: "Occasions for hope": patients and practitioners; title: Separating "true" Scientists from "pseudo" Scientists; title: Christian Science healers and the world. Physicians debate Christian Science; title: Therapeutic choice or religious liberty?; title: Public health and the protection of children; title: Century of promise, then peril