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The Church of Divine Science is a religious
group founded originally in San Francisco in the 1880s under Malinda Cramer.
"In March 1888 Cramer and her husband Frank chartered the 'Home
College of Spiritual Science.' Two months later Cramer changed the
name of her school to the 'Home College of Divine Science.'" [1] during
the dramatic growth of the New Thought
Movement in the United States.
The church's founder were Malinda Cramer and Nona L.
Brooks,[2] with
Fannie Brooks James, Alethea Brooks Small and Kate Bingham also
playing decisive roles.[3] Both Phineas Parkhurst Quimby[4] and Emma Curtis
Hopkins, noted New Thought leader of the day, were a direct
influence. Nona Brooks was introduced to Hopkins' teachings through
a student of Hopkins in Pueblo, Colorado.[5] After
the San Francisco
earthquake of 1906 and the death of Malinda Cramer the
headquarters moved to Denver.
History
There is also a loose connection with Charles Fillmore and Myrtle Fillmore
founders of Unity
Church in Missouri.
Another connection, Ernest Holmes was an ordained Divine
Science Minister, he would later go on to found the church of Religious
Science.[6] By 1918
there were churches in Denver, Seattle, Los
Angeles, Oakland, Boston, Portland, Spokane, Saint
Louis and New
York. By 1925 churches had opened in Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento, Topeka, Washington D.C., Cleveland, Illinois, and Iowa.[7]
Today, Divine Science has churches in Denver (the founding church),
Washington D.C., Greater St. Louis (three churches),
Roanoke,
Virginia (two churches), San Antonio,
Texas, Pueblo, Colorado, South San Jose Hills,
California, and other locations.[8]
Divine Science defines itself as "an organized teaching
pertaining to God and the manifestation of God in Creation." It
holds that its foundation truth is "that limitless Being, God, is
Good, is equally present everywhere, and is the All of everything."
It defines God as "pure Spirit, absolute, changeless, eternal,
manifesting in and as all Creation, yet also transcending Creation"
and that evil is therefore neither necessary nor permanent and has
no reality within itself, but has existence only so long as human
beings support it by believing in it.[9] Like
other New Thought churches, Divine Science considers healing very important, and
emulates the work of Jesus
Christ, who in the New Testament cures many people. The
Denver Church's founder, Nona Brooks, stated, "The whole of Divine
Science is the practice of the Presence of God.
Truth comes through the Bible, Affirmative prayer, contemplation
and meditation and the practice of the presence of God here and
now."[10]
According to published data, there were 7,000 members in 1935
and 7,107 in 1953, but subsequent figures are not available.[11] In
recent years, Divine Science, with few site-based churches, has
expanded its presence through cyber-ministries and e-mail
ministries. Northwoods Resources in Wisconsin provides many
materials online. In addition, "Symphony of Love" in Santa Fe
issues a weekly e-mail lesson free of charge, and has an
international outreach. Symphony of Love is a group member of the
Divine Science Federation, the denominational headquarters, and the
INTA: International New
Thought Alliance. In addition, there is a Web-based ministry in
New York State focusing on the teachings and legacy of Emmet Fox, a Divine Science
minister who preached to the largest church audience in the U.S.
during the Depression,[7]
holding weekly services for 5,500 at the New York
Hippodrome until 1938,[12] and
after that at Carnegie Hall.[13]
See also
Malinda Cramer, a founder of the Church of Divine Science, in an
undated photo.
Notes
- ^
Sattler, p98
- ^
Albanese (2007, p.316); Haley (1995, p.326)
- ^
Wessinger et al. (2006, p.758).
- ^
Hazen (2000, p.113)
- ^
History of Divine Science,
Divine Science Federation
- ^
Glenn R. Mosley (2006) Templeton Foundation Press, New Thought,
Ancient Widom p.47
- ^ a
b
Sattler, p. 102.
- ^
Divine Science Links Links
to affiliated Divine Science churches, schools, and study groups
throughout the world
- ^
Divine Science Church of Denver.
- ^
College of Divine Science website, accessed
August 2008.
- ^
[1]National Council
of Churches Historic Archive.
- ^
"New Thought". Time
magazine. November 7 1938.
- ^
Gale Publishing Group (1999)
References
- Albanese, Catherine L. (2007).
A Republic of Mind and Spirit: A Cultural History of American
Metaphysical Religion. New Haven, CT: Yale
University Press. ISBN 9780300110890.
OCLC 68221008.
- Gale Publishing Group, "Emmet Fox" in Religious Leaders of
America, 2nd ed. Gale Group, 1999. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center.
Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2008., accessed June 2008.
- Haley, Gail (1995). "New Thought
and the Harmonial Family". in Timothy Miller (ed.). America's
Alternative Religions. SUNY series in religious studies.
Albany: State University of New
York Press. pp. 325–330. ISBN 0791423972. OCLC 30476551.
- Hazen, Craig James (2000). The
Village Enlightenment in America: Popular Religion and Science in
the Nineteenth Century. Urbana: University of Illinois
Press. ISBN 0252025121. OCLC 41156302.
- Sattler, Beryl (1999). Each
Mind a Kingdom: American Women, Sexual Purity, and the New Thought
Movement, 1875–1920. Berkeley: University of California
Press. ISBN 0520217659. OCLC 39654723.
- Wessinger, Catherine; Dell deChant
and William Michael Ashcraft (2006). "Theosophy, New Thought and
New Age Movements". in Rosemary Skinner Keller and Rosemary Radford
Ruether (eds.), Marie Cantlon (associate ed.). Encyclopedia of
Women and Religion in North America, vol. 2. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
pp. 753–767. ISBN 9780253346872.
OCLC 61711172.
Further
reading
- Bainbridge, William Sims
(November 2004). "Religion and science". Futures (Amsterdam and London:
Elsevier Science) 36 (9):
1009–1023. doi:10.1016/j.futures.2004.02.003. ISSN 00163287. OCLC 198488307.
- Hanegraaff, Wouter (1996). New
Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of
Secular Thought. Studies in the history of religions, vol. 72. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill
Publishers. ISBN 9004106960. OCLC 35229227.
- Holmes, Ernest (1991). Living
the Science of Mind. Marina del Rey, CA: DeVorss & Co. ISBN 087516627X. OCLC 23177601.
- Lucas, Phillip (1995). "The
Association for Research and Enlightenment: Saved by the New Age".
in Timothy Miller (ed.). America's Alternative Religions.
SUNY series in religious studies. Albany: State University of New
York Press. pp. 353–362. ISBN 0791423972. OCLC 30476551.
- Stark, Rodney; and William Sims
Bainbridge (December 1980). "Secularization and Cult Formation in
the Jazz Age". Journal for the Scientific Study of
Religion (Washington, DC: Society for the Scientific Study of
Religion) 20 (4): 360–373. doi:10.2307/1386184. ISSN 00218294. OCLC 1783125.
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