From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Malinda Cramer, in an undated photo.
Malinda Elliott Cramer was a founder of the Church of Divine Science, a healer, and an
important figure in the early New Thought movement.
Cramer was born February 12, 1844 in Greensboro,
Indiana, the daughter of Obediah and Mary Henshaw Elliott.
Hoping to alleviate a persistent health problem, she moved to San
Francisco in 1870, where she met Charles Lake Cramer, a
photographer, whom she married in 1872.[1] Despite
the move, health problems continued to plague her, making her an
effective invalid.
In 1885, perhaps under the impetus of Christian Scientist
Miranda Rice,[2] Cramer
had what she described as a divine revelation after an "hour of
earnest mediation and prayerful seeking"[3] and
"that hour was the beginning of my realization of the oneness of
Life, [and] a gleam of its Truth flashed across my mental
vision".[4]
Within two years she was healed.[5]
In 1887, she began taking classes with Emma Curtis
Hopkins, an important teacher in the New Thought movement, and began to practice
faith-healing herself. In October, Cramer inaugurated
Harmony, a monthly journal.[6] In
March 1888, she and her husband opened what would become the Home
College of Divine Science.[5]
The term "Divine Science", however, was not coined by Cramer, but
had been used earlier by Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian
Science, as well as by Wilberforce Juvenal Colville, who had
published a book by that title that year.
In 1892, Cramer helped form the International Divine Science
Association, a forerunner of the International New
Thought Alliance, which would interconnect the various New Thought centers. In
1893, she helped open the second Divine Science College, in Oakland, and undertook several
cross-country missionary trips.[7]
In 1898, Cramer trained Nona L. Brooks,[8]
ordaining her as a minister in the Church of Divine Science. Brooks
returned to Denver and, with sisters Fannie Brooks James and
Alethea Brooks Small, formed a church there,[9] one
which would eventually become the home church of the
denomination.[10]
Cramer died August 2, 1906, in San Francisco, due to injuries received
in the great San Francisco
earthquake.[11]
Bibliography
Malinda Cramer was the author of several books, including:[12]
- Divine Science And Healing.
-
- Originally published as Lessons in the Science of
Infinite Spirit, and the Christ Method of Healing by C. W.
Gordon (San Francisco) 1890.
- Revised edition was published as Divine Science and
Healing C. L. Cramer (San Francisco, CA), 1902.
- In 1905, published as Divine Science and Healing: A
Text-book for the Study of Divine Science, Its Application in
Healing, and for the Well-being of Each Individual, Home
College of Divine Science (San Francisco).
- In 1957, published as Divine Science: Its Principles and
Practice, Fannie B. James, ed., Divine Science Federation
Int'l, (Denver), 1957.
-
- Published as Malinda Cramer's Hidden Harmony, Joan
Cline-McCrary, ed., Divine Science Federation International
(Denver), 1990.
- Basic Statements and Health Treatment of Truth: A System of
Instruction in Divine Science and Its Application in Healing and
for Class Training, Home and Private Use, 1893.
-
- Eighth edition, 1905.
Notes
- ^
"Malinda Cramer", Gale Contemporary Authors Online.
- ^
Contemporary Authors Online
- ^
Cramer, p. 16.
- ^
Cramer, p. 19.
- ^ a
b
Satter, p. 98.
- ^
Satter, p. 98, although "Malinda Elliott Cramer", Religious
Leaders of America states that Harmony was launched
in late 1888.
- ^
"Malinda Elliott Cramer", Religious Leaders of
America.
- ^
Albanese, p. 316.
Miller, p. 326.
- ^
Keller, p. 758.
- ^
First Divine Science Church of Denver.
- ^
"Nona Lovell Brooks", Gale's Religious Leaders of
America.
- ^
Information in this section largely from Contemporary Authors
Online with additional material from Amazon.com and Google
Books.
References
- Albanese, Catherine L.. A Republic of Mind and
Spirit: A Cultural History of American Metaphysical
Religion. Yale University Press. pp. p 316. ISBN
9780300110890. http://books.google.com/books?id=WirfED_-YnUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=A+Republic+of+Mind+and+Spirit:+A+Cultural+History+of+American+Metaphysical+Religion&sig=ODzsKFgLgNPDvkI-pkwp8fkXjVw.
- Cramer, Malinda (1923) Divine Science and
Healing, Colorado College of Divine Science, Denver.
- First Divine Science Church of Denver, "Centennial", accessed May 2008.
- Keller, Rosemary Skinner; Rosemary
Radford Ruether, Marie Cantlon (eds.). Encyclopedia of Women
and Religion in North America. Indiana University Press.
pp. p 758. ISBN
0253346878.
- Miller, Timothy. America's Alternative
Religions. SUNY Press. pp. p 326. ISBN 0791423972. http://books.google.com/books?id=og_u0Re1uwUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=America%27s+Alternative+Religions&sig=Qio95BttMD7tkCDiS1ZbsMJe5bQ.
- Divine Science page on Malinda
Cramer, accessed May 2008.
- Gale Publishing (2008) "Malinda Cramer" in Contemporary
Authors Online. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center.
Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2008. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC.
Accessed May 2008.
- Gale Publishing (2008) "Nona Lovell Brooks" and "Malinda
Cramer" in Religious Leaders of America. Reproduced in
Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2008. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC.
Accessed May 2008.
- Satter, Beryl (2001) Each Mind a Kingdom: American Women,
Sexual Purity, and the New Thought Movement, 1875-1920,
University of California Press, ISBN 978-0520229273.
- Spiritual
Enlightenment.org, accessed May 2008.
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