Church of Divine Science

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Church of Divine Science is a religious group that was formed in Denver in the late 19th century as the New Spirit movement spread rapidly in the United States . The founders of the Church were Malinda Cramer and Nona L. Brooks, who were directly influenced by both Phineas Parkhurst Quimby and Emma Curtis Hopkins, two well-known contemporary innovators. Nona Brooks was introduced to their teachings through one of Hopkins' students.

history

Malinda Cramer, a founding member of the Church of Divine Science , undated photo.

The Church of Divine Science was originally founded in San Francisco in the 1880s by Malinda Cramer. There were loose connections with both Charles and Myrtle Fillmore, founders of Unity Church in Missouri , and Ernest Holmes , who was an ordained Divine Science Minister and later founded the Church of Religious Science . In 1918 there were churches in Denver, Seattle , Los Angeles , Oakland , Boston , Portland , Spokane , St. Louis, and New York City . By 1925, other churches had sprung up in San Diego , Sacramento , Topeka , Washington, DC , Cleveland , Illinois , and Iowa . Today there are still many churches of the group, the most important and largest in Denver (Founding Church), Washington DC, Greater St. Louis (three churches), Roanoke (two churches), San Antonio , Pueblo and South San Jose Hills to find are. In recent years, the Church of Divine Science has expanded into Internet and email services, and much of the group's materials are distributed and made available online.

Teaching

Divine Science sees itself as "an orderly teaching about God and the revelation of God in creation". The fundamental truth from which it is assumed is that the infinite being - namely God - is good, equally present in everything and the holistic essence of all creation. God is seen as "pure spirit, absolute, unchangeable, eternal, revealing itself through creation and yet transcendent creation". Evil is therefore neither necessary nor permanent , and it has no reality in itself, but only as long as people support it by believing in it. As in other New Spirit churches, "healing" plays a central role, since it replicates the work of Jesus Christ, who according to the New Testament healed many people. The Denver Church founder, Nona Brooks, summarized the doctrine as follows: “Divine science is entirely about practicing the presence of God. Truth comes from the Bible, positive prayer, contemplation, meditation and practicing the presence of God here and now. "

See also

Literature & sources

  • Catherine L. Albanese: A Republic of Mind and Spirit: A Cultural History of American Metaphysical Religion . Yale University Press, New Haven, CT 2007, ISBN 978-0-300-11089-0 .
  • William Sims Bainbridge: Religion and science . In: Elsevier Science (Ed.): Futures . 36, No. 9, Amsterdam and London, November 2004, ISSN  0016-3287 , pp. 1009-1023.
  • Gale Publishing Group: Emmet Fox. In: Religious Leaders of America. 2nd ed. Gale Group, 1999.
  • Gail Haley: New Thought and the Harmonial Family . In: Timothy Miller (Ed.): America's Alternative Religions  (= SUNY series in religious studies). State University of New York Press, Albany 1995, ISBN 0-7914-2397-2 , pp. 325-330, OCLC 30476551 .
  • Wouter Hanegraaff: New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought  (= Studies in the history of religions, vol. 72 ). Brill Publishers, Leiden, Netherlands 1996, ISBN 90-04-10696-0 , OCLC 35229227 .
  • Craig James Hazen: The Village Enlightenment in America: Popular Religion and Science in the Nineteenth Century . University of Illinois Press, Urbana 2000, ISBN 0-252-02512-1 , OCLC 41156302 .
  • Ernest Holmes: Living the Science of Mind . DeVorss & Co, Marina del Rey, CA 1991, ISBN 0-87516-627-X , OCLC 23177601 .
  • Phillip Lucas: The Association for Research and Enlightenment: Saved by the New Age . In: Timothy Miller (Ed.): America's Alternative Religions  (= SUNY series in religious studies). State University of New York Press, Albany 1995, ISBN 0-7914-2397-2 , pp. 353-362, OCLC 30476551 .
  • Beryl Sattler: Each Mind a Kingdom: American Women, Sexual Purity, and the New Thought Movement, 1875-1920 . University of California Press, Berkeley 1999, ISBN 0-520-21765-9 , OCLC 39654723 .
  • Rodney Stark, William Sims Bainbridge: Secularization and Cult Formation in the Jazz Age . In: Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (Ed.): Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion . 20, No. 4, Washington, DC, December 1980, ISSN  0021-8294 , pp. 360-373.
  • New Thought . In: Time . November 7, 1938.
  • Catherine Wessinger, Dell deChant, William Michael Ashcraft: Theosophy, New Thought and New Age Movements . In: Rosemary Skinner Keller, Rosemary Radford Ruether , Marie Cantlon (Eds.): Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America, vol. 2 . Indiana University Press, Bloomington 2006, ISBN 978-0-253-34687-2 , pp. 753-767, OCLC 61711172 .
  • JD Hutcheson, GA Taylor: Religious variables, political system characteristics, and policy outputs in the American states. In American Journal of Political Science . Vol. 17, No. May 2, 1973, pp. 414-421.
  • John Gordon Melton: How New is New? The Flowering of the 'New' Religious Consciousness since 1965. In: David Bromley (Ed.): The Future of New Religious Movements. 1987.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Catherine L. Albanese: A Republic of Mind and Spirit: A Cultural History of American Metaphysical Religion. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT 2007, p. 316
  2. ^ Gail Haley: New Thought and the Harmonial Family. In: Timothy Miller (Ed.): America's Alternative Religions. State University of New York Press, Albany 1995, p. 326.
  3. ^ Craig James Hazen: The Village Enlightenment in America: Popular Religion and Science in the Nineteenth Century. University of Illinois Press, Urbana 2000, p. 113.
  4. ^ History of the Church of Divine Science ( Memento June 8, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), Divine Science Federation
  5. ^ Beryl Sattler: Each Mind a Kingdom: American Women, Sexual Purity, and the New Thought Movement, 1875-1920. University of California Press, Berkeley 1999, p. 98.
  6. ^ Glenn R. Mosley (2006) Templeton Foundation Press, New Thought, Ancient Widom, p. 47.
  7. ^ Beryl Sattler: Each Mind a Kingdom: American Women, Sexual Purity, and the New Thought Movement, 1875-1920. University of California Press, Berkeley 1999, p. 102.
  8. ↑ Divine Science Links - Links to Divine Science churches, schools and study programs worldwide.
  9. ^ Northwoods Spiritual Resource Center .
  10. ^ Divine Science Church of Denver. ( Memento from May 9, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  11. ^ "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. " College of Divine Science Website ( Memento of October 8, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), accessed August 2008.