Material expression and maternalism in mary baker eddy?s boston churches: how architecture and gender compromised mind

Abstract

Using the architecture and iconography of the Mother Church of Christian Science and its Extension in Boston as historical evidence, this article argues that Christian Science founder Mary Baker Eddy's use of metaphors and material images to consolidate her leadership of the new religious organization proved so paradoxical to her anti-materialist theology that she was ultimately forced to abandon them. The image of the mother, which Eddy adopted in a number of forms, proved most troubling. When, in accordance with her theological beliefs, Eddy allowed images of the maternal/feminine aspects of God to be depicted in stained glass in the new church, her dovotees began to equate all forms of the motherhood metaphor—from the theological view of a dual-gendered God to Mary the mother of Jesus—with Eddy herself. Though Eddy struggled to correct these ideas, many followers became convinced that Eddy was divine. Compounding this belief were images in a book of poetry written by Eddy, which were also viewed as indications of her divine power. Concerned that rumors of her divinity would spark public ridicule, Eddy eliminated all vestiges of the mother metaphor, pulling the book from publication and, in ornamenting her next church, the Extension, banning human figural images entirely.