The Prose Works, or Prose Works Other than Science and Health, is a single-volume compendium of the key works of Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, outside of its denominational textbook. While the fact is not generally known among Christian Scientists, the books were never published together as a single volume during her lifetime but were assembled as a convenience subsequent to her death in 1910 (its copyright notice suggests in 1925). The constituent books have historically been published individually in parallel also. It has been issued in both hardcover and paperback.
The volume consists of the following works:
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- Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896 (Miscellaneous Writings for short, abbreviated in concordances as Mis.)
- Retrospection and Introspection (abbreviated as Ret.)
- Unity of Good (abbreviated as Un.)
- Pulpit and Press (abbreviated as Pul.)
- Rudimental Divine Science (abbreviated as Rud.)
- No and Yes (abbreviated as No.)
- Christian Science versus Pantheism (abbreviated as Pan.)
- Message to The Mother Church, 1900 (Message for 1900 for short, abbreviated as '00)
- Message to The Mother Church, 1901 (Message for 1901 for short, abbreviated as '01)
- Message to The Mother Church, 1902 (Message for 1902 for short, abbreviated as '02)
- Christian Healing: A Sermon Delivered at Boston (abbreviated as Hea.)
- The People's Idea of God: Its Effect on Health and Christianity (secondary title usually omitted; abbreviated as Peo.)
- The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany (abbreviated as My.)
Famous quotes containing the words prose, works, science and/or health:
“All which is not prose is verse; and all which is not verse is prose.”
—Molière [Jean Baptiste Poquelin] (1622–1673)
“Every man is in a state of conflict, owing to his attempt to reconcile himself and his relationship with life to his conception of harmony. This conflict makes his soul a battlefield, where the forces that wish this reconciliation fight those that do not and reject the alternative solutions they offer. Works of art are attempts to fight out this conflict in the imaginative world.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)
“Every known fact in natural science was divined by the presentiment of somebody, before it was actually verified.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The sick man is taken away by the institution that takes charge not of the individual, but of his illness, an isolated object transformed or eliminated by technicians devoted to the defense of health the way others are attached to the defense of law and order or tidiness.”
—Michel de Certeau (1925–1986)