Science and Health With Key To The Scriptures

Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures is the central text of the Christian Science religion. It was written by Mary Baker Eddy, inspired by studies of the Bible she undertook in 1867 following a healing experience. In a book entitled Christian Science, Mark Twain challenged Eddy's authorship of Science and Health. He noted that works Eddy was known to have written (such as the prefaces to various versions of Science and Health) revealed her peculiar, opaque, and generally poor writing style, as distinguished from the clear, grammatical style of Science and Health. Twain ultimately concluded that Eddy simply did not have the command of the English language necessary to have authored Science and Health. Although Eddy claimed to have first privately published biblical studies as early as 1862 (Eddy, 1934 : pp. viii:24–32), she wrote that her discovery of Christian Science, which inspired the book, took place in 1866.