Mary Baker Eddy: Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures

Audience

Eddy began by writing for herself and a handful of students, and her original audience was made up of the close coterie of friends and followers. Gradually, as she refined and edited the book, she expanded her reach to include anyone eager for healing. Thus, her potential audience was huge, and it seems likely that the book reached millions of readers—far more than ever joined the church officially—both in the United States and around the world, especially in English-speaking countries. Eventually translated into seventeen languages, Science and Health early on found particular favor in England and Germany, where a number of large branch churches were built. As of 1994, when the church published what it termed a “trade edition” of the textbook—meant to be sold in commercial bookstores as well as its own Christian Science Reading Rooms—the institution claimed that over eight million copies had been sold.