(RNS) Author Cheryl Petersen felt a sense of awe as she approached the task of revising Christian Science’s founding work, Mary Baker Eddy’s “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.”
The Bible is the sacred text for the Church of Christ, Scientist, but Eddy’s 700-page book is nearly as influential.
Petersen, a Christian Scientist who lives in Delhi, N.Y., with her husband, was not authorized by the Boston-based church to rewrite “Science and Health.” Still, she felt it needed updating. The result is “21st Century Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” self-published last March.
Petersen’s work raises profound questions about when, if ever, sacred texts should be revised. If so, then by whom and under whose authority? Generally, sacred texts are only translated or revised under the watchful eye of a denomination or religion. In this case, Petersen struck out on her own.
The first edition of “Science and Health,” published in 1875, promulgated Eddy’s belief that healing could be achieved through “the operation of divine Principle, before which sin and disease lose their reality in human consciousness and disappear.” The book became the touchstone for a denomination that believes ignorance, not infections, is at the root of sickness.
Petersen, who works in a daycare center, said she wanted to share Eddy’s book by making it more accessible to modern readers.
“I never felt like her wording was wrong or needed improvement, but I grew up with (Eddy’s) vocabulary. I understand the 19th century language, where she says `man’ for `people,’ but it made me feel very focused on Cheryl, on my own comfort zone,” Petersen said.
Reactions to the revision have run the gamut from appreciation to outrage. “When it first came out, I got e-mails that said it needed to be done, but a lot of people think I’m the anti-Christ. I’ve been accused of plagiarism — you’re not supposed to change Mrs. Eddy’s words. It’s hard. It puts me in tears. Some people are very scared of it. I would say then just don’t read it; just read Mrs. Eddy’s,” she said.
Reviewers on Amazon.com are just as polarized, giving the book either one star (the worst) or five (the best), with few in between. “As a woman of the 21st century who speaks modern English and understands modern medicine, I appreciate an appropriate, updated translation of this text,” writes reviewer Michelle Angelo. Another reviewer, Paula Caracristi, calls Petersen “presumptuous” for trying to re-write Eddy’s work.
Christian Science headquarters, which is based in Boston, made no attempt to stop Petersen’s book, said Phil Davis, who manages media and legislative affairs for the church. “The copyright on `Science and Health’ lapsed many years ago, so certainly (the revision) is something someone can do if they wish,” he said.
Since “Science and Health” is regarded as a companion to the Bible, less a sacred text than a textbook, Petersen’s revision is not seen as blasphemous or as desecrating Eddy’s original writings, Davis said.
Still, Davis said he finds Petersen’s revision unnecessary. “The text as written by Mary Baker Eddy has had great import in my life. It has timeless impact and doesn’t need to be changed with the times,” he said.
What Petersen has done as an individual is fairly unusual, said Francis Clooney of Harvard Divinity School. “People through the centuries have re-told the story of Jesus, but commentary is usually the way (of approaching sacred texts),” he said.
Some believe a sacred text should be only studied in its original language, said Deirdre Good of General Theological Seminary in New York, and that translations are inevitably interpretations. But that view has limitations. “It looks as if Jesus spoke Aramaic. So should we learn Aramaic?” Good asked.
Petersen said she’s pained by accusations that her work implicitly criticizes Christian Science. “I have gotten a lot of help from the ideas in (Eddy’s) book,” she said.
