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The Church of Divine Science is a religious group founded in Denver, Colorado in the late 19th century, during the dramatic growth of the New Thought Movement in the United States. The church's founders were Malinda Cramer and Nona L. Brooks, with Fannie Brooks James, Alethea Brooks Small and Kate Bingham also playing decisive roles. Both Phineas Parkhurst Quimby and Emma Curtis Hopkins, noted New Thought leader of the day, were a direct influence. Nona Brooks was introduced to Hopkins' teachings through a student of Hopkins in Pueblo, Colorado.

Divine Science originally began in San Francisco in the 1880s under Malinda Cramer. There is also a loose connection with Charles Fillmore, founder of Unity Church in Missouri. By 1918 there were churches in Denver, Seattle, Los Angeles, Oakland, Boston, Portland, Spokane, Saint Louis and New York. By 1925 churches had opened in Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento, Topeka, Washington D.C., Cleveland, Illinois, and Iowa. Today, Divine Science has churches in Denver (the founding church), Washington D.C., Greater St. Louis (three churches), Roanoke, Virginia (two churches), San Antonio, Texas, Pueblo, Colorado, South San Jose Hills, California, and other locations.

Divine Science defines itself as "an organized teaching pertaining to God and the manifestation of God in Creation." It holds that its foundation truth is "that limitless Being, God, is Good, is equally present everywhere, and is the All of everything." It defines God as "pure Spirit, absolute, changeless, eternal, manifesting in and as all Creation, yet also transcending Creation" and that evil is therefore neither necessary nor permanent and has has no reality within itself, but has existence only so long as human beings support it by believing in it. Like other New Thought churches, Divine Science considers faith healing very important, and emulates the work of Jesus, who is portrayed in the New Testament curing many people. The Denver Church's founder, Nona Brooks, stated, "The whole of Divine Science is the practice of the Presence of God. Truth comes through the Bible, receptive prayer, contemplation and meditation and the practice of the presence of God here and now."

In recent years, Divine Science, with few site-based churches, has expanded its presence through cyber-ministries and e-mail ministries. Northwoods Resources in Wisconsin provides many materials online. In addition, "Symphony of Love" in Santa Fe issues a weekly e-mail lesson free of charge, and has an international outreach. Symphony of Love is a group member of the Divine Science Federation, the denominational headquarters, and the INTA: International New Thought Alliance. In addition, there is a Web-based ministry in New York State focusing on the teachings and legacy of Emmet Fox, a Divine Science minister who preached to the largest church audience in the U.S. during the Depression, holding weekly services for 5,5000 at the New York Hippodrome until 1938, and after that at Carnegie Hall.

See also

• Religious Science
• Unity
• New Thought
• Ernest Holmes
• Panentheism
• Emma Curtis Hopkins
• Law of Attraction

Notes

1. Albanese (2007, p.316); Haley (1995, p.326)
2. Wessinger et al. (2006, p.758).
3. Hazen (2000, p.113)
4. History of Divine Science, Divine Science Federation
5. Sattler, p. 102.
6. Divine Science Links Links to affiliated Divine Science churches, schools, and study groups throughout the world
7. Divine Science Church of Denver.
8. Northwoods Spiritual Resource Center.
9. Sattler, p. 102.
10. Time magazine.
11. "Religious Leaders of America".

References

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Albanese, Catherine L. (2007). A Republic of Mind and Spirit: A Cultural History of American Metaphysical Religion. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-11089-0. OCLC 68221008.

Bainbridge, William Sims (2004). "Religion and science". Futures. 36 (9). Amsterdam and London: Elsevier Science: pp.1009–1023. doi:10.1016/j.futures.2004.02.003. ISSN 0016-3287. OCLC 198488307. {{cite journal}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

Gale Publishing Group, "Emmet Fox" in Religious Leaders of America, 2nd ed. Gale Group, 1999. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2008., accessed June 2008.

Haley, Gail (1995). "New Thought and the Harmonial Family". In Timothy Miller (ed.) (ed.). America's Alternative Religions. SUNY series in religious studies. Albany: State University of New York Press. pp. pp.325–330. ISBN 0-7914-2397-2. OCLC 30476551. {{cite book}}: |editor= has generic name (help); |pages= has extra text (help)

Hanegraaff, Wouter (1996). New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought. Studies in the history of religions, vol. 72. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill Publishers. ISBN 90-04-10696-0. OCLC 35229227.

Hazen, Craig James (2000). The Village Enlightenment in America: Popular Religion and Science in the Nineteenth Century. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-02512-1. OCLC 41156302.

Holmes, Ernest (1991). Living the Science of Mind. Marina del Rey, CA: DeVorss & Co. ISBN 0-87516-627-X. OCLC 23177601.

Lucas, Phillip (1995). "The Association for Research and Enlightenment: Saved by the New Age". In Timothy Miller (ed.) (ed.). America's Alternative Religions. SUNY series in religious studies. Albany: State University of New York Press. pp. pp.353–362. ISBN 0-7914-2397-2. OCLC 30476551. {{cite book}}: |editor= has generic name (help); |pages= has extra text (help)

Sattler, Beryl (1999). Each Mind a Kingdom: American Women, Sexual Purity, and the New Thought Movement, 1875–1920. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-21765-9. OCLC 39654723.

Stark, Rodney (1980). "Secularization and Cult Formation in the Jazz Age". Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 20 (4). Washington, DC: Society for the Scientific Study of Religion: pp.360–373. doi:10.2307/1386184. ISSN 0021-8294. OCLC 1783125. {{cite journal}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

Time magazine, "New Thought". Time. 1938. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

Wessinger, Catherine (2006). "Theosophy, New Thought and New Age Movements". In Rosemary Skinner Keller and Rosemary Radford Ruether (eds.), Marie Cantlon (associate ed.) (ed.). Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America, vol. 2. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. pp. pp.753–767. ISBN 978-0-253-34687-2. OCLC 61711172. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

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Further reading

• Hutcheson, J. D.; Taylor, G. A. (1973) "Religious variables, political system characteristics, and policy outputs in the American states" in American Journal of Political Science, Vol. 17, No. 2 (May, 1973), pp. 414-421.
• Melton, JG (1987) "How New is New? The Flowering of the 'New' Religious Consciousness since 1965" in The Future of New Religious Movements, David Bromley, ed.

External links

Divine Science organizations

• Divine Science Federation International
• Divine Science Church of Denver website
• Divine Science of Metropolitan St. Louis
• What is Divine Science?/Church List
• Divine Science Writings Index
• Northwoods Divine Science Resources
• Divine Science Study Group of Denver
• Divine Science Indianapolis
• Divine Science Ministers'Association
• Divine Science Community Center, San Jose
• Former Northwoods Divine Science Writings / New Thought Library
• Centro de Recursos de la Ciencia Divina de Lima-Perú (IN SPANISH-EN ESPAÑOL)

• New Thought movement
• New Thought churches
• Panentheism
• Metaphysics
• Religious organizations established in the 19th century