|
MY THEORY: the trouble is in the mind, for the body is only the house for the mind to dwell in . . . [I]f
your mind has been deceived by some invisible enemy into a belief, you have put it into the form of a disease, with or without
your knowledge. By my theory or truth I come in contact with your enemy and restore you to health and happiness.
-- volume 3, page 208 of Quimby's Complete Writings
New Thought Movement
The Practice of the Presence of God for Practical Purposes
Using the title of a famous book by Brother Lawrence, New Thought is "the practice of the presence of God,"
but unlike conventional mysticism, which emphasizes contact or union with God for its own sake, New Thought adds to this most
important side of mysticism, the practice of the presence of God for practical purposes. To those who object
that one should not use God, New Thought replies that there is nothing but God to use, and/or that God wants us to have the
best in all aspects of living, that God constantly offers this to us, and that in accepting it we are living as God wants
us to live.
Culturally and organizationally, New Thought is a philosophical-spiritual-religious movement begun in the
nineteenth century and continuing today. It is the outgrowth of the healing theory and practice of Phineas Parkhurst Quimby, whose influence was spread by his former patients, the most prominent of whom were: Warren Felt Evans, who wrote the first books in what would be called New Thought; Mary Baker Eddy, who established Christian Science;
and Julius and Annetta Dresser, who, with their son Horatio, spread the word about Quimby. Former Eddy associate Emma Curtis
Hopkins taught her own version of healing idealism, indebted indirectly to Quimby and directly to her own explorations and
to Eddy. Hopkins, the "teacher of teachers," taught founders of Divine Science, Unity, and Religious Science. These groups,
along with Religious Science-influenced Seich-No-Ie, are the best-known groups in the New Thought movement.
The name New Thought was taken in the 1890s, generally replacing such names as Mind Cure and Mental
Science. William James dealt with the movement in Lectures IV and V of The Varieties of Religious Experience under the name "The Religion of Healthy-Mindedness." (The link to a summary of that book also leads to some
other important writings.) Some studies of the New Thought movement by Charles S. Braden, Horatio W. Dresser, Stillson J.
Judah, and others are given in the bibliography of the most recent survey of the field, New Thought: A Practical American Spirituality.
To New Thought denominations
To INTA
To SSMR
To New Thought Movement Home Page
|
