Blue Windows: A Christian Science Childhood

by Barbara Wilson and Barbara Sjoholm

Book Overview

From Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Church of Christian Science, to Deepak Chopra, Americans have struggled with the connection between health and happiness. Barbara Wilson was taught by her Christian Scientist family that there was no sickness or evil, and that by maintaining this belief she would be protected. But such beliefs were challenged when Wilson's own mother died of breast cancer after deciding not to seek medical attention, having been driven mad by the contradiction between her religion and her reality. In this perceptive and textured memoir, Wilson surveys the complex history of Christian Science and the role of women in religion and healing.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312180543
• ISBN13: 9780312180546
• Release Date: March 1998
• Publisher: St. Martins Press-3PL
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.94 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.6" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Memoir writing at its best

Whether you are familiar with Christian Science or not, you will be absorbed by this memoir. It is nearly novelistic in its writing, not surprising given that its author is also a novelist. Somehow she survived a childhood impacted by incest, mental illness, disease, and death. She survived efforts by a stepmother bent on turning her into the frilly, silly teenager she could never be. Barbara Wilson laces her story with absorbing asides into philosophy and theology, always bringing it back to Christian Science and its devastating effect on her life. Read this book!

It makes you think

My father was raised in a household of three women. His mother and aunt were CS, his grandmother was not. He respected women all his life and at a time (the 50s) when few men did. Long after he abandoned his childhood faith he respected the CS determination, optimism, and power of both sexes to achieve worthwhile goals. Wilson's book helped me understand why he was able to do that.

Blue Windows: A Christian Science Childhood

Barbara Wilson's writing style is brilliant. She tells a profound and sad story that is probably more common than we know. I had to laugh when I read the review from the 29 year old man whose life has been improved "ten-fold" by Christian Science. I too was born into the religion. Luckily I had the "presence of mind" (CS Lingo) to insist upon medical care beginning at a young age. I am all for religious/spiritual freedom of expression. But Christian Science is not about freedom of expression. It is about denying the existence of ANYTHING unpleasant. There is nothing scientific about it. It's followers have a strict and paranoid code of secrecy about their beliefs which seeps into their daily lives and affects all relationships. Wilson's book is a must-read for anyone trying to understand a friend of loved one's negative experience with Christian Science.

Another scarred C/S child - New twist to same sad story

I hated to see this book end. I felt like I was saying goodbye to a kindred spirit. Unfortunately, only someone brought up in a C.S. home will be able to fully appreciate what this book has to say. How many needless deaths & wrecked lives will it take before someone in our government gets the message? Thank you to this author for having the courage to tell her story.

absorbing, sensitive, and true-to-life

I could not put this book down. Wilson gives an absorbing account of growing up in Christian Science that matches fully with my own experiences and those of other former-CS friends.Living in a sectarian environment, in which believers strive to "deny the evidence of physical senses," powerfully affects your life. Wilson manages to give a fully nuanced account without being unfair to her former religion, and without getting lost in abstract detail.She accomplishes all of this while telling a dramatic human story.This book is a wonderful memoir from a literary standpoint, and the best CS memoir you'll find. Well worth buying.