''God's Perfect Child: Living and Dying in the Christian Science Church'' (1999) is a book by the American writer

Caroline Fraser Caroline Fraser is an American writer. She won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography, and the 2017 National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography, for '' Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder'', a biograph ...

about

Christian Science Christian Science is a set of beliefs and practices associated with members of the Church of Christ, Scientist. Adherents are commonly known as Christian Scientists or students of Christian Science, and the church is sometimes informally know ...

and her upbringing within it. First published in New York by

Metropolitan Books Henry Holt and Company is an American book-publishing company based in New York City. One of the oldest publishers in the United States, it was founded in 1866 by Henry Holt and Frederick Leypoldt. Currently, the company publishes in the fields ...

, an anniversary edition with a new afterword by Fraser was released in 2019 by

Picador A ''picador'' (; pl. ''picadores'') is one of the pair of horse-mounted bullfighters in a Spanish-style bullfight that jab the bull with a lance. They perform in the ''tercio de varas'', which is the first of the three stages in a stylized bullf ...

. Fraser recalls being taught by her Christian Science father, who had a PhD from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, that matter was not real: " tter was Error and error did not exist." In the 2019 afterword, Fraser describes her father's painful death from

gangrene Gangrene is a type of tissue death caused by a lack of blood supply. Symptoms may include a change in skin color to red or black, numbness, swelling, pain, skin breakdown, and coolness. The feet and hands are most commonly affected. If the ga ...

in his foot and his refusal to seek medical treatment for it, preferring to rely instead on Christian Science prayer. Reviewing the book,

Martin Gardner Martin Gardner (October 21, 1914May 22, 2010) was an American popular mathematics and popular science writer with interests also encompassing scientific skepticism, micromagic, philosophy, religion, and literatureespecially the writings of Lewis ...

wrote in 1999: "No one has written more entertainingly and accurately than Fraser about the history of Christian Science after Mrs. Eddy died in 1910. No one has more colorfully covered the church's endless bitter schisms and bad judgments that have dogged it and in recent years almost plunged it into bankruptcy." According to

Philip Zaleski Philip Zaleski is the author and editor of several books on religion and spirituality, including ''The Recollected Heart,'' ''The Benedictines of Petersham,'' and ''Gifts of the Spirit.'' In addition, he is coauthor with his wife Carol Zaleski of ' ...

, in a ''New York Times'' review: "Few darker portraits of [

Mary Baker Eddy Mary Baker Eddy (July 16, 1821 – December 3, 1910) was an American religious leader and author who founded The Church of Christ, Scientist, in New England in 1879. She also founded ''The Christian Science Monitor'', a Pulitzer Prize-winning s ...

, founder of Christian Science] have emerged since the days when

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...

called her ''a brass god with clay legs''." Zaleski, Philip (22 August 1999)
"Thinking Made It So, for a While"
''The New York Times''.

References

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