Samuel Putnam Bancroft

Samuel Putnam Bancroft (July 19, 1846 - October 11, 1929), best known as Samuel P. Bancroft was an American Christian Scientist.

Biography

As a young man Bancroft worked as a shoe operative for Bancroft & Purington in Lynn, Massachusetts.[1] The factory was part-owned by his uncle Thomas Frederick Bancroft.[2] In 1870 he became interested in Christian Science and studied under Mary Baker Eddy.[1] Bancroft was Eddy's favourite student.[3]

His uncle a deacon of the First Congregational Church was not supportive of his association with Eddy and once commented "My boy, you will be ruined for life; it is the work of the devil."[4][5]

Bancroft established his own practice in Cambridge, Massachusetts during 1874-1875. The practice was authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. Bancroft advertised himself as a "Scientific Physician, Gives no Medicine."[6] Bancroft remained loyal to Eddy and her teachings.[7]

In 1923, Bancroft authored the book Mrs. Eddy as I Knew Her in 1870. The book was suppressed by the Christian Science Church.[8][9] Martin Alfred Larson has noted that because it contains an intimate description of Eddy "during the formative stages of her career, it is under the official ban."[10]

Publications

  • Mrs. Eddy as I Knew Her in 1870 (Boston: Geo. H. Ellis Press, 1923)

References

  1. 1 2 Kennedy, Hugh A. Studdert. (1931). Mrs. Eddy as I Knew Her: Being Some Contemporary Portraits of Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. The Farallon Press. pp. 168-172
  2. ↑ Bates, Ernest Sutherland; Dittemore, John Valentine. (1932). Mary Baker Eddy: The Truth and the Tradition. A. A. Knopf. p. 139
  3. ↑ Bates and Dittemore, 1932. p. 148
  4. ↑ Eddy, Mary Baker. (1913). The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany. Boston. p. 60
  5. ↑ Tucker, Ruth A. (1989). Another Gospel: Cults, Alternative Religions, and the New Age Movement. Zondervan. p. 158. ISBN 0-310-25937-1
  6. ↑ Schoepflin, Rennie B. (2003). Christian Science on Trial: Religious Healing in America. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 49. ISBN 0-8018-7057-7
  7. ↑ Wilbur, Sibyl. (1913). The Life of Mary Baker Eddy. Christian Science Publishing Society. p. 210
  8. ↑ Bates and Dittemore, 1932. p. 4
  9. ↑ James, Edward T; James, Janet Wilson; Boyer, Paul S. (1971). Notable American Women, 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary, Volume 1. Harvard University Press. p. 561. ISBN 978-0674627345
  10. ↑ Larson, Martin Aldred. (1985). New Thought Or a Modern Religious Approach. Philosophical Library. p. 149
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