About Religious Science | Dr.
Ernest Holmes | Influences on the Teaching
Declaration of Principles | FAQ | More Q and A
Declaration of Principles | FAQ | More Q and A
Great Thinkers, Great Lives
The major influences on Ernest Holmes and his formulation of Religious Science.
Who? |
Ernest Holmes: |
Impact |
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Jesus of Nazareth |
Jesus was the most glorious soul who ever trod our planet...the most tremendous example of the possibility of humankind...a wayshower of truth and life...a cosmically conscious soul. I want to think of the Christ not as a person, but as an active Principle of Intelligence in the Universe. | Jesus of Nazareth proved that a human being could attain the kind of spiritual realization that allows us to live in constant, conscious connection and communion with Spirit...the kind of realization that heals. | ||
Ralph Waldo Emerson |
At that moment, all I could think of was that there was more to a person than he realizes, that is beyond ordinary experience. For the first time in my life I thought that whatever was going to happen to me would be due to something that was already within me. | Ralph Waldo Emerson showed Holmes that there was something with which we could commune [I the imperfect, adore my own perfect]. This is probably where the statement: There is a Power for Good in the Universe, greater than we are, available to everyone, and we can use it! originated. | ||
Mary Baker Eddy |
I began to get the concept deep inside me that there was a Divine Presence with whom I could commune...but there was also a Divine Law which I could use. | Mrs. Eddy, along with Emerson, first sparked the idea that this Presence worked lawfully. This shifted Holmes’ view of God as passive to God as an active, creative force. | ||
Phineas P. Quimby |
What was so revolutionary in Quimby was his belief that all dis-ease is the result of the misuse of the Mind Principle. | Quimby’s major contribution was his well-documented research on the receptivity and ‘impressability’ of mind. | ||
Thomas Troward |
I consider Troward’s writings to be the most profound spiritual
abstractions of modern times...but he taught very little about the
application of his belief to practical matters. I would say that 25%
of our philosophy comes from Troward. |
Troward, a deep and philosophical thinker, proved in logical analyses that Spirit and Matter were ultimately made up of the same thing; that Matter is the result of mental action within or upon Spirit. | ||
Emma Curtis Hopkins |
She was a very sweet character, and there was something about her that you felt rather than heard…there is a common denominator of mysticism…and she was the first and greatest to express it in terms that are applicable to healing. She had the consciousness of the mystic, which she could awaken in her students. | Mrs. Hopkins provided a systematic method of Scientific Christian Mental Practice, which substantially contributed to Dr. Holmes' formulation of spiritual mind treatment as a powerful form of affirmative prayer. She also opened the door to practice Religious Science as a mystical teaching. The divine mother of New Thought. |
