Who Was Emma Curtis Hopkins? The Mother of New Thought

Introduction

Emma Curtis Hopkins (1849–1925) was the architect of the New Thought movement, a spiritual revolution that emphasized the power of the mind to heal the body and transform circumstance. Called the “teacher of teachers” and the “mother of New Thought,” she trained and ordained hundreds of students who went on to found major denominations, including Charles and Myrtle Fillmore of Unity Church, Ernest Holmes of Religious Science, and H. Emilie Cady, author of Unity’s foundational text Lessons in Truth. Modern scholars identify Hopkins as the movement’s true founder, surpassing even Mary Baker Eddy in influence on the metaphysical currents that flowed into twentieth-century self-help and positive thinking. This article traces her life, her break with Christian Science, her Chicago-based teaching empire, and her enduring legacy.

Historical Context

The New Thought movement emerged in the late nineteenth century from a rich stew of American religious experimentation. Transcendentalism, with its emphasis on innate divinity and intuitive knowledge (Emerson, Thoreau), laid a philosophical groundwork. Mesmerism and the mind-cure movement popularized the idea that mental states could influence physical health. Swedenborgianism contributed a mystical cosmology of correspondences between spiritual and material realms. Into this milieu stepped Mary Baker Eddy, whose Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (1875) codified Christian Science, a system of spiritual healing that claimed to restore primitive Christianity. But Eddy’s authoritarian control and insistence on her unique revelation alienated some followers, including Emma Curtis Hopkins. Hopkins came to believe that Christian Science was not a new revelation but a fresh expression of a perennial truth found in all religions and philosophies. This conviction, rooted in the pluralistic and democratic ethos of post–Civil War America, propelled her to strike out on her own and become the central organizing force of a broader, more inclusive healing movement.

Main Narrative

Early Life and Education

Josephine Emma Curtis was born September 2, 1849, in Killingly, Connecticut, into an old New England family. She received a good education and became a schoolteacher. Her intellectual curiosity and spiritual yearning led her to read Science and Health, which inspired her to travel to Boston in 1883 to study under Mary Baker Eddy.

Apprenticeship and Break with Christian Science

Hopkins quickly rose in Eddy’s organization. She established herself as a Christian Science practitioner, and in 1884 she was made editor of the Christian Science Journal. However, by the fall of 1885, tensions erupted. Hopkins argued that Christian Science was not a singular revelation but one expression of a universal, perennial wisdom—a view Eddy rejected as heretical. Eddy also frowned on Hopkins’s independence and her willingness to teach advanced concepts without having taken Eddy’s own advanced course. Late in 1885, Hopkins left Boston for Chicago, where she opened an independent Christian Science practice.

Chicago Years: The Teacher of Teachers

In Chicago in 1886, despite never having completed Eddy’s advanced training, Hopkins began teaching classes. Her students, many of them women, were encouraged to become practitioners and teachers themselves. Her curriculum synthesized Christian Science, transcendentalist idealism, Hindu and Buddhist concepts, and the mystical traditions of the West. She taught that God is not an external being but an indwelling presence of absolute good, that the material world is a false projection of limited thinking, and that aligning one’s thoughts with divine reality produces health, prosperity, and peace. Her classes were transformative; she ordained women and men alike, breaking with the male-dominated religious establishment of her day. Charles and Myrtle Fillmore attended her classes in 1891 and went on to found Unity, a major New Thought denomination. Ernest Holmes, founder of Religious Science, studied her writings and attended her lectures. H. Emilie Cady, a physician and student of Hopkins, wrote Lessons in Truth (1894), which became Unity’s cornerstone text.

Key Teachings

Hopkins’s theology centered on the “high mysticism” of direct union with the divine. She taught that the individual is a manifestation of God, that sin and disease are errors of mortal mind, and that the practice of affirmative prayer and mental denial can erase these errors. She developed a “scientific” approach to healing that avoided the dogmatism of Eddy, emphasizing practical results over doctrinal purity. Her 1923 book High Mysticism, a series of lessons on the mystical path, remains her most significant work.

Organizations and Publications

Hopkins founded the Emma Curtis Hopkins College of Christian Science in Chicago (later renamed the Christian Science Theological Seminary), which trained and ordained ministers. She also established a journal, Christian Science, which later evolved into The New Thought. Although she never created a single unified denomination, her students and their organizations—Unity, Religious Science, Divine Science, and others—became the institutional vehicles of New Thought. Her influence radiated through these networks, making her the “mother” of the movement.

Controversies and Historical Debates

Hopkins’s relationship with Eddy is a subject of historical debate. Some scholars argue that Hopkins’s break was personal and political, while others see it as a theological schism. Additionally, Hopkins’s eclectic borrowings from Eastern religions and her feminist emphasis on women’s spiritual authority were controversial in her time. She also faced criticism from orthodox Christians who saw her teachings as pantheistic or heretical. Modern historians note that her role was downplayed by later New Thought leaders who sought to legitimize their movements by tracing lineage to Eddy rather than to Hopkins.

Timeline

• 1849 – Born in Killingly, Connecticut.
• 1883 – Travels to Boston to study with Mary Baker Eddy.
• 1884 – Appointed editor of the Christian Science Journal.
• 1885 – Breaks with Eddy; moves to Chicago.
• 1886 – Begins teaching independent classes; students found practices.
• 1891 – Charles and Myrtle Fillmore attend her classes.
• 1894 – H. Emilie Cady publishes Lessons in Truth.
• 1923 – Publishes High Mysticism.
• 1925 – Dies April 8, in Killingly, Connecticut.

Why It Matters in New Thought History

Emma Curtis Hopkins is the pivotal figure who transformed scattered mind-cure experiments into a coherent, organized movement. Her insistence on teaching women and ordaining them as ministers directly advanced the feminist spiritual agenda of the era. Her students founded the major denominations that still shape New Thought today: Unity, Religious Science, and Divine Science. Her synthesis of Eastern and Western mysticism anticipated the global spiritual eclecticism of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Without Hopkins, the New Thought movement would likely have remained a footnote to Christian Science. Instead, she gave it a distinct identity, a body of literature, and a lineage of teachers. For students of New Thought history, she is the indispensable starting point—the person whose ideas and methods made the movement possible.

Primary Sources

• High Mysticism (1923) by Emma Curtis Hopkins – Her most complete statement of mystical teachings, used as a textbook in her seminary.
• Scientific Christian Mental Practice (1888) – A collection of her lessons and healing techniques.
• Christian Science (periodical, later The New Thought) – Hopkins’s journal, containing her editorials and student testimonies.
• Letters and correspondence – Held at the Unity Archives and the New Thought Historical Society, documenting her relationships with students.
• Class notes by students – Including those of Charles Fillmore and Myrtle Fillmore, preserved at Unity School of Christianity.