Emma Curtis Hopkins: The Teacher of Teachers in New Thought

Introduction

Emma Curtis Hopkins (1849–1925) stands as the central organizing figure of the New Thought movement, a spiritual reform movement that emerged in late nineteenth-century America. Called the “teacher of teachers” and “mother of New Thought,” Hopkins mentored or ordained nearly every prominent leader who founded a major New Thought denomination, including Charles and Myrtle Fillmore of Unity Church, Ernest Holmes of Religious Science, and H. Emilie Cady, author of Unity’s cornerstone text Lessons in Truth. According to religious historian Charles S. Braden, Hopkins influenced the development of New Thought “more than any other single teacher,” and modern scholars have identified her as the movement’s founder. This article traces Hopkins’s life, her break with Christian Science, her Chicago teaching ministry, her key ideas, and her enduring legacy in shaping New Thought’s theology, institutions, and emphasis on women’s spiritual authority.

Historical Context

The New Thought movement arose in the mid-nineteenth century against a backdrop of radical religious experimentation. Transcendentalism, with its emphasis on the innate divinity of the individual and the primacy of intuition over dogma, laid intellectual groundwork. The popular practices of mesmerism and hypnotism introduced the idea that mental suggestion could affect physical health. Swedenborgianism contributed a mystical cosmology of correspondences between spiritual and material realms. Most directly, the mental healing system of Phineas Parkhurst Quimby (1802–1866) provided a non-Christian framework for understanding disease as a product of erroneous belief, and his ideas influenced Mary Baker Eddy, who founded Christian Science in 1879. Eddy’s Christian Science, with its radical denial of matter and its claim to restore primitive Christianity, became the immediate catalyst for Hopkins’s own journey. The broader cultural context included the women’s suffrage movement, the rise of women’s clubs, and a growing interest in Eastern religions and esoteric philosophies. Hopkins would synthesize these threads into a teaching that emphasized the innate spiritual power of women, the practical application of divine mind, and the possibility of healing and prosperity through right thinking.

Main Narrative

Early Life and Education

Josephine Emma Curtis was born on September 2, 1849, in Killingly, Connecticut, the oldest of nine children of Lydia Phillips Curtis and Rufus Curtis. Raised in a Congregationalist household, she became a schoolteacher, a common profession for educated women of her era. In 1874 she married George Hopkins, a fellow schoolteacher, and they had a son, John, in 1875. Little is known of her early spiritual development, but her later writings reveal a deep engagement with biblical interpretation and a strong interest in the role of women in religious history.

Influences and the Break with Christian Science

In 1881, Hopkins experienced a healing through the methods of Christian Science. She heard Mary Baker Eddy speak in 1883 and subsequently moved to Boston to study with Eddy. Recognizing Hopkins’s talents, Eddy appointed her as the first full-time editor of the Christian Science Journal in September 1884. However, within a year and a half, Eddy asked Hopkins to leave the position. Financial constraints or theological differences were likely the cause. Hopkins resigned from the Christian Science Association in October 1885. This split was pivotal: Hopkins began to develop a more inclusive and less doctrinally rigid approach than Eddy’s authoritarian Christian Science, which insisted on the absolute unreality of matter and required adherence to Eddy’s interpretations. Hopkins instead emphasized the individual’s direct access to divine wisdom and welcomed a broader range of metaphysical teachings.

Career in Chicago and the Founding of New Thought

In early 1886, Hopkins and her family relocated to Chicago, a city with a burgeoning women’s movement and a vibrant reform culture. There she began teaching classes on mental healing and spiritual metaphysics, drawing on her Christian Science training but expanding it with themes from Transcendentalism, theosophy, and personal mysticism. Her classes were overwhelmingly attended by women, many of whom became ministers and healers. Hopkins taught that every individual, especially women, could directly experience and express divine power. She established the Emma Curtis Hopkins College of Christian Science (later renamed the Hopkins Metaphysical Association) and began publishing a journal, Christian Science, which later became Hopkins’ Magazine. Through her teaching and writing, she articulated a theology that distinguished New Thought from Christian Science: while Eddy denied the reality of matter, Hopkins affirmed that the material world is an expression of divine mind and that health, prosperity, and success could be realized through aligning one’s thoughts with divine principles.

Key Teachings

Hopkins’s teachings centered on the “Science of Being,” which she described as the understanding of God as infinite Mind and the individual’s unity with that Mind. She emphasized the power of affirmative prayer and the use of denials and affirmations to correct erroneous thinking. She also taught the “high mysticism” of direct union with God, a theme she explored in her later book High Mysticism (1923). Her theology was notably inclusive, drawing on a wide range of religious traditions and philosophical ideas, including the Kabbalah, Neoplatonism, and the teachings of Jesus as interpreted through metaphysical lenses. She also emphasized the feminine aspect of God, referring to God as both Father and Mother, which resonated with the women’s suffrage movement and empowered her female students to claim spiritual authority.

Organizations Founded and Students

Hopkins’s influence spread through her students, many of whom she ordained as ministers. Among her most notable students were Charles and Myrtle Fillmore, who in 1889 founded Unity Church, which became one of the largest New Thought denominations. H. Emilie Cady, a physician and metaphysician, studied with Hopkins and wrote Lessons in Truth, a foundational text for Unity. Ernest Holmes, who studied Hopkins’s works, later founded Religious Science (now Centers for Spiritual Living). Other students included Nona Brooks and Malinda Cramer, who co-founded Divine Science, and William Walker Atkinson, a prolific author and editor of The Nautilus. Hopkins also influenced Ralph Waldo Trine, whose In Tune with the Infinite became a bestseller. In 1907, Hopkins founded the Emma Curtis Hopkins College of Metaphysics in Chicago, which trained hundreds of practitioners. Her organizational efforts culminated in the formation of the International New Thought Alliance (INTA) in 1914, which sought to unify the various New Thought groups.

Controversies and Historical Debates

The question of who founded New Thought has been debated. Many early histories credited Phineas Quimby as the intellectual founder, because he had inspired Mary Baker Eddy and others. However, as scholar Kevin Shopf argues in his 2018 thesis, Quimby’s status as founder is a later construction that served to legitimize New Thought’s independence from Christian Science. Shopf contends that Emma Curtis Hopkins is the organizational and theological founder, because she systematized the teachings, trained the leaders, and created the institutional framework. This view is supported by modern scholars who recognize Hopkins’s central role. Another controversy involves her relationship with Eddy: some Christian Science historians portray Hopkins as a dissident, while New Thought historians see her as a creative innovator who transcended Eddy’s limitations.

Timeline

Why It Matters in New Thought History

Emma Curtis Hopkins is the pivotal figure in New Thought history because she transformed a scattered collection of mental healing practices into a coherent spiritual movement with a defined theology, trained leadership, and institutional structures. Her emphasis on the innate spiritual authority of women directly enabled the ordination of hundreds of female ministers, making New Thought one of the first American religious movements to embrace women’s leadership on a large scale. Her theological synthesis—combining divine healing, metaphysical idealism, and a positive, practical approach to everyday life—became the common denominator of later New Thought denominations. The Fillmores’ Unity, Holmes’s Religious Science, Divine Science, and even aspects of the human potential movement trace their intellectual lineage to Hopkins. Her concept of “high mysticism” also anticipated the turn toward contemplative practices within New Thought. For students of New Thought history, Hopkins is not merely a precursor but the very architect of the movement’s identity.

Primary Sources

• High Mysticism by Emma Curtis Hopkins (1923) – Hopkins’s final major work, outlining her mystical theology and the practice of divine union.
• Christian Science (later Hopkins’ Magazine) – The periodical Hopkins edited and published from Chicago, containing her lessons and articles.
• Letters and lesson transcripts – Held in the Emma Curtis Hopkins Collection at the New Thought Archives, these document her teaching methods and relationships with students.
• Lessons in Truth by H. Emilie Cady (1903) – A foundational Unity text directly based on Cady’s studies with Hopkins.
• Records of the International New Thought Alliance – Contains minutes and correspondence related to Hopkins’s role in the alliance’s formation.