Document Type

Thesis

Date of Degree Completion

Summer 2026

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

History

Committee Chair

Daniel Herman

Second Committee Member

Josué Estrada

Third Committee Member

Jason Dormady

Abstract

The Christian Science Monitor was created in 1908 by the Christian Science Church and its founder, Mary Baker Eddy, with the goal to “injure no man, but to bless all mankind.” The question arises, how does a religion that does not believe in physical reality produce a newspaper, and how does that newspaper treat subjects like sin, sickness, and death, subjects Christian Science teaches its adherents to ignore? This thesis argues that the Christian Science Monitor used the inherent flexibility of Christian Science beliefs around physical reality in combination with popular ideas about non-sensationalism and “clean journalism” as the basis of their reporting policy. The publication wrote its articles in two distinct yet interconnected styles. The newspaper’s writing style fused a sanitized form of journalism with a factual one that omitted sensationalism. This dissertation looks at the founding of the Monitor and first decade of reporting, analyzing these early years as an example of the contradictory forces that drove the Monitor’s reporting style.

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