New Thought is often confused with New Age.

New Age is made up of people who are genuinely seeking for better answers to the problems of life, genuinely seeking the spiritual path. New Thoughters know where the path is, because they are already on it, even if they fall off once in a while. New Thoughters know enough to keep an open mind, but not to “dabble in the occult,” which Charles Fillmore warned against. Without abandoning their Western roots and rationality, they learn from Eastern ideas and practices, especially the ones about centered attention and balance. As Joan Cline-McCary puts it in her book about Divine Science founder Malinda Cramer, Malinda Cramer’s Hidden Harmony [1],

The gospel (good news) of the “new order” was not an attempt to replace Christianity butt to heighten the understanding of those who called themselves Christians by adding (more correctly restoring) Eastern understanding to that of the West – one might say, by restoring the heart of the East to the mind of the West.

[1]    Hidden Harmony

        Published as Malinda Cramer's Hidden Harmony, Joan Cline-McCrary, ed., Divine Science Federation International (Denver), 1990 Rev Joan Cline-McCrary, Oregon

Practicing the Presence of God for Practical Purposes
Deborah G. Whitehouse

C. Alan Anderson

Of the people associated with the Metaphysical Club, Horatio Dresser and Henry Wood were the most prominent, and their books were many and widely distributed. Braden (p. 156 [2]) shows the popularity of Wood by citing numerous editions of many of his books. Cramer "had close ties" with Henry Wood, as well as the Fillmores and the Brooks sisters. (Ruth F. Townsend, compiled by Joan Cline McCrary, Foreword to Malinda E. Cramer, Divine Science and Healing, 5th ed., Denver: Divine Science Federation International, 1988, p. viii) [2]Braden, Charles S. Christian Science Today: Power, Policy, Practice. Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1958.

Quimby as Founder of New Thought

C. Alan Anderson

Adapted from a talk presented July 20, 1996

International New Thought Alliance

Florida West Coast District Meeting

Clearwater, Florida

The essence of this paper is published in The Journal of the Society for the Study of Metaphysical Religion, 3 (Spring1997): 5-22.