Divine Science in St. Louis

Divine Science in St. Louis
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St. Louis Churches in 1925
St Louis Park, 2629 Rauschenbach av, Rev H R Schroeder, pastor

Rev. Dr. Herman H. Schroeder
Divine Science minister
1863 – 1925

Herman Heinrich Schroeder followed his family to America when he was 17 years old and learned to speak English fluently. He became interested in a new religious movement called Christian Science. When he developed a serious throat condition --which several doctors pronounced incurable-- he used his knowledge of Christian Science and, perhaps with the aid of a practitioner, experienced a complete and perfect healing. Continuing his study of Christian Science, he was assigned to teach a rapidly growing group of German-speaking Truth students.

But he did not agree with all of Mrs. Eddy’s teachings, and he refused to accept her book “Science and Health” as an exclusive textbook. When he asked for some literature written in German, he was told there was none, and that Christian Science could not be taught in the German language. It was in 1891 that he resigned from the Christian Science movement.

In 1890 he had attended a series of lectures given by Malinda E. Cramer, who called her teaching “Divine Science.” He felt that here was the higher and purer interpretation of Truth for which he had been searching. He enrolled in correspondence classes in Mrs. Cramer’s Home College of Divine Science located in San Francisco.

Mr. Schroeder gained quite a following of earnest German-speaking friends who wanted him to conduct classes in his home. When the group became too large to meet in his home, they rented a meeting room. On Sunday, March 6, 1892, in their first meeting at the new location, they decided to organize under the name of the German Society of Divine Science.

Nation Under God - Poem by Rev. Herman Schroeder