Christian Science churches were built by Freemason Carl Werner who added Freemason imagery which Mary Baker Eddy understood.
American Christian Science Architecture and its Influence
Mary Baker Eddy Library
June 16, 2011
The classical style could be interpreted as the rational outgrowth of a Christian primitivism but it was equally associated with esoteric or specialized knowledge practiced by groups such as the Masons. Masonic interpretations of the Ionic column favored in many Christian Science commissions, for example, would suggest that they represented wisdom. While a penchant for Masonic symbolism was found in the decorative programs for several Christian Science churches,16 it is doubtful, even with Mrs. Eddy’s understanding and appreciation of Masonic symbolism, that most Christian Scientists discussed these interpretations openly.17
FOOTNOTES
10 The larger coronet crown reminded many of the motif used by the Masons. It was featured on the cover of Science and Health from the 3rd edition from 1881, and in the decorative programs of many early branch churches, until it was replaced by a smaller crown in 1908. On symbolism see Beasley 1952, 77-78. The Christian Science Journal, 26, 186 explained that Eddy wanted the “Christian Science seal” to be “truly emblematic of what it stands for,” stating that the “crown now used is what is known in heraldry as a celestial crown, whereas the one formerly used was in fact not a crown at all, but a coronet, and possessed no significance when combined with the cross. The celestial crown, or, as it is sometimes called, the Christian’s crown, is the one described in Revelation, and it always has been emblematic of the triumphant life of the saints and martyrs.”
16 For example see the classical churches of California architect Carl Werner, a Mason and architect of the Oakland Masonic Temple (1925). He designed Fourth Church, San Francisco (1913), and Fourth Church, Oakland (1922) among others and included low-relief braziers and flaming lamps of wisdom across his facades. Many churches at this time, including the extension of the mother church, had heraldic, symbolic, even Masonic references in their decorative elements. The cross and crown in windows, carvings and terra cotta tiles, sheaves of wheat, vines, individual fruits like pomegranates, lamps of wisdom, braziers of the temple, shields, all can be found in the decorative programs of many early Christian Science churches.
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