Emma Curtis Hopkins
Josephine Emma Curtis Hopkins (September 2, 1849 – April 8, 1925) was an American spiritual teacher and leader. She was involved in organizing the New Thought movement and was a theologian, teacher, writer, feminist, mystic, and healer; who taught and ordained hundreds of people, including notably many women. Hopkins was called the "teacher of teachers" and "mother of New Thought" because a number of her students went on to found their own churches or to become prominent in the New Thought Movement, including Charles and Myrtle Fillmore, founders of Unity Church; Ernest Holmes; and H. Emilie Cady, author of Unity's cornerstone text Lessons in Truth. According to Charles S. Braden, Hopkins influenced the development of New Thought "more than any other single teacher",[1] and modern scholars have identified Hopkins as the founder of New Thought.[2]
Emma Curtis Hopkins
Early life[edit]
Emma Curtis Hopkins was born Josephine Emma Curtis on September 2, 1849 in Killingly, Connecticut, to Rufus and Lydia (née Phillips) Curtis, and was the oldest of nine children.[3] She attended the local Congregationalist church and graduated from the local high school,[4] before going on to teach secondary-school as a math, science, and language teacher.[5] She married George Irving Hopkins, another teacher, on July 19, 1874. The couple had one son, John Carver, who was born June 8, 1875, graduated from the merchant marine academy, and died in 1905.[6] Hopkins and her husband were separated in the mid-1880s and divorced in 1900.[4] Little else is known of Hopkins' early life.[7]
Theology[edit]
Although originally teaching under the label of Christian Science, which caused a good deal of confusion, Hopkins' theology increasingly differed from that of Eddy, and she eventually abandoned even the term Christian Science in favor of the name New Thought.[61] In her 1888 book Scientific Christian Mental Practice, Hopkins used a number of philosophies and religions to support her arguments, including Plotinus, Plato, Baruch Spinoza, Augustine of Hippo, Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Buddha, Thomas Carlyle, and the Avesta, but notably did not acknowledge Eddy as a source for her ideas.[52] Hopkins told students that if they read Eddy's book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, some parts could be skipped, such as a chapter on atonement.[22] Hopkins and New Thought as a whole (with some exceptions such as John Gaynor Banks) moved increasingly away from an emphasis on Christianity, seeing universal truth in all religions;[62] and Robert Peel writes that Hopkins herself was "more at home with the Hindu Upanishads than with the Christian Gospels."[63] However, Hopkins was not as antagonistic towards Christianity as her partners Plunkett and Swarts were, who privately disparaged Christianity while at the same time giving lip service to it in public.[64]
Hopkins did share some theological points with Eddy, for instance teaching that God was not anthropomorphic.[28] Both Eddy and Hopkins protested against the doctrine of the fall of man, they believed that the only reality was spiritual, that there was no power apart from God, that sickness did not originate with God, and that healing comes in understanding this.[65] Like Eddy, Hopkins used capitalized synonyms to explain the nature of God such as Mind, Truth, Principle, and Love; but added additional synonyms such as Health, Support, Defense, and Protection.[66] She followed Eddy's lead in calling God both Father and Mother, but developed the concept in ways Eddy did not.[67] J. Gordon Melton writes that the "clearest presentation" of her new theological framework is seen in her writings on the Trinity, which replaced the Holy Spirit with the Mother.[68] Hopkins adopted a form of the Trinity similar to that of Joachim of Fiore, and posited that God manifested differently through different periods of history, as God the Father first, then as Jesus, and finally as Mother Spirit which correlated with a rise of women.[69][g] Hopkins also saw the Holy Spirit / Mother Comforter in terms of the Shekinah.[70] She saw women's increasing involvement in the world as proof of her ideas, and saw herself, and the women she ordained, as messengers of the new era of the holy Mother Spirit.[71] It is likely because of this theology that Hopkins was a strong supporter of secular women's issues, and encouraged her association members to join women's groups such as the Woman's Federal Labor Union.[72] Beryl Satter calls Hopkins' writings "convoluted and ambiguous", but acknowledges that her theology was still able to elevate women through development of traditionally "masculine" qualities such as strength and power.[48]
Hopkins, and New Thought as a whole, developed an emphasis on prosperity theology which was absent from Christian Science.[73] Hopkins often referred to prosperity, and believed Jesus taught it as an acknowledgement "of the presence of God."[32]
Founder of New Thought[edit]
Modern scholars assert that Hopkins is the founder of the New Thought movement, which by 1902 had over one million adherents.[2] According to J. Gordon Melton, "Hopkins laid the foundations of the New Thought metaphysical tradition in American religion" and "the most significant New Thought organizations, the Unity School of Christianity, Divine Science, and Religious Science, can be traced directly to her".[72] According to Charles S. Braden, Hopkins influenced New Thought "more than any other single teacher".[1] She also became an important feminist figure for ordaining female ministers, a rarity for the time; as well as a proponent of the idea of a female Divine, although she did not originate the idea.[74] Despite her influence, by the 1990s Hopkins had largely been forgotten even within the New Thought movement according to modern scholars.[75] Gail Harley identified a number of reasons for this, including controversies surrounding her life, disputes with former students, lack of self reflection in the New Thought movement, dismissal by the mainstream religious community, and her exclusion from the only history of the movement produced in the early 20th century.[7]
