Search the Annotated Bibliography

There are hundreds of annotated Christian Science resources available and we’re constantly adding more!

We’ve created several ways to search the Annotated Bibliography, allowing you to find the information you need quickly.

Jump right in by selecting a search method below, or scroll down to learn more about how each search method works.

Category Search

Find annotations that relate to a certain subject, person, organization or controversy.

Keyword Search

Find annotations by choosing from a variety of keywords and phrases.

Advanced Search

Select annotations by choosing from categories, keywords and more.

Standard Search

Select annotations for words or phrases utilizing a standard search bar.

All Annotations by Title

A complete list of all annotations by resource title in alphabetical order.

Author / Editor List

Select from an alphabetical list of all authors and editors to view related annotations.

New Annotations

Just want to see what’s new?

Click here to see annotations only available on this website View the annotations not included in the book.

Follow us on Twitter  Links to new annotations are tweeted as they are added.
Subscribe to our Newsletter  Our occasional email newsletter includes links to all new annotations.

Understanding Search Methods

To make it easier to find relevant results from within the hundreds of annotated Christian Science resources, the editors have assigned each annotation a variety of designations, including: themes and subjects; people, organizations and/or controversies addressed; resource types and availability; publication date ranges; and more. 

The various search systems employed on this site allow you to quickly select from these designations in order to obtain the annotations you need without having to wade through a lot of irrelevant results.

Learn about the details and uses of each search system below.

There are around 100 different category designations, including:

  • General Topics (Legal and Constitutional Issues, Feminist Perspectives…)
  • Significant People (Phineas Quimby, Mark Twain…)
  • Significant Organizations (Mary Baker Eddy Library, The First Church of Christ, Scientist…)
  • Controversies (Great Litigation, ‘Next Friends’ Suit…)

When you use the category search, checking boxes next to the available designations will allow you to quickly obtain a list of all annotations that refer to or focus specifically on your area of interest. 

You can select more than one subject and request combined results (all annotations related to any of the subjects selected) or limited results (only annotations that utilize all of the terms you selected).  

After obtaining the list of relevant annotations from a subject search using the multiple category selector, you can futher limit your results on the results page by resource type, availability, publication date range and whether or not the resource is an official Christian Science publication. 

Each annotation has been designated with one or more of around 60 different keywords (or phrases). Keywords include terms like Calvinism and Puritanism, Gender, LGBTQ+, Radical Reliance, Spiritualism, Transcendentalism, and many more. Most annotation resources have been assigned three or four different keywords.

While an annotated resource designated with the keyword “Gender” may not be specifically about gender, we’ve determined the resource may be relevant to someone whose research involves gender in the context of Christian Science. 

When you use the keyword search, selecting a keyword or phrase will allow you to quickly obtain a display of all annotations that include that designation. 

You can select more than one keyword in one search, and request combined results (all annotations related to any of the keywords selected) or limited results (only annotations that utilize all of the keywords you selected).  

After obtaining the list of relevant annotations from your multiple keyword search, you can futher limit your results by resource type, availability, publication date range and whether or not the resource is an official Christian Science publication.

The Advanced Search allows you to select from every available designation on a single page. 

This function is handy when you are looking for very specific information and need the ability to mix and match subjects and keywords in one search submission.

You will be able to select from all subjects, keywords and additional designations (like resource type, availability, publication date range, etc.).

When you use the advanced search form, you limit the annotations returned in the results to only those that contain all the designations you select. For example, if you select:

  • “Feminist Perspectives” from the Subjects section
  • “Mary Baker Eddy” from the Significant People section
  • “1981-2000” from the Publication Date Range section

the resulting list of annotations would include only those annotations we have assigned all three of your selections.

You can also use the Advanced Search to display an annotation list consisting only of certain types of resources (books, articles, videos, etc.), or all resources that were published during a specific date range, or those that are official Christian Science publications.

The Standard Search allows you to enter one or more terms in a standard search box.

This function is useful when the terms you are looking for are not included in those we have designated as a subject or keyword.

Your results will include annotations (and other website content) that may not always be as relevant as other search methods, but this type of search can be useful in certain circumstances.

A note on “Limited” results

Trying to get “too specific” with limit queries either on the advanced search page or keyword / category search pages can easily mean you end up with a null result.

For example, a majority of annotations relate to Mary Baker Eddy, so running a limit query using “Mary Baker Eddy” with one or two other categories / keywords will probably yield several results. But only a few annotations relate to “Christian Science and Architecture” and fewer still relate to “Judaism and Christian Science.” So a limit search for those two terms will not yield any results, since no annotations relate to both “Christian Science and Architecture” and “Judaism and Christian Science.”

For the best results in finding a very specific result, we suggest using the advanced search, starting by selecting just one or two categories (subjects, people, organizations or controversies) and then adding your limiting factors one at a time.

Additionally, you can use the standard search function to look for several specific terms embedded in the annotation text itself using simple syntax (and, or).

Lingering questions about search methods or functions? Please visit our search support page.