Christian Science Quarterly

The particular topic for each week's lesson follows one of twenty-six subjects chosen by Eddy, who "discovered" Christian Science in 1866[1] and founded the church in 1879.

The subjects are (in order): God; Sacrament; Life; Truth; Love; Spirit; Soul; Mind; Christ Jesus; Man; Substance; Matter; Reality; Unreality; Are Sin, Disease and Death Real?

[4] The lesson begins with the "Golden Text", a short passage from the Bible related to that week's subject.

[5][6] The Sunday services, which in addition to the sermon, include three hymns, silent and audible prayer, a solo, announcements and a collection, are conducted by the First Reader.

The original format, now called the Citation Edition, was designed to be an outline of passages (see example lesson at right) that would promote individual study of the Bible and Christian Science textbook,[7] but in recent years, has been largely supplanted by a time-saving monthly booklet that reprints all the citations.