So, What Is A New Thought Religion?

New Thought Religion is not really just one religion. It is an umbrella term, as we might use the word Protestant to lump together some of the non-Catholic Christian religions. There are many individual religions that fit into the New Thought category that are independent but share certain core beliefs.

Three of these distinguishing Core Beliefs in New Thought Religion are:
Monistic understanding of God
God is a unified deity, who is the source and substance of all creation. God is not thought of as trinity for example. New Thought also affirms a pantheistic universe in which all of creation is God in manifestation, created out of God stuff, if you will…

Secondly, New Thought religions teach that the nature of reality is idealism – underlying all matter is creative thought (everything begins in mind)

These various teachings explain the nature of reality as a type of metaphysical idealism, in other words, that thoughts are things, thoughts or ideas are the underlying basis of matter, much like what quantum physics is confirming with sub-atomic wave/particle theories. What seems like solid matter is actually energy in motion and these wave/particles respond differently according to the thoughts and expectations of the observer. Reality is malleable and subject to our thought.

Finally, New Thought religion teaches that human beings have the power to create their own circumstances through thought.
Not only do these religions believe in the power of thought to affect outer experiences, these religions ask followers to ask themselves if they believe the world to be a hostile or a friendly place, and then to take responsibility for their own experiences as reflections of their own thoughts. You may be familiar with this as the power of positive thinking.

Founder and History
Started as a healing movement in 19th century New England, as Mind Science by Phineas Parkhurst Quimby, and later became known as New Thought around 1895. The environment of liberal Christianity forged by the Unitarians and Transcendentalists, for example, paved the way for the movement to develop.

Quimby’s own interests centered on mental healing and were further piqued after he was himself miraculously cured of tuberculosis, a disease which had already taken the lives of many of his family members. His own healing led him on a quest to understand the relationship between illness and health.
Quimby came to the basis of his theory of mental healing stating that, “I say there is no principle in disease. It is an error that truth can correct.” While his method of healing could be perceived as strictly secular, Quimby defined his method as that embodied by Jesus. Making a distinction between Jesus and the Christ, he believed the Christ to be the Wisdom or Truth of God about which Jesus taught and used himself. In fact Quimby felt that he had rediscovered the healing technique of Jesus in the sense that he had tapped into the same source that Jesus had and therefore manifested the same effect.

While he is considered the founder of the whole New Thought movement in America, he was not a systematic theologian or an organizer of a new religion. His followers came to the forefront as systematizers and organizers. Many in this initial group went on to become prominent leaders in New Thought as well, including Julius Dresser and his wife Annetta Seabury Dresser, Warren Felt Evans and Mary Baker Patterson (later Eddy). Each of these students had initially come to Quimby for personal healing and consequently became interested in learning his techniques themselves.

Find out more about New Thought Religion history and current denominations

Religious Science United Federation for Better Living Unity School of Christianity Divine Science