A Baptist minister once told his congregation that heaven was a reward for the righteous. A woman in the third row whispered to her neighbor: “Then why does Jesus say the kingdom is within you?” That question, asked in a small Boston church in the 1880s, became the seed of a movement that would split from orthodox Christianity while keeping its Bible open. New Thought is a 19th-century spiritual movement that teaches God is an impersonal universal mind, that sickness originates in wrong thinking, and that healing comes through mental alignment with divine truth. Christianity, by contrast, holds that God is a personal being distinct from creation, that salvation comes through faith in Christ’s atoning death, and that healing is a gift granted by divine will. The two traditions share a vocabulary. They do not share a theology.
What Is New Thought, Exactly?
New Thought is a loosely organized spiritual movement that emerged in the United States in the late 19th century, centered on the premise that the mind directly shapes material reality and that God is an impersonal principle of love and intelligence rather than a personal being. Its foundational text is not a single scripture but a collection of writings by figures such as Phineas Quimby, Mary Baker Eddy (whose Christian Science split from the broader movement), Emma Curtis Hopkins, and later Charles Fillmore and Ernest Holmes. The movement’s core claim is that what the Bible calls “sin” is actually error in thinking, that what it calls “salvation” is the realization of one’s unity with God, and that what it calls “healing” is the natural result of correct mental alignment.
Christianity, in its orthodox forms (Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Protestant), holds that God is a Trinity of three persons, that humanity is separated from God by sin, that salvation requires the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and that healing is a sign of God’s sovereign power, not a technique the human mind can operate.
The two traditions use the same words. They mean different things by them.
Where Did New Thought Come From?
The movement traces its intellectual lineage to a clockmaker from Lebanon, New Hampshire. Phineas Parkhurst Quimby (1802–1866) was a self-taught healer who concluded that illness was caused by false beliefs and that correcting those beliefs restored health. He treated patients through conversation, not surgery or drugs. One of his patients was Mary Baker Eddy, who later founded Christian Science. Another was Warren Felt Evans, a Swedenborgian minister who wrote the first systematic books on what became New Thought.
Quimby died in 1866. His ideas did not.
Emma Curtis Hopkins (1849–1925), a student of Eddy who broke with Christian Science, systematized the teaching into what she called “High Watch” or “Scientific Christianity.” She taught that God is not a person but a principle, that evil is an illusion of limited perception, and that the only real healing is the recognition of one’s eternal perfection in the divine mind. Her students founded the New Thought churches that still exist: the Divine Science Church, the Unity Church, and the Religious Science movement (now Centers for Spiritual Living).
The movement grew rapidly in the 1890s and early 1900s, especially in the American Midwest and West Coast. It attracted middle-class Protestants who found orthodox Calvinism too grim and liberal Protestantism too vague. New Thought gave them a practical method: think correctly, and your life changes.
How Do They Differ on God?
Christianity says God is a personal being who created the universe ex nihilo, who knows and loves individual humans, and who acts in history. The Nicene Creed (325 CE) calls God “the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.” God is separate from creation. God has a will that can be obeyed or resisted.
New Thought says God is not a person but a principle: infinite intelligence, universal mind, pure love, absolute good. Ernest Holmes, founder of Religious Science, wrote in The Science of Mind (1926) that “God is the Universal Spirit, the Life Principle, the Intelligence back of all things.” This God does not judge, does not punish, does not answer prayer as a person answers a request. Prayer in New Thought is not petition but affirmation: the practitioner aligns their thinking with the truth that already exists, and the material world adjusts accordingly.
The difference is not subtle. A Christian prays “Thy will be done.” A New Thought practitioner affirms “I am one with the infinite, and only good can come to me.” One submits to a person. The other claims identity with a principle.
What About Jesus?
Christianity holds that Jesus is the second person of the Trinity, fully God and fully man, whose death on the cross paid the penalty for human sin and whose resurrection conquered death. Salvation is through faith in him alone. Jesus is not a model to imitate but a savior to trust.
New Thought holds that Jesus was a human being who realized his unity with God so completely that he became a demonstration of what all humans can attain. Charles Fillmore, co-founder of Unity (1889), wrote that “Jesus was the man of Nazareth who so completely unified his consciousness with the Christ principle that he became the perfect expression of God.” The difference between Jesus and other humans is one of degree, not kind. The cross is not an atonement but a symbol of the ego’s surrender to divine mind. The resurrection is not a historical event but a metaphor for the soul’s awakening to its true nature.
A Christian reads the Gospels as history. A New Thought reader reads them as allegory.
What Is Sin and Salvation?
Orthodox Christianity defines sin as rebellion against God’s law, a condition inherited from Adam (original sin) and compounded by personal choices. Salvation is the forgiveness of sin through Christ’s sacrifice, received by faith, and followed by sanctification through the Holy Spirit. The goal is eternal life in the presence of God.
New Thought defines sin as ignorance of one’s true nature. Emma Curtis Hopkins taught that “sin is the belief in separation from God.” It is not a moral offense but a cognitive error. Salvation is the realization that separation is impossible because all beings are already contained in the divine mind. There is nothing to be forgiven. There is only something to be remembered.
This is the point where the two traditions part ways most sharply. A Christian feels guilt and seeks pardon. A New Thought practitioner feels confusion and seeks clarity.
Do They Share Any Common Ground?
They do. Both traditions affirm that prayer works, that the mind influences the body, that love is the highest spiritual force, and that the Bible contains profound truth. Many New Thought churches use Christian hymns, celebrate Christmas and Easter, and read scripture in their services. A visitor to a Unity church on a Sunday morning might hear a sermon on the Beatitudes that sounds, at first, like liberal Protestantism.
The difference becomes visible only when the sermon explains what the Beatitudes mean. “Blessed are the poor in spirit” does not mean those who humble themselves before God. It means those who have emptied their minds of false beliefs and are ready to receive divine truth.
Common Misconceptions
New Thought is not Christian Science. Christian Science, founded by Mary Baker Eddy, is a distinct denomination with its own church structure, its own textbook (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, 1875), and its own rejection of medical treatment. New Thought generally does not forbid medical care. It sees it as compatible with spiritual treatment.
New Thought is not the same as the prosperity gospel. The prosperity gospel (Word of Faith movement, associated with Kenneth Hagin and Creflo Dollar) is a Christian theology that uses the Bible to claim material wealth as a covenant right. It retains orthodox Christian doctrines of the atonement, the Trinity, and the authority of scripture. New Thought is not Christian. It uses Christian language but redefines every term.
New Thought is not atheism. It affirms a divine reality. It simply denies that this reality is a person.
FAQ
Is New Thought considered a Christian denomination? No. New Thought churches are not members of the National Council of Churches or the World Council of Churches. They are classified as a separate religious movement.
Can a person be both Christian and New Thought? Theologically, no. The two systems contradict each other on the nature of God, Jesus, sin, and salvation. Some individuals blend them, but orthodox Christian bodies do not recognize this as valid.
What is the largest New Thought church today? Unity, headquartered in Unity Village, Missouri, reports approximately 1,800 member churches worldwide. Centers for Spiritual Living and Divine Science are smaller.
Does New Thought believe in an afterlife? It generally teaches that consciousness continues after death and that the soul progresses toward fuller realization of its unity with God. It does not emphasize heaven and hell as permanent destinations.
The Thread That Connects Them
The relationship between New Thought and Christianity is not a conflict between two enemies. It is a divergence between a river and a canal that once shared a source. New Thought emerged from the Protestant culture of 19th-century America, carrying its Bible, its hymns, its moral seriousness, and its confidence that truth can be known. It simply redefined every term of the faith it inherited. A Christian reads “I and the Father are one” and sees a claim about Jesus. A New Thought practitioner reads the same verse and sees a claim about themselves.
For a deeper look at how esoteric movements reinterpret Christian scripture, see our guide to Christian mysticism and its hidden traditions. For the specific history of how New Thought influenced modern manifestation practices, read the history of the Law of Attraction. And for the key terms that separate these traditions, consult our glossary of esoteric Christianity.