Everything about Christian Science totally explained
Christian Science is a religious teaching regarding the
efficacy of spiritual healing according to the interpretation of the Bible by
Mary Baker Eddy, in her book
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (first published in 1875). Students of Christian Science are usually, though not always or necessarily, members of the
Church of Christ, Scientist.
Christian Science shouldn't be confused with material or physical
science, which follows the scientific method, is provable, and makes predictions. Christian Science has no connection with
Scientology, and is distinct from Christian fundamentalism. Christian Science isn't a
New Thought teaching and shouldn't be confused with
Religious Science.
Overview
Christian Science was founded by
Mary Baker Eddy in the 19th century.
At the core of Christian Science is the teaching that God and God's
creation are entirely good and
spiritual, and that God has made all things in his likeness. Christian Scientists hold that the reality of being and of all that God makes is spiritual, not
material. They see this spiritual
reality as the only reality and all else as
illusion or "error." Christian Science acknowledges that we all seem to be experiencing a material existence, but holds that this experience ultimately yields to a true spiritual understanding of God and creation. They believe that this is how healing through prayer is possible.
Prayer, from the Christian Science perspective, doesn't ask God to intervene, but is rather a process of learning more of God's spiritual reality - "awakening
mortal thought," by degrees, to spiritual
truth. Christian Scientists show the effect of this spiritualization of thought in healing, -- physical,
emotional, and otherwise.
Health care isn't attempted through
drugs,
surgery, or other physical manipulation, but through "Christian Science treatment," a specific form of prayer intended to spiritualize thought..
While there's no
formal compulsion on Christian Scientists either to use Christian Science healing or to eschew medical means Christian Scientists avoid using the two systems simultaneously in the belief that they tend to counteract or contradict each other. Material medicine and Christian Science treatment proceed from diametrically opposite assumptions. Medicine asserts that something is physically broken and needs to be fixed, while Christian Science asserts that the spiritual reality is harmonious and perfect, and that any false belief to the contrary needs to be corrected.
Today it's estimated that there are about 400,000 students of Christian Science in over 60 countries worldwide. There are approximately 1,850 to 2,000 branch congregations in the Christian Science church.
The
Christian Science Journal and the
Christian Science Sentinel document Christian Science healing. These are sometimes supported by the observations of medical practitioners involved prior to the application of Christian Science healing, and are always verified by three other parties.
Mary Baker Eddy began believing in this method of healing when she recovered from an injury in
1866 after rereading a passage of one of Jesus' healings. She believed that the method of healing must have been that used by
Jesus Christ to heal the cases documented in the
New Testament. Both her study of the Bible over many years and the application of what she learned to varied cases of illness in the late 19th century compelled her to document her findings and teach her discovery to those who were interested. The resulting textbook, first copyrighted in 1875 and the primary source for learning Christian Science, is titled
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.
Mary Baker Eddy defined Christian Science in these terms: "...the law of God, the law of good, interpreting and demonstrating the divine Principle and rule of universal harmony." She saw it as "...the natural law of harmony which overcomes discord."
Healing
The basis of Christian Science healing is the view that "man" (the male/female spiritual being who appears as an individual human being) is the reflection or expression of wholly good and perfect
God, and therefore is perfect. Christian Scientists believe that God loves every individual, because God is the Creator of all.
Christian Scientists also believe that sickness is the result of
fear,
ignorance, or
sin, and that when the erroneous belief is corrected, the sickness will disappear. They state that the way to eliminate the false beliefs is to replace them with true understanding of God's goodness. They consider that suffering can occur only when one believes in the supposed reality of a problem; if one changes one's understanding, the belief is revealed as false, and the acknowledgement that the sickness has no power since God is the only power, eliminates the sickness.
Christian Scientists regard the material world as a kind of consensual illusion which is due to a misperception of the true spiritual world. Such a misperception can, they believe, be changed by reorientation of thought, or
prayer in Christian Science terms. Thus the illusion can be dispelled, revealing the present spiritual reality. The result is healing.
Prayer
Christian Science teaches that prayer is a spiritualization of thought or an understanding of God and the nature of the underlying spiritual creation. The world as it appears to the senses is regarded as a distorted version of the world of spiritual ideas: the latter is the only true reality. Prayer can heal the distortion, bringing spiritual reality (the "
Kingdom of Heaven" in Biblical terms) into clearer focus in the human scene--not changing the spiritual creation but giving a clearer view of it. The result is healing. According to Christian Science there are not two creations, a spiritual and a material one, but only a spiritual creation which is incorrectly perceived as material.
Christian Scientists believe that prayer works through
Love, and that this is the way
Christ Jesus healed. Their aim is "to reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing" (
Manual of The Mother Church p.17) which, they believe, was lost after the early centuries of Christianity. They cite such
Bible texts as ; in support of their contention that Christian faith demands demonstration in healing. This is a faith in the omnipotence of God, which according to the Christian Science interpretation of the Bible, logically rules out any other power: . The Christian Science view is that Jesus taught that we should claim good as being present, right here and now, and that this will result in healing: (; ). Christian Scientists point to Jesus' teaching that his followers would do "greater works" than he did .
An important point in Christian Science is that effectual prayer and the moral regeneration of one's life go hand-in-hand: that "signs and wonders are wrought in the metaphysical healing of physical disease; but these signs are only to demonstrate its divine origin,to attest the reality of the higher mission of the Christ-power to take away the sins of the world." (S&H 150:13). Christian Science teaches that disease is mental, a mortal fear, a mistaken belief or conviction of the necessity and power of ill-health -- an ignorance of God's power and goodness. The chapter on "Prayer" in the Christian Science textbook,
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by
Mary Baker Eddy, gives a full account of healing through prayer, while the testimonies at the end of the book are written by people who believe they've been healed through spiritual understanding gained from reading the book. Christian Scientists claim no monopoly on the application of God's healing power through prayer, and welcome it wherever it occurs.
Philosophy
Christian Science might be considered as a form of theistic monistic
idealism: there's but one
substance which is God and in Whom we're all embraced in love. The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy cites Christian Science as an extreme form of philosophical idealism.
Christian Science a believes in the unreality of
matter, but it rejects matter not just as a superfluous term or concept; for, according to Christian Science, what we call the material world is a distortion of the underlying spiritual reality, a distortion which can be dispelled through
prayer. Christian Science, like
Buddhism, believes in the illusory nature of the world of the senses, but unlike Buddhism it doesn't believe that aging and death are inevitable - according to Christian Science they can be overcome with the defeat of
sin or "mortal mind": . Consequently
immortality (or ascension) is possible, and indeed in the longer term it's inevitable. The reality of each one of us is believed to be a spiritual idea only and not born of the flesh. Therefore, birth and death are illusions, because the material body is considered an illusion. Christian Science believes that Christ overcame death and ascended because he understood spiritual reality.
Christian Science teaches that the spiritualization of consciousness can (and should) have a practical effect in physical, as well as in moral regeneration. Christian Science was articulated by
Mary Baker Eddy who rejected the "coldness" of traditional philosophy and emphasized the importance of spiritual
love as well as abstract thought, and the integration of thought and feeling. She claimed that it isn't enough to think true thoughts: our consciousness must be imbued with the Love which is God, and furthermore that Love must be lived as well as felt. She referred to this futility of a mere intellectualism, in Science & Health 366:30-9, stating: "If we'd open their prison doors for the sick, we must first learn to bind up the broken-hearted. If we'd heal by the Spirit, we must not hide the talent of spiritual healing under the napkin of its form, nor bury the morale of Christian Science in the grave-clothes of its letter. The tender word and Christian encouragement of an invalid, pitiful patience with his fears and the removal of them, are better than hecatombs of gushing theories, stereotyped borrowed speeches, and the doling of arguments, which are but so many parodies on legitimate Christian Science, aflame with divine Love."
In light of the above, the question might be asked as to what one "loves" in a spiritual or Christian (
agape) sense about those closest to us. It is presumably nothing physical or material, as those material/physical attributes would refer to materially human personality or psychology, as opposed to God's creation. Loving, in a Christian Science sense is "seeing," witnessing to or upholding, accepting as valid only the spiritual individuality or identity of each individual as God's likeness or expression or idea. This spiritual identity consists of this individual's own particular reflection of the qualities, attributes or ideas of their Maker/Creator/God, such as love, innocence, intelligence, and so forth. In Christian Science terms these are the 'real' qualities that constitute our true spiritual being, eternally known to God and maintained by God regardless of what the finite material senses testify to. These qualities can't be perceived materially but only through spiritual sense, which Mary Baker Eddy defines as "a conscious, constant capacity to understand God". (S&H 209:31-32) This is an understanding of what God is and what our relationship to God is.
Evil
The Christian Science position on the nature of evil might be described as follows:
"Evil is a negation, because it's the absence of truth. It is nothing, because it's the absence of something. It is unreal, because it presupposes the absence of God, the omnipotent and omnipresent. Every mortal must learn that there's neither power nor reality in evil." (Science and Health 186:12-15)
This statement shouldn't be taken as meaning that Christian Scientists ignore the
belief of evil, and its effects, but they don't see evil as either an aspect of God, or as a real power separate from God. Evil isn't really "real" because it isn't part of God's being or His creation. But it may appear to be real as a mistaken concept of God and man. Christian Scientists believe God and His creation to be wholly and only good.
To answer the question whether God punishes evil-doers, Christian Science teaches that any thought or action contrary to our God-given goodness results in some kind of suffering, just as the misunderstanding of a mathematical principle results in incorrect answers. The principles of mathematics are not causing the mistakes; rather, the mistakes are the result of a misconception of the principle. From God's perspective evil doesn't exist because He has created all and it's good.
Science
Christian Scientists are not Creationists or biblical literalists - they regard the Bible as often having symbolic rather than literal meaning. However, Mrs. Eddy believed that the
Theory of Evolution rationalized man as a mortal rather than spirital creation and had this to say about it (S&H, p. 172): "Theorizing about man's development from mushrooms to monkeys and from monkeys into men amounts to nothing in the right direction and very much in the wrong." The Christian Science Church doesn't involve itself in Evolution being taught or not being taught in schools, nor do they demand that alternative accounts be taught. They regard participating in conflicts over school politics as amounting only to involvement in the illusory and mortal. For similar reasons, Christian Science doesn't object to contemporary
geology,
cosmology, or
biology. Christian Science periodicals occasionally cite developments in cosmology and physics as indicating how contemporary science is coming to an understanding of the illusory nature of time and materiality (for example Gerber, 2002, p. 3) as examples of mortal mind's search for its real nature.
The term "Christian Science" predates modern discussions regarding scientific method. In Christian Science, there's believed to be a Christianly scientific law that changing the mental cause manifests in a healing effect.
According to the widely, though not universally, accepted ideas of
Karl Popper, a scientific theory must be
falsifiable. Based on this definition, the scientificity of Christian Science healing, even if a change in thought results in a change in human experience (like physical healing), there's no obvious means of correlating the cause with the observed effect within traditional scientific methods. Consequently the claim of Christian Science to scientificity is questionable from a Popperian perspective. However, the argument used by Mrs. Eddy was that if only one case is provable, then rather than being a fluke, there's a provable scientific reason. Many cases have been attested to by medical doctors and so by the
one case definition, healing by correction of thought is feasible.
Theology
In terms of Christian theology, Christian Science bears some similarity to the teachings of
Origen and
Meister Eckhart. However, it rejects the attribute of
mysticism to its teachings, and shouldn't be confused with
pantheism.
Christian Science avoids the theological
problem of evil by its teaching of the unreality or nothingness of evil. However, it doesn't address the "problem" of where the illusion of evil came from – beyond the position that, since it's nothing, it came from nowhere. (Asking the question, for Christian Scientists, is like a mathematician spending his/her time trying to work out where the illusion that 2+2=5 came from – a waste of time that gets one nowhere and indeed postpones the solution of the problem.) Christian Scientists believe that if one changes a belief in evil to an "understanding" of the universality of good, one's experience will adjust accordingly, and that eventually the question "where does evil come from?" will disappear with the negative phenomena that occasioned it.
Christian Science differs from conventional theology since it regards
God as both Father and Mother. This doesn't refer to any
anthropomorphic, quasi-physical characteristics, but simply to the teaching that God is characterized by qualities traditionally considered feminine (gentleness, compassion, nurturing and so on) as well as by those traditionally considered masculine (strength, constancy, protection etc.) According to Christian Science, every person, as God's image or reflection, embodies those qualities as well in their essential being.
Christian Science distinguishes between "Jesus" the man, and "the Christ" or divine manifestation. In considering the question of the relationship between divinity and humanity in reference to Christ Jesus, it's important to consider the Christian Science definition of God as "The great I AM."
While some Christian Science teachings are unorthodox from the point of view of conventional theology (as in the rejection of
substitutionary atonement and of
Hell as a place of eternal punishment), others are orthodox (acceptance of the
Virgin Birth, the
Resurrection of Jesus).
While Christian Scientists revere
Mary Baker Eddy as the discoverer and founder of Christian Science, they don't regard her as having added anything to essential
Christianity but simply as having elaborated its essence and consequences. (A comparison might be made to the status of
Thomas Aquinas for Catholics,
Martin Luther for Lutherans, or
John Calvin for Calvinists.)
Another way to illustrate the foundations of the theology of Christian Science is to consider the problems involved in the philosophy of dualism. Many belief systems posit a "god versus something else" or "spirit versus matter". Mary Baker Eddy in a sense followed the reductionism of her time, but instead of reducing all things to the material, she reduced all things to the spiritual.
Christ and the Trinity
Webster's online dictionary [m-w.com] defines the term
Christ in Christian Science as "The ideal truth that comes as a divine manifestation of God to destroy incarnate error." This definition mirrors
Mary Baker Eddy's own definition in
Science and Health as "The divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error." Both definitions establish the
Christ as completely divine, spiritual and not material.
Jesus, the son of
God therefore embodied the
Christ to such a degree that he, and he alone will carry the title
Christ, but as a corporeal being he wasn't the totality of the Christ.
Mary Baker Eddy writes "Throughout all generations both before and after the Christian era, the Christ, as the spiritual idea – the reflection of God – has come with some measure of power and grace to all prepared to receive Christ, Truth" and even today, the
Christ, according to Christian Science belief, continues to come to mankind, giving us a greater understanding of our wholly spiritual identity through healing and the destruction of sin.
Although many uphold the Trinity as defined by the
Nicene Creed, the Trinity in Christian Science is found in the unity of God, the Christ, and divine Science, or: "God the Father-Mother; Christ the spiritual idea of sonship; divine Science or the Holy Comforter."
Medicine
Many Christian Scientists use their healing system as their first choice for treatment over drugs and surgery. They believe in following the example of Jesus, bringing the real or ideal man more clearly into thought. Christian Scientists believe that Jesus was "the Wayshower", a proof by example of the divine method of healing sin, sickness and death. According to the Christian Science belief, there are no limits to the type of medical conditions that can be healed through prayer.
The Christian Science Church doesn't forbid the use of medicine by its members, nor does the Church exert informal pressure on them to eschew it. Though Christian Scientists respect the work of medical practitioners, most of them prefer to use prayer and to rely on God. Christian Scientists who choose to rely on medical treatment for a specific problem normally give up Christian Science treatment for the period of treatment. This is because one treatment approaches healing from a material and the other from a spiritual perspective. Because the method of prayer often includes denying the reality of matter and affirming the perfection of the person, while medicine, is used to fix matter and a person with a problem, these two means are seen as incompatible. Christian Scientists are practical when it comes to using material aids such as vision correction, splints for broken bones and dental services and will use what is necessary at the time. However, numerous healings of near- and far-sightedness, dental problems and broken bones have been claimed in the periodicals published by the Church, some of which have been confirmed by medical practitioners who previously deemed them as medically unhealable.
Mary Baker Eddy's views on this subject are as follows: "If Christian Scientists ever fail to receive aid from other Scientists--their brethren upon whom they may call,--God will still guide them into the right use of temporary and eternal means."
Dissension
Throughout the history of Christian Science there have been a small number of
dissenting people, unacknowledged by the
Boston organization. Such dissenters often point to certain "estoppel" clauses of the last Church Manual issued by Mary Baker Eddy before her death which, had they been interpreted literally, would have led to a radical decentralization of the Christian Science Church. The issue has involved the Church in repeated
litigation brought by dissenters, most prominently between 1919-22, when a group of Trustees of the Christian Science Publishing Society filed a suit against the Christian Science Board of Directors.
Criticism of Christian Science
Christian Science has been criticized by skeptics from the very beginning.
Mark Twain devoted an entire
book
to the topic, in which he humorously attacked not only the belief itself, but also its practitioners.
Heavy metal band
Metallica has a number of songs harshly critical of Christian Science, most famously "
The God That Failed"; singer
James Hetfield's parents have both died of cancer, refusing to seek therapy due to their religious beliefs.
Medical controversies
Christian Science is considered to be a religion, rather than a medical science, by medical practitioners. Critics point to cases of people who died following their choice of Christian Science care rather than medical treatment. Defenders counter that there's no similar burden placed on medical science to justify the hundreds of thousands who die each year under medical care and the many given up as incurable by medical practitioners, some of whom recover after seeking Christian Science treatment.
The Journal of the American Medical Association (22 September 1989) reported on a study of more than 5,500 "Christian Scientists" as compared to a "lay group" of almost 30,000. The death rate among "Christian Scientists" from cancer was double the national average, and 6 percent of them died from causes considered preventable by doctors. The "non-Christian Scientists" on the average lived four years longer if they were women and two longer if they were men. It was speculated that the reason for this was that male Christian Scientists are more likely to seek medical help than female believers. This cohort study doesn't directly address the efficacy of the healing system of Christian Science since some members may have sought traditional medical treatment. The "lay group" were presumably using conventional medicine or some alternative healing means rather than nothing at all — consequently the study only evaluates the comparative efficacy of Christian Science vis-a-vis some other system or systems, rather than its healing efficacy
per se. Defenders point out that many people turn to Christian Science after medical techniques have failed; consequently, the two groups may not be comparable.
Since Christian Science practitioners don't diagnose disease, and Christian Scientists don't believe in contagion, Christian Scientists generally won't consider avoiding being in contact with other Christian Scientists in order to avoid infection or contagion. However, Mary Baker Eddy counsels that they should obey the law: for example, being obedient to quarantines. Similarly, Christian Scientists usually must decide for themselves whether they feel a need for having surgery
in lieu of Christian Science treatment before a condition —
for example cancer — reaches the stage where it's considered medically inoperable.
In some cases, Christian Scientists will be examined by a doctor for informational purposes. Testimonies of healings reported in Christian Science publications are sometimes drawn from cases in which a doctor confirmed the initial condition and the subsequent healing.
Theological Controversies
Christian Science is sometimes unfairly criticized by some mainstream Christians for its theological differences (mostly due to its assertion of the illusory nature of the material world, its definition of "Jesus" and the "Christ", its explanation of the Trinity and a personal God, and its basis of the unreality of evil).
Adherents of Christian Science cite the
Bible (for example Mark 16: 15-18 and Luke 10:1, 9, 17) as an indication that belief in God should be demonstrated in healing. Mary Baker Eddy, however, was no biblical fundamentalist, and has often been criticised by fundamentalists who believe that the Bible is both inerrant and free of internal contradictions. She wrote: "The decisions by vote of Church Councils as to what should and shouldn't be considered Holy Writ; the manifest mistakes in the ancient versions; the thirty thousand different readings in the Old Testament, and the three hundred thousand in the New,--these facts show how a mortal and material sense stole into the divine record, with its own hue darkening to some extent the inspired pages." (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 139.)
Christian Science offers an explanation of why, according to its teaching, evil isn't sent from God and hence isn't real. Mary Baker Eddy touches upon this subject in her book
Unity of Good. In response to the question:
"Does God know or behold sin, sickness, and death?" she writes:
"The nature and character of God is so little apprehended and demonstrated by mortals, that I counsel my students to defer this infinite inquiry, in their discussions of Christian Science. In fact, they'd better leave the subject untouched, until they draw nearer to the divine character, and are practically able to testify, by their lives, that as they come closer to the true understanding of God they lose all sense of error."
There has been internal controversy in the Christian Science movement regarding the status of
Mary Baker Eddy herself. Some Christian Scientists claim (and others deny) that her appearance on the world stage was specifically prophesied in the
Bible.
Some Christian theologians characterize Christian Science as a cult (Martin, 2003) (also refer to
external sites providing criticisms of Christian Science). A basis of such criticisms includes the comment of Mary Baker Eddy in reply to a questioner who asked how she knew there ever was such a person as Christ Jesus:
"If there had never existed such a person as the Galilean Prophet, it would make no difference to me. I should still know that God's spiritual ideal is the only real man in His image and likeness."(Eddy, The First Church of Christ Scientist and Miscellany, pp. 318, 319). This is interpreted by opponents of Christian Science as Mary Baker Eddy downgrading the importance of Jesus, rather than making a basic metaphysical point.
There are apparently contradictory statements on the question of the death of Jesus in Mary Baker Eddy's writings; since Christian Science teaches that
death is an illusion, this may help to explain the apparent contradictions.
Christian Science and Civil Society
Christian Scientists, like
Mary Baker Eddy herself, generally defend the
separation of church and state as affording a protection for civil freedom and religion. However, Mary Baker Eddy insisted on obedience by Christian Scientists to state laws in regard to health care. Progressively for her time, she was in favour of women's rights, and rejected the "corporeal punishment" of children. (While she generally steered clear of politics per se, she stated her support of the
Monroe Doctrine as well as her opposition to imperialism and economic monopoly--
The Christian Science Monitor, which she founded, has traditionally been a staunch defender of civil liberties and individual freedom, though it did support the
prohibition of alcohol.)
Christian Science and homosexuality
Christian Science publications, including The Christian Science Sentinel, have in the past published testimonies wherein the testifier describes their own "healing" of homosexuality. The writings of Mary Baker Eddy prescribe the living of a morally decent life, which isn't an explicit condemnation of homosexuality, but can account for some of the discomfort with a homosexual lifestyle seen within some Christian Science communities. There is some dissent among Christian Scientists as to what exactly the position with regard to homosexuality ought to be; in this matter as in others (such as abortion) the Church itself chooses not to have an official position, as it's considered that each individual Christian Scientist should seek their own highest sense of right through prayer.
Organizations
- Discoverybound is a Christian Science non-profit organization based in Denver, Colorado. Its purpose is to provide inspirational and educational activities and forums for Christian Scientists, especially children and youth.
Christian Science Organizations are established at many colleges and universities, and provide a functional resource for Christian Scientists in college for support and unity, but also aim to provide the public with a better understanding of Christian Science through prayer, public lectures, and contribution to informal discussions, health expositions, and other events catering to philosophical awareness, family unity, alternative healing methods, etc.
Christian Science Joint Broadcast Committee is a joint, non-profit effort between the Phoenix, Arizona churches to broadcast the healing message of Christian Science across various media. CSeNews.comwas started 10 years ago as an online newsletter for Phoenix Metropolitan Churches. It has grown into a worldwide Christian Science news, events and info site with thousands of subscribers and hundreds of visitors each day. The Joint Broadcast Committee also offers telephone numbers to listen any time of the day or night to the Weekly Bible Lesson (602) 222-6220, Weekly Sentinel Radio program (602) 200-7002 and Heraldo en Espaňol (602) 200-7003. In addition to phone services, the Joint Broadcast Committee facilitates the airing of the Weekly Sentinel Radio program in the Four Corners region (Utah, New Mexico, Colorado and Arizona) as well as in the Phoenix Metro area.
The Principia is a Christian Science Grade School Located in a suburb of St. Louis Missouri. The Principia College is located one hour north of the Grade School in the quiet small town of Elsah, Illinois. The Principia School
Many Christian Science youth camps and schools from all around the world can be found on this website click hereFurther Information
Get more info on 'Christian Science'.
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