Article September 1, 1928 Issue

In reading the articles in your paper by R. T., and the...

Miss V. M. Blanche Stievenard, Committee on Publication for Hertfordshire, England,—Welwyn Garden City

Welwyn Garden City and Herijordshire Pilot,

In reading the articles in your paper by R. T., and the correspondence resulting therefrom, I notice that under the heading, "A Question to R. T.," in your recent issue, a correspondent alludes to Christian Science. He shows by what he writes that he does not understand the teaching of Christian Science in regard to the use of the words "Person," "personal," or "impersonal," as applied to the divine creator. Much depends upon the sense in which a word is used, and if by "personal" is meant a finite, human, corporeal concept of God, this certainly is not in accord with Christian Science, nor is it Scriptural. But, as Mrs. Eddy says in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 116), "If the term personality, as applied to God, means infinite personality, then God is infinite Person,—in the sense of infinite personality, but not in the lower sense." Christian Scientists, therefore, accept God as the supreme, infinite Person, and personal creator in this infinite sense; and surely this accords with Paul's declaration that "in him we live, and move, and have our being." The origin of the word "person" is interesting, as it comes from the Latin words per and sonare (to sound through). It would surely be impossible to think of person apart from qualities and attributes; hence again the Scriptural declaration: "God is love;" "The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth;" "His understanding is infinite;" "He is the Rock, his work is perfect."

Jesus summed up these qualities in the word "Spirit," and definitely said: "God is a Spirit;" "There is none good but one, that is, God." It is, then, in this infinite, spiritual good that man lives and moves and has his being; and the first chapter of Genesis, spiritually understood, gives the key to this right sense of creation. The limited, human concept of goodness is based on a finite sense of creation, as described in the second chapter of Genesis, and is but a counterfeit of the goodness of God. It will be seen, then, that your correspondent is incorrect when he writes of "the 'Christian Science' idea of an impersonal God, which, stripped of all its trappings, is really equivalent to merely being the good that they say is in every man." Spiritually, man reflects the goodness of God, and in order to understand the right sense of goodness man must be "found, not in self-righteousness, but reflecting the divine nature" (Science and Health, p. 179), for material personality is not the image or likeness of Spirit, God.

Nevertheless, the capacity to understand God is in every man, as Elihu declared to Job, "There is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding." This understanding will distinguish between the infinite spiritual sense of good and the finite material sense, showing, as Paul says, how to "put off the old man" and to "put on the new man," already created in the image and likeness of God. Christian Science teaches (Science and Health, p. 171) that "through discernment of the spiritual opposite of materiality, even the way through Christ, Truth, man will reopen with the key of divine Science the gates of Paradise which human beliefs have closed, and will find himself unfallen, upright, pure, and free."

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