IN THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE BIBLE LESSON August 16, 2010 Issue

MIND UNIFIES AND HEALS

OLENE CARROLL

WHAT MAKES CHRISTIAN SCIENCE UNIQUE? Often the reply to that question is its focus on spiritual healing. Christ Jesus expected his followers to heal as he did. One of the Bible's first lessons related to healing is found in the first book of Genesis—and this week's Bible Lesson, titled "Mind," quotes Genesis 1:26 three times.

In the Golden Text it's a translation from the Icelandic: "And God said, Let us make man after our mind and our likeness; and God shaped man after His mind; after God's mind shaped He him; and He shaped them male and female." That came out 27 years before the King James Version, which is also referenced this week, in the second citation in Section I. Mary Baker Eddy naturally concluded, "Infinite Mind is the creator, and creation is the infinite image or idea emanating from this Mind" (pp. 256-257, cit.l).

But what about the man "whose breath is in his nostrils" (Isa. 2:22, cit. 4)? Matthew Henry's Commentary says, "He is not what he seems to be, what he pretends to be, what we fancy him to be." Section II of the Lesson answers the question with an allegory from Genesis 2 and 3. It tells of another god, another so-called mind, another man, who is mortal, material—qualities not mentioned in the already perfect, complete creation of Genesis 1.