Article March 4, 1911 Issue

It sometimes happens that those who make a more or...

Edward W. Dickey

Los Angeles (Cal.) Express

It sometimes happens that those who make a more or less cursory examination of Christian Science conclude that it is pantheistic. That this is far from the truth is seen by an examination of pantheism in the light of Christian Science. Pantheism, which is from the Greek pan, all, and theos, god, means that God and the material universe are identified. The word is defined in Webster's as follows: "The doctrine that the universe, taken or conceived of as a whole, is God; the doctrine that there is no God but the combined forces and laws which are manifested in the existing universe."

According to the encyclopedia, pantheism is the middle ground between atheism, which denies the existence of God, and theism, which teaches belief in God, or gods. Pantheism is inductive in that it goes from effect back to cause. Its reasoning is based upon the testimony of the material senses and makes matter a necessary outcome of God and therefore includes sin and evil in the divine order. So-called "idealistic pantheism" is nature worship, and as wholly material as any other form of pantheism.

Christian Science is scientific Christianity. It is theistic, or more strictly speaking, monotheistic, declaring that there is one infinite God, who is Mind, Life, Truth, Love, Spirit. It also declares that He is good. It is deductive in its reasoning. It may be regarded as a syllogism with its major premise as the one given by Jesus to the woman at the well: "God is a Spirit," or as the Revised Version has it, "God is Spirit." The minor premise is that creation is "after his kind,"—is like God, therefore spiritual. The conclusion is that man and the universe is spiritual and not material. This is paraphrased in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, on page 468, as follows: "All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all."

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