Recognizing God as Principle

SOPHIE ARGELANDER

One of the terms used to define God in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 465) by Mary Baker Eddy, is Principle. To some beginners in the study of Christian Science, however, the term may seem to convey such an indefinite concept of Him that the student is inclined to turn to other terms for God which are found on the same page,—namely, Mind, Spirit, Soul, Life, Truth, Love,—in order that he may come nearer to Deity, as Mrs. Eddy defines Him through these terms.

The writer had an experience like this when she first took up the study of Christian Science. The explanation of God as Principle appeared to her to be cold and strange, since the traditional meaning of the word had seemed to her to bear little, if any, relationship to the nature of God. Theology had taught her of God as a finite person—very great indeed—whom we should adore and revere, and to whom we could go with all our requests, in order that we might ascertain His will, believing that He heard our prayers. According to such a notion of Deity, therefore, it would have been presumptuous to consider Him as divine Principle, whose power could be utilized according to unalterable rule in the solution of our problems. Such a religious training is responsible for the confused concept of God which has formed itself in the thought of most Christians. Since this concept has been handed down from generation to generation without being seriously questioned, the world has remained largely in a state of ignorance concerning the real nature of God.

We are indebted to Mrs. Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, for the scientific concept of God as "the creative Principle—Life, Truth, and Love" (Science and Health, p. 502); indebted because it is the spiritual basis from which we can gain a far deeper and more practical knowledge of God than we previously held. On page 283 of the textbook, our Leaders writes, "We must receive the divine Principle in the understanding, and live it in daily life; and unless we so do, we can no more demonstrate Science, than we can teach and illustrate geometry by calling a curve a straight line or a straight line a sphere." By this earnest exhortation our Leader shows us the necessity of letting divine Principle—that is, divine Mind, Life, Truth, and Love—work through us, in order that we may prove our understanding of this Principle.

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