Article March 10, 1923 Issue

Christian Science does not teach that "God is goodness,"...

Judge Clifford P. Smith, Committee on Publication for The Mother Church,—New Bedford, Massachusetts

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Christian Science does not teach that "God is goodness," nor that "goodness is God." Christian Science does teach that God is good. So does the Bible; so did Christ Jesus.

Christian Science does not "destroy the idea of personality of God," nor "make Him an abstract quality." Christian Science denies that God is like a human being, and denies that He is personal in this sense; but it consistently affirms His individuality and personality in every divine or spiritual sense. Fundamentally, a person is "a self-conscious being." Personality is the "essential character of a person as distinguished from a thing; self-consciousness; existence as a self-conscious being" (Century Dictionary). In Mrs. Eddy's writings, she has not only accepted such definitions as applicable to God, but has continually emphasized the facts which show that "He is the infinite Person." In the same connection she has also said, "Our departure from theological personality is, that God's personality must be as infinite as Mind is" (Message for 1901, pp. 4 and 6).

The assertion that Christian Scientists do not base their religion on the atonement of Jesus is also mistaken. Christian Scientists follow Christ Jesus in all that he said, while endeavoring to follow him in all that he did. Christian Science is definitely based on his atonement. This fact is shown by our tenets, by an entire chapter in our textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, and by numerous passages throughout her writings. Of course, the fact that a critic of Christian Science differs from it has no tendency to prove that he is right. For over a thousand years, almost the whole of Christendom regarded the atonement of Jesus in a way that no one believes to-day. Some of the history of this subject is condensed under the word "atonement" in Webster's New International Dictionary. In Science and Health (p. 24) Mrs. Eddy writes, "The time is not distant when the ordinary theological views of atonement will undergo a great change,—a change as radical as that which has come over popular opinions in regard to predestination and future punishment." This prediction has been largely fulfilled. The Christian Science view of the atonement of Jesus not only adheres strictly to everything he said, but is steadily becoming the accepted view of most Christians. Any one who desires confirmation of this statement may find it by examining the articles and books on this subject which have been published in recent years; for instance, consult "A Century's Change in Religion," by George Harris, D.D., LL. D., president of Amherst College, formerly professor in Andover Theological Seminary.

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