Article October 27, 1928 Issue

Please permit me to reply to certain friendly queries and...

Charles M. Shaw, Committee on Publication for Lancashire, England,—Oldham

Chronicle

Please permit me to reply to certain friendly queries and criticisms of Christian Science by your correspondent. In writing of the use Christian Scientists make of the account of man's origin in the first chapter of Genesis, he deprecates the practice of using only those parts of the Bible which support one's theory, and neglecting those which do not; and he very properly suggests that this method is not honest. It is true the use made of the Scriptures by Christian Scientists is selective, but not for the reason advanced. Mrs. Eddy discerned that the spiritual interpretation of the Scriptures alone unfolds revelation, and the Christian Science use of the Bible is consistent with this view. She says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 547): "The true theory of the universe, including man, is not in material history but in spiritual development. Inspired thought relinquishes a material, sensual, and mortal theory of the universe, and adopts the spiritual and immortal. It is this spiritual perception of Scripture, which lifts humanity out of disease and death and inspires faith." I cannot but think that if these two accounts, to which your correspondent refers, are carefully considered, they will be seen to be contradictory and irreconcilable. In the first account God, who is Spirit, makes man in His likeness, therefore spiritual, and invests him with qualities which are to give him dominion over all creatures. Moreover, "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." Now the second account of man's creation is material. It records that man sinned and became the subject of disease and death, and incurred the wrath of God; further, that this sin of Adam involved the whole race in depravity and guilt. If this be so, then it is difficult to see how we can avoid making God responsible for evil. Christian Science not only rejects this latter account as being utterly inconsistent with the first, but claims to demonstrate the truth of the first by showing that when we rise to some degree of understanding of man's likeness to God and his real relationship with Him, sin and disease are overcome.

Your correspondent proceeds, "The weakness of Christian Science as I see it is in the attempt to ignore, or not give due weight to the physical side of man's nature." From what I have stated Christian Science cannot consistently hold that man, who is the image and likeness of God, Spirit, is both spiritual and Physical. Christian Science is irrevocably committed to the truth that man and the universe are in reality spiritual only, and it teaches that a material earth and a physical body are but the subjective states of a false material sense—that which Paul described as "the carnal mind." Christian Science teaching does not lead to the ignoring or despising of the body. It recognizes that we all appear to have been born into the belief of material existence and of physical bodies, and it shows how through the understanding of our real nature and of our relationship to the one Mind, God, we can gain dominion over the so-called material. Mrs. Eddy states in Science and Health (p. 216), "This understanding makes the body harmonious; it makes the nerves, bones, brain, etc., servants, instead of masters." The experience of an increasing number of Christian Scientists all over the world confirms this statement.

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