Article October 26, 1929 Issue

A criticism of two theological books in your last issue...

Mrs. Agnata F. Butler, Committee on Publication for Cambridgeshire, England,—Cambridge

Cambridge Review

A criticism of two theological books in your last issue is of particular interest to students of Christian Science, for the writer makes it clear that the point of divergence which separates his view of Christianity from the teaching of Christian Science is precisely the point which prevents him from accepting the full historicity of the gospel narratives. This divergence is a differing attitude towards matter. Accepting "the knowledge won through the study of physics, chemistry, and medicine" as no less a divine gift than the "spirit of Jesus," he feels that certain acts attributed to our Lord, involving the control of external nature, would imply "crude views of matter," and he therefore regards them as legendary.

The writer is surely right in assuming that these incidents point to a view of matter at variance with what has been commonly accepted. But does any student of physics to-day claim to have arrived at a complete and satisfying explanation of the nature and origin of matter? We have all had to relinquish our old beliefs in matter as solid substance, and have been taught the inaccuracy of our material senses.

Christian Science agrees with some other systems in regarding matter as a mental phenomenon. It stands alone in maintaining that this mental phenomenon is itself an erroneous conception, which may be corrected by the keener vision of a sense that is wholly spiritual, and ultimately resolved into the harmonious and immortal expression of one perfect and infinite Mind. To this view the so-called miracles of our Lord, his control over external nature, his resurrection, and his disappearance from human sight in the ascension, are not infractions of law, but demonstrations of a law not understood by others. What appears to the critic as "the erroneous element" in Christian Science is the element which unites it with the Christianity of the New Testament, and is the essential basis of its vitality and practical value.

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