Editorial June 7, 1941 Issue

Domination or Dominion

George Shaw Cook

Domination, meaning control, government, or sovereignty, is, according to dictionary definitions, substantially the same as dominion. In the light of Christian Science, however, there is a difference, or rather, perhaps, it might better be called a distinction. This distinction is plain when one thinks of that which is termed personal domination as contrasted with the righteous exercise of God-given dominion.

In the first chapter of Genesis we read, "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." The dominion which according to this statement was conferred on man could not rightly be thought to mean personal domination. Interpreted spiritually, the dominion given man was over the lesser ideas which are included in Mind's universe.

Of man, Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, says on page 516 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," "Man, made in His likeness, possesses and reflects God's dominion over all the earth." And on page 475 she says, "He is the compound idea of God, including all right ideas." The ideas which man includes or embodies must be less than man, and he must of necessity have dominion over them. This fact by no means implies that one individual has dominion over another individual, for all the sons of God are equal, and all are governed solely by their common creator, infinite divine Principle.

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