Article June 9, 1951 Issue

MARGINAL HEADINGS

PHYLLIS J. FOSTER

On the first page of the chapter entitled "Atonement and Eucharist" in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy are inserted two marginal headings which are of special significance to the thoughtful student of these teachings. The first is "Divine oneness," and the second, "Human reconciliation." The close relationship of these headings raises a question of profound interest to the student of Christian Science. Did our beloved Leader, when she included these two revealing headings, mean to convey that the understanding and realization of divine oneness inevitably result in human reconciliation to God;'

The answer is unquestionably "Yes," as a diligent study of her writings will reveal. The reader of the aforementioned chapter will quickly perceive that the author offers a very simple but logical explanation of the atonement as the proof of man's at-one-ment with God, rather than as an abstruse theological problem.

Christian Science teaches that there is one God, who is wholly good, and that this is the God of whom we read in the first chapter of Genesis, who made man in His image and likeness and pronounced everything He had made to be "very good." It is obviously necessary to differentiate between this real man, created by God, and the counterfeit, mortal sense of man, which the material senses present and claim as real.

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