Editorial December 8, 1973 Issue

The Basic Goal of Christian Science Practice

Naomi Price

The essential purpose of Christian Science practice is much more than the improvement of human conditions. It is the total spiritualization of human thought—the demonstration of the fact that being is wholly spiritual, immortal, good. Christian Science practitioners aim to establish in consciousness the true, Christly understanding of God and His idea as all that really exists. Their goal is to prove that God is Love, the one divine Principle, or creator, of all, and that the universe is the expression of His unique being, the perfect reflection of His nature and substance.

Limited, discordant, crippling, material concepts of being are no part of God's universe. They are false, mortal beliefs. It is natural that as these are replaced in human consciousness by the recognition of the perfection of God and His universe mankind should experience physical healing. Thought governs the body, so the actual beauty, affluence, harmony, health, and freedom of God and His idea, man, are increasingly enjoyed not only inwardly but in better outward conditions as spiritual truth is recognized and accepted into consciousness.

But even while health and the comfortable functioning of the human body are being established, it is well to remember that, gratifying though it may be for mortal man, this physical healing is not the ultimate purpose of Christian teaching. It never has been, and is not now. As Christ Jesus said, "For this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth."^{ John 18:37;} Nothing short of the demonstration of absolute spiritual truth is adequate to fulfill God's purpose in giving us the Christ-idea to declare and to demonstrate the perfection and immortality of true being.