Article October 3, 1977 Issue

Beyond Pollyanna

ALAN A. AYLWIN

Pollyanna, the heroine of a novel of the same name, was an irrepressible optimist—so much so that the term Pollyannaism has become synonymous with extreme, even foolish, optimism. Without differentiation she saw good in everything, and for this reason her outlook is sometimes mistakenly bracketed with the teachings of Christian Science. But there is a vast difference.

Optimism is valuable so far as it goes. It is much better than mental gloom. But it is very far from the genuine expectancy of good that is based on changeless spiritual Truth—on the all-important fact that all real goodness has its source in God, infinite Spirit. Actually, nothing unspiritual or separate from God is genuinely good or can be called good.

The study of Christian Science teaches us that mere optimism can never demonstrate the healing power of God sufficiently to emulate the works of Christ Jesus. A cheery human attitude, praiseworthy though it may seem, cannot impart the spiritual light that reveals Truth. It still leaves us in the precarious realm of human thinking. We still are viewing ourselves as limited, albeit happy, mortals. We are in the unstable position where, without a spiritual basis for happiness, human temperament can without warning reverse our happy outlook and cast us into the realm of mental despond.

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