Christian Science and the Human Condition

PATIENCE M. CANHAM

Library and bookstore shelves are loaded with self-help books— how to deal with tension, how to understand and like ourselves, how to cope with the successive changes of adult life, and many others. Some of these books describe the phases of human existence so vividly it is possible to find oneself thinking, "That is exactly how I feel."

One may also be tempted to feel that Christian Science, teaching as it does the unchanging perfection of our nature as children of God, simply does not relate enough to our humanity. Actually, this is not so. Christian Science relates accurately and specifically to every problem of human life—every problem. But whether we find in it the help we want depends on what we are looking for.

Of course we want to improve the human condition! We need to face the challenges of passing decades honestly and grow with each challenge. But is it enough just to deal in human terms with human life? If we accept the conditions of human life wholesale —birth, childhood, growing up, growing older... and older— where do we inevitably end? It may seem interesting and harmless to discuss emotional changes of our thirties and our forties, but what about our nineties?

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