Editorial May 30, 1977 Issue

Caring for the Body

Geoffrey J. Barratt

The best way to care for the body is to understand it.

The body is not understood, Christian Science shows, while we believe it to be organic and finite. Yes, it appears to be so to mortal thought. Yet, looking at the body from that perspective, we misunderstand it. And misunderstanding the body is an inadequate—quite mistaken—basis for its care.

One of the initial points Christian Science teaches is that identity is spiritual. The physical body is the inverted sense of real identity. It is the objectification of material thinking. Looking forward, Mary Baker Eddy writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, "Sometime it will be learned that mortal mind constructs the mortal body with this mind's own mortal materials." ^{Science and Health, p. 402;}