Article February 15, 1988 Issue

Christian healing: neither mythology nor magic

Many people consider Jesus' healings as either mythological additions to the Bible story or else as magical displays of supernatural power. Christian Science offers another view.

Arden Evans Cook

For many years now, there have been efforts in theological studies to take what may be considered the mythology or "magic" out of the Bible. This "demythologizing" of Jesus and the Bible often leads to doubt about the authenticity of Biblical miracles because they do not seem to fit within the normal parameters of human reason or within the familiar confines of accepted physical science. Such efforts might be viewed as an attempt to reconcile the morality and spirituality of religion with the (supposed) authority and knowledge of physical science.

Mrs. Eddy recognized the necessity for the reconciliation of religious faith and the understanding of God's relation to man with the honesty, exactness, and truth-seeking found in the practice of scientific law. She wrote in Science and Health: "It has been said, and truly, that Christianity must be Science, and Science must be Christianity, else one or the other is false and useless; but neither is unimportant or untrue, and they are alike in demonstration. This proves the one to be identical with the other."^{Science and Health, p. 135.}

Here Mrs. Eddy uses Science in its spiritual sense, as relating to God's eternal, divine law. That Science and Christianity are not generally understood as complementary and harmonious is the result of a narrow, material interpretation and practice of these vital concepts. This interpretation supposes that God is a supernatural being separated from man. It also assumes that the physical senses bear reliable witness to the reality of matter and the unreality of Spirit. Taken together, these two beliefs would set up a seemingly insurmountable barrier to understanding Science as God's law and Christianity as its practice. But both of these beliefs can be proved to be mistaken.

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