Many people pray—frequently and actively. In the United States, for example, the figures are startlingly large. According to a 1990 poll mentioned in The Christian Science Monitor, 75 percent of the adult public prays at least once a week, and 52 percent once a day, or more.

Obviously, a lot of people believe prayer helps them in some way.

It may be surprising, though, to discover how much the way we approach prayer has been boxed in and our concept of prayer made small as we have taken on the increasingly materialistic outlook of society as a whole. Do we believe, for example, that prayer can bring actual changes in outward situations themselves, not just in our adjustment to them?

The sense of prayer as only a temporary solace hasn't always predominated, nor has the concept of prayer as asking God to intervene in the midst of a busy, substantial, but difficult material existence. There is another option: prayer as the way of coming to realize more of what God, Spirit, is and therefore seeing that His creation must in fact be quite different from what we have assumed.

Early Christians didn't think of their religion as a useful add-on to a view of the world that was about the same as everyone else's. Instead, their outlook was transformed by their religion. The word new is everywhere in the New Testament. In Christ we are made "new creatures," says Paul. In fact, "all things are become new," he tells us.

For people seriously following Jesus, the message was so powerful and uplifting that it naturally was expected to affect immediate conditions and ultimately to change the way the world is, not just give a little comfort in regard to it. In other words, it was such a big message, it impelled you to think and live in a new way. This way of Christ didn't promise ease and gratification, but it did say you could overcome difficulties through real commitment to a new life in God, Spirit.

A few individualistic, courageous, and spiritually-minded Christians through the centuries have broken through clouds of complex theology and doctrine so that they were greatly moved and changed by what they saw of God. This helped others to see in new ways. Mary Baker Eddy was one such person. She founded the Church of Christ, Scientist, on the rousing, healing effect of the Christ, Truth, or spiritual idea of God. She writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, "When the omnipotence of God is preached and His absoluteness is set forth, Christian sermons will heal the sick."

God's absoluteness is set forth in the spiritual discovery called Christian Science. For many people first encountering scientific Christianity, it seems like the difference between seeing the sun dimly through overcast and clouds or suddenly in a clear blue sky. When God is no longer being screened through a sense of life that is based primarily on the physical senses, it becomes apparent to us that nothing could be more important than having this new, clearer understanding of God's presence, of His law, of His allness.

What happens when Christianity is "let out of the box," so to speak, is remarkable. Someone, for example, who learned of Christian Science only about ten years ago tells of its impact on her, in the course of her account of the healing she experienced of alcohol and drug dependence (see October 15, 1990, Sentinel): "A dear friend ... invited me to a Wednesday evening testimony meeting at a branch Church of Christ, Scientist. ... When the testimonies began, my heart really caught on fire. I had been raised in another denomination and had grown tired of ritualism. I had often thought of finding a church where one could just stand up and publicly give praise to God. Now, here I was, listening to moving accounts from ordinary people of how much God meant to them in their everyday lives."

When prayer takes the standpoint of praising God—rather than affirming a material, imperfect creation God never made and then asking Him to improve it—there is a profoundly healing effect.

We really begin to "praise God" as we think in terms of the absoluteness of God—in other words, when we are not considering God primarily in reference to our own assumptions about material life. Absolute means not dependent on anything else, not limited by restrictions, not to be doubted, unqualified in extent or degree.

If God is infinitely good, if God is Spirit and divine Love, for example, then He is to be known as unrestricted Love and Spirit. This also requires that we grow into an understanding of ourselves as truly having been made by God, Spirit, in the image and likeness of Spirit, rather than as imperfect and failing material mortals.

This absolute Science of God and man brings a huge change in the nature—and the healing effect—of prayer. It results in Christianity let out of the box.

Allison W. Phinney, Jr.