Article September 6, 1999 Issue

The book won every argument

Why not read Science and Health this fall?

By James Joseph Conley

I was Raised as a Roman Catholic, but during my teens I began questioning my beliefs and, eventually, the existence of God. Later, while I was in college, a friend gave me a copy of the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.

At the time, I considered myself an agnostic, since I doubted that God really existed. Partly to humor my friend and partly out of curiosity, I read the first chapter, "Prayer," and scanned the rest. Like most college students in the late seventies, I was interested in a lot of different ideas being investigated at that time. And I considered the textbook as belonging in that category.

I remember reading the statement, "Who would stand before a blackboard, and pray the principle of mathematics to solve the problem? The rule is already established, and it is our task to work out the solution" (p. 3). I was an engineering student, and this statement really appealed to me. There were other thoughts in the book that gave me comfort during a fairly tumultuous period. So I found myself referring to it often.

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