Article March 31, 2008 Issue

COMMON QUESTIONS, MORE THAN ONE ANSWER

with contributions from MAKANGA KIANGA, MARIE HELM, ROBERT ENNEMOSER, GEORGIA BULLOCH, SUSAN FLEMING

The Sentinel asked five teachers of Christian Science to give their perspectives on the following frequently asked questions. We spoke with MAKANGA KIANGA from Kinshasha, Democratic Republic of the Congo; MARIE HELM from Juneau, Alaska; ROBERT ENNEMOSER from Salzburg, Austria; GEORGIA BULLOCH from Houston, Texas; and SUSAN FLEMING from Newport Beach, California.

Makanga Kianga: One paramount purpose of class instruction is to teach pupils how to heal and help others. Students learn what constitutes a Christian Science treatment and how to heal through treatment—in other words, how to pray and make one's prayers more effective. The class opens the students' eyes spiritually and lifts their thought to a fuller understanding of God. They also learn about the nature of evil or animal magnetism, how to discern its falsity, and how to overcome it through prayer, thus defending themselves and others against this foe. They gain a better understanding of the mental nature of sin and disease, and what to do in order to eradicate them.

Marie Helm: Years ago when people built a house, they often placed it on a "rubble foundation": a trench filled with stones carefully placed to support the house. They're amazingly strong foundations, but they become much stronger when cement binds the stones in place. I often think of our individual study of the Bible and Science and Health as the stones in our spiritual foundation, and of class instruction as the cement that binds and strengthens that foundation. Mary Baker Eddy designed class instruction to bring new light, inspiration, and depth of understanding to the students' comprehension of the Bible and the divine Principle of Christian Science so they could become better healers (see The First of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 241).