All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the prosperity of your children.

—Isaiah 54:13, New Revised Standard Version

Class instruction

The Sentinel recently invited the members of the Board of Education of The Mother Church to join in an informal discussion with the Sentinel's Senior Writer, Kim Shippey, about the nature and purpose of Christian Science class instruction. This is a 12-day course conducted by authorized teachers of Christian Science in which the students explore the spiritual method of healing practiced by Christ Jesus and explained in the textbook of Christian Science, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.

The members of the Board of Education are all practitioners and teachers of Christian Science, and include Olga Chaffee (president), Karl "Sandy" Sandberg, and Tom Black (who is also a member of the Christian Science Board of Directors). Here are excerpts from the discussion.

Kim Shippey: Let's begin by talking about some of the ways in which we can all link arms through spiritual education—in which class instruction plays a unique part—to bring people a deeper understanding of God. To help bring healing, and comfort, and peace to the world.

Olga Chaffee: This obviously is our favorite subject. It's very much in our hearts, our lives. Spiritual education by its very nature really doesn't lend itself to be compared with any other kind of education, like just signing up for some class and learning a subject. This has to do with Spirit, with God. It's something that comes from within, not from without.

Sandy Sandberg: In other words, it's not just an academic exercise. The books we teach from, and that class students learn from, are the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, and her other published writings. But the teaching really is of God and is expressed through us as teachers.

Tom Black: Christian Science is the theology that really does explain the reality of God and man; and that's what people are thinking about and reaching for. And class instruction is one way—though not the only way—to learn about these spiritual truths.

Olga: In the Gospel of John we read that Jesus said: "My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself" (John 7:16, 17). This teaching is of Spirit, because it's of God. But here we need to be very clear. Though we've suggested it's not strictly academic, we wouldn't want to leave the impression that there isn't a discipline involved. It's a Science. It's exact. There are laws that must be known, understood, and demonstrated.

Tom: Mrs. Eddy referred to it in Science and Health as "ever-operative divine Principle," and as "pre-eminently scientific" (p. 123).

Olga: Don't you think the bottom line is that Jesus said, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also" (John 14:12). So, is this Science enabling you to do what Jesus did? Does it heal? Does it raise the dead?

Kim: After all, isn't the class instruction we're talking about, instruction in the Science of Christianity?

Sandy: It certainly is. As we speak, I'm looking at a statement in Science and Health where Mrs. Eddy said: "The Science of Christianity comes with fan in hand to separate the chaff from the wheat. Science will declare God aright, and Christianity will demonstrate this declaration and its divine Principle, making mankind better physically, morally, and spiritually" (p. 466). What we're doing in class as teachers is presenting this Science in a clear, ordered way from the chapter titled "Recapitulation" in Science and Health. But the outcome, and the benefit to pulpils who are learning this Science, is that they're able to take it away and practice it and see it demonstrated in "making mankind better physically, morally, and spiritually."

Tom: You know, to me, part of that ties in well the theme of the Annual Meeting of The Mother Church this year, "One Accord, One Place." It's about the Day of Pentecost and the fire that was in the bellies of those early Christians as thousands of people were attracted to their message. Just imagine what that scene was like with people pouring into the streets and feeling the presence of the Christ—the truth that God knows about His creation. That must have been an event of great significance to the people who were there, and it has been ever since it got written up in the book of Acts in the Bible.

Kim: So, who were those people? Where did they come from?

Olga: The Bible tells us they were "devout men, out of every nation under heaven" (Acts 2:5). There you have it, "devout men." There was something already stirring within them that was guiding them—and they instinctively knew.

Tom: Well, I like to think that our June 8 Annual Meeting this year is going to be a manifestation of that same fire, that same spirit, that same "spiritual outpouring of bliss and glory" (Science and Health, p. 574)—an animus that isn't just dull academics. It's the spirit of the Christ.

Olga: There you go. And who is it that comes to the Annual Meeting? Devout Christian Scientists who bring within them this inspiration and expectancy.

Tom: It's the same thing with class instruction, isn't it? The pupils who come have a fire within them, a desire to learn something. And they are expectant, rightfully expectant, that they will see the coals of that fire stirred in class instruction as they come closer and closer to the essential teachings of Jesus.

Olga: I tend to feel that those who seek class instruction really don't come to it to see if they're going to like it or not. It's because this little fire is already going inside them. They're looking for it. They're wanting it. They know that this is it!

Sandy: And when we talk about people feeling that fire and beginning to think seriously about taking class instruction, we still find those who suggest they're not good enough, don't have enough understanding, need to somehow be much farther down the road than they are right now. What they're missing is this of God working in us that causes us to come together; and when we do come together in that class, something so wonderful happens. It's sacred ground, it's holy ground; and that coming together is providing an atmosphere of thought in which spiritualization is able to take place in a way that it doesn't take place often in other contexts. That's because we're so focused on listening, and wanting to learn, and wanting to know what God is.

There's a sense of warmth in coming together and creating an atmosphere that's almost supercharged with the inspiration and joy that come from knowing that we are good enough, that we are worthy of understanding God and what He's giving us. I'm not saying it can't be done in one's own individual walk with God—and learning from the Bible and Christian Science textbook how it can be done—but there's something about coming together in that class that's so special, that feels so good.

Tom: In our classes we might have someone who has a PhD sitting next to someone who's not even a high-school graduate; and the appeal of this universal Science is to both of them at the same level. We might have somebody who's from a particular ethnic background sitting next to somebody else of an entirely different ethnic background. So we're talking about wrapping our arms around everybody. And I think what draws people to this theology is not any human sameness; it's just this interest in spiritual values and spiritual ideas from people who say, "I want to know more about God, and I have a conviction that this class instruction thing is someplace where I'm going to find it."

Sandy: I'd say that what draws people to a teacher is the power of the Christ, the power of divine Love, which has impelled them to move in this particular direction. And, as you've said, Tom, that can happen at any time of somebody's life. And what the teacher is doing in every case is simply seeking to lift up in their own life that light of the Christ that draws all men and women to it. It has nothing whatsoever to do with going out and knocking on doors and rallying people and saying, "Hey, come and take class with me." That's not it at all. But rather "in the quiet sanctuary of earnest longings," as Mrs. Eddy put it (Science and Health, p. 15), demonstrating this Science to the best of their ability, embracing the entire world in that love of God which is practical and demonstrate.

This is what draws people, this is what attracts. It's not about going out and beating bushes. And what happens is that those who are ready to hear the call, hear it, and come. They may be teenagers, they may be in their 20s or 30s, they may be in their 80s or 90s even. And it's just delightful to watch the relationships of young and old alike as they come to this feast of Truth and Love and partake of it together as one.

Olga: In the book of Isaiah there's a citation that says, "Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west; I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth; even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him" 43:5-7). This points to the fact that it's God's doing. That's why it deserves all the prayer we are able to give this issue.

When it comes to, "Where shall I go, what teacher, what place?" just be quiet and listen. God directs each one of us. And I feel this is just as much a mandate for teachers as pupils. With every opportunity to teach, I think the teacher is being taught, too. This is not a one-sided thing—just imparting the right words or right citations. The teacher's involved in the learning, too. There's so much to listen to, and learn and pray about. It's just so different from anything else we engage in in the human experience of learning. Christian Science class instruction is unique.

Tom: There's a wonderful passage in Mrs. Eddy's Miscellaneous Writings, where she said that "...all is Mind and its manifestation, from the rolling of worlds, in the most subtle ether, to a potatopatch" (p. 26). So God certainly controls this process of class instruction. The whole thing is wrapped up in His love and in His care. And those who are thinking about taking this class can very comfortably trust themselves to God's direction and supply, and in that way work out the details.

Olga: In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy said, "The divine Science taught in the original of the Bible came through inspiration, and needs inspiration to be understood" (p. 319). So God gives us that inspiration, and we're just so safe in following that spiritual intuition.

Sandy: And what links Christian Science teachers all together is the fact that they're all teaching from the same books, from the same words of Christ Jesus and our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy. And the cloth of consistency in that teaching is evident in every single teacher's work wherever they are around the world. They teach in several different languages, and their names are listed in The Christian Science Journal. So, linking arms gives us that unity of spirit and thought that comes from the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, the divine Science that Mrs. Eddy revealed. This is the second coming of the Christ, which enables us to feel a bond of love that is unbreakable.

Tom: Yes, class instruction is an activity of divine Love. It's something God is doing. Every single individual who has an interest in it, has been awakened to it by Love. Every step along the way is being guided by God, and is protected by God. They can trust that God is giving them exactly what they're looking for, because He loves them. CSS