Spiritual study skills

Throughout her writings, Mary Baker Eddy tells readers that understanding Christian Science takes both study and practice. And sometimes it’s helpful to have some questions and approaches in your “toolkit” to help this study along—to spark engagement with the words of the Bible and Eddy’s writings and bring inspiration.

I’d like to share some of the questions and ideas that have helped me become a better student of Christian Science. This list isn’t comprehensive and it isn’t meant to be used as a template or formula. I hope, though, that it will help you feel more actively engaged with the ideas you encounter as you study. Is it too much to hope that it may even make studying fun?

Questions

• What question is the writer (Mary Baker Eddy or the writer of a particular Bible verse) answering here? 
• What is the writer not saying?
• What prompted the writer to make this statement? Is there an historical context that is of significance here?
• In what other context have I read/heard a particular word or phrase?
• Is this idea relevant to an issue currently in the news? At church? In my family?
• If this statement is true, what else is true? If true, what other thoughts/statements are necessarily false?
• If this statement is true, do I believe it? Do I disbelieve everything contrary to it?
• Why did the writer use this particular verb in this sentence?
• Why did Mary Baker Eddy use this specific synonym for God as the subject of this sentence? Why did she use this object? Take, for example, the statement “Mind produces all action” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 419 ). Why Mind? Why action? What sort of action does Mind produce? 
• What is the significance of the metaphor being used? In the phrase “Spirit, the great architect” (Science and Health, p. 68 ), what are the unique qualities expressed by an architect that Eddy wanted to convey?

Approaches

Here are some approaches I have found useful:

• When you come to a question in Science and Health, stop and answer it as best you can.
• Try putting the sentence in your own words.
• When you come to the name of an historical figure about whom you’re not knowledgeable, look him or her up. (The new JSH-Online.com audio podcast, “MBE mentioned them,” is a wonderful resource for learning about everyone from Ptolemy to Charles Blondin!)
• Read the passage aloud, emphasizing a different word each time. What nuances are brought out by the change in emphasis?
• Read Bible stories several times, considering a new viewpoint each time. For example, think about the story of the adulterous woman told in John 8:1–11 . How was the woman feeling? What was the “eldest” scribe or Pharisee thinking when he walked out first? What was the last scribe or Pharisee thinking as he filed out? What was Jesus thinking as he “wrote on the ground?”
• Use a thesaurus or synonym finder to find fresh/expanded meanings of a word that you think you know. Substitute some of the synonyms for the original word in the sentence.
• The Key Word Study Bible is a good resource for learning the biblical meaning of words.
• Keep a written record of inspiring ideas/healings so you won’t be tempted to hold on to bad memories and forget the quiet inspiration that comes from your prayer! The May 14, 2012, issue of the Sentinel has a wonderful article called “The power of the testimony” by Kim Korinek, that describes an easy (and colorful) way of keeping track of healings.
• Making lists is a great way to become more familiar with Eddy’s writings, as well as to focus thought on one topic. I have lists of adjectives describing God and man. I keep a list of qualities that do not describe God and man. I also made a list called “Man is …” based on everything I could find in Eddy’s works describing man. For example: “Man is idea, the image, of Love”; “Man is coexistent with God”; “Man is tributary to God, Spirit, and to nothing else” (Science and Health, pp. 475 , 478 , 481 ). Another list, called “Matter …,” is based on references in Science and Health, such as “Matter is not a lawgiver” (p. 127 ).

Most of all, when you sit down to study, recall that God, Mind, is infinite. The infinite Mind has unlimited creativity and endlessly expanding ideas. The ideas of Mind are dynamic. Mind never gets bored or apathetic or confused, and as the reflection of Mind, neither do you. Have fun “playing” with ideas. Stretch them; peek underneath and see what’s there; turn them upside down and inside out—you can’t break them!