In the Christian Science Bible Lesson May 19, 2014 Issue

Soul's dwelling place

For the Lesson titled “Soul and Body” from May 19 - 25, 2014

Madelon Maupin

Among the 26 recurring Lesson subjects that Mary Baker Eddy chose, some have been theologically perplexing to thinkers through the ages. This Bible Lesson, “Soul and Body,” brings clarification to the still common assumption that an immaterial “soul” somehow resides in a fleshly body, and escapes at death.

The biblical term temple (a translation of the Greek vaos, meaning “dwelling”), is woven throughout the Lesson, representing both the church body and the human body. Paul writes to the Christians in Corinth: “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?” (I Corinthians 6:19, citation 5).

The way we “are not [y]our own” is through man’s status as the expression of God, the basis of spiritual selfhood. As Mary Baker Eddy wrote, “Identity is the reflection of Spirit, the reflection in multifarious forms of the living Principle, Love” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 477, cit. 1).

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