Article April 20, 2020 Issue

Unity in the workplace

Nancy James

For those who may be experiencing something less than unity in the workplace—particularly issues of conflict between men and women—it’s useful to ponder this recommendation in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy: “Let the ‘male and female’ of God’s creating appear” (p. 249). We might ask ourselves, “What might this appearing look like in my workplace?” When I did that, contemplating, praying, and listening for a higher view, the answers began to change my experience, sometimes dramatically.

I began by exploring where the idea of “the ‘male and female’ of God’s creating” comes from. The Bible opens with God’s creation of heaven and earth, and tells us that this universe of light is separated from darkness. Then man is introduced as made in God’s image and likeness. And man is described as “male and female”—wholly spiritual, not physical. I began to think about the significance of the words male and female.

I knew I had to let go of a human understanding of male and female as opposites, as opposing physical beings. I had to let go of seeing men and women as separated, as competing with each other, as needing to control or submit to each other. Those concepts of male and female are vividly depicted in the stark contrast and struggles between men and women when they are viewed from the standpoint of the second account of creation in Genesis, chapter two. This second account is an allegory full of matter-based thoughts, a depiction of the darkness that God’s light has already separated from creation. I knew I had to think instead with spiritual sense about what the inspired writer of Genesis 1 must have understood when introducing the male and female of God’s creating. In turning to Science and Health, I found two key points.

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