Religion is increasingly prominent in the public dialogue. When someone asks about Christian Science, how do you explain it? What are the common misconceptions? How do you respond to them? For answers, we turned to three longtime Christian Scientists. PHIL DAVIS is a Christian Science practitioner and teacher, and currently works as Manager of Committees on Publication for the Church of Christ, Scientist, based in Boston. ELISE MOORE lives in Nashville, Tennessee, and is also a practitioner and teacher. JIM BENCIVENGA is a writer, editor, and amateur astronomer who recently retired after many years with The Christian Science Monitor.

Phil Davis: Sometimes you have to answer a large question during an elevator ride, and those two words—Christian and Science—are often where I start. Christian indicates our following of Christ Jesus—following in his footsteps, our devotion to him. We're students of the Gospels and the entire Bible, but the Gospels are so at the heart of the Bible that we look to them for the life and ministry of Christ Jesus. Science indicates that which can be proved, which is consistent, which points to law at work. When you merge those two words together, you have the life and ministry of Christ Jesus—of discipleship and following him—and putting into practice on a consistent, everyday basis this law of God, of divine Love. God is always present, always Love, Truth, Life. He's never arbitrary, never distant. God's laws are always something to be proved, to put into practice.

Elise Moore: My elevator rides are shorter than yours, Phil. I say that Christian Science is the divine laws of God that Christ Jesus came to teach us, and to practice. It's the divine laws of God that are supreme over material laws, which anyone can learn and demonstrate.

Jim Bencivenga: I was not raised in Christian Science, and have two takes on it—there's the Christian love, and then there's the truth of Science. As I worked my way through old theology to new theology—to Science—I saw that you can't separate the cross from Christianity, the vertical axis being the transcendent, the horizontal being the humanistic. But then of course Science never leaves you where you started. It never leaves you anywhere but with God. The whole dualism of religion—the notion that we're separated from God—evaporates with Christian Science. And, for me, it just meant I'm in the presence of God. That presence is real, spiritual. And it's healing. Christian Science says you're whole, you're one with God, you're divine, and that is very humbling. Christian Science is my means of understanding my unity with God, and it's practical, loving, intelligent unity.

Phil: When you're talking with people about religion or spirituality, three basic concepts keep coming up: God, prayer, and "us"—who are we? So many people have a concept of God as being arbitrary, that He might not be available. Christian Science reveals the nature of God as being ever-present, perfect, always-available divine Love.

I remember a taxi cab driver who wanted me to explain Christian Science. I talked with her about prayer. I said, "There's a concept of God as up in heaven, and when you pray to Him, you try to get Him to adjust things down here on earth." She quickly agreed, "Yeah, that's my concept of prayer, of God." I said, "Or, there's a concept of prayer in which God, being infinite intelligence, wisdom, and Love, is already doing everything for us. He's already there for us. But we're the ones who don't always do a good job of listening to Him. That's when we realize, 'I need to listen to my Father. I need to hear His voice, to feel His allness and greatness.'" There was a pause, and then she said, "I never thought of that before." Some people believe they don't really deserve God. They feel apart, separated. Christian Science changes that thought, brings us back to the Biblical sense that we are His dear children, that each of us is deserving of His love, and that His kingdom includes us.

Elise: One thing that helps us to understand God is spiritual sense, and that's what is most needed. The disciples asked Jesus, "Why do you teach the people using parables?" Jesus told them (it's in Matthew 13:15), "For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them."

In that verse I see a key to what is necessary to understand Christian Science, and the Bible, actually—to understand Jesus' healings and what he was teaching. It's the spiritual sense that gets beyond what the physical senses are saying to us, that leads us to understand with our heart. From this understanding then comes healing. It's not just an intellectual thing. Spiritual means "relating to God," so spiritual sense is feeling and discerning God and His creation—God's presence, grace, power, and goodness. Everyone can have this spiritual discernment, intuition, and feeling. It's something that we can cultivate and develop.

What kills spiritual sense is selfishness and sensuality. If a person really wants to grow spiritually, really wants to understand Christian Science, they need to have that sense of humility, honesty, and unselfishness, and be able to turn away from the physical senses. You can have a great desire to know about God, but if at the same time you're selfishly wanting to get what you want, and do what you want to do, it's just not going to work very well.

Jim: Building on that, Elise, I've always viewed Christian Science as God knowing me, God knowing His creation. What God knows is reality. It's certainly a principled way of knowing—that's why it is available to everyone. God knows what's in my experience, and divine knowing is truly loving, empowering, spiritual. It gives dominion over any material condition, any relationship issue, whatever the challenge may be. Then, the peace that "passeth understanding" is there for us. A traditional Christian perspective is that Jesus is the Son of God, and is God. All kinds of confusions arise out of that view.

Phil: Jesus himself said that he wasn't God, but the Son of God. This is not about diminishing Jesus, or Christ. Jesus was the only man to deserve and hold that title of Christ, or Saviour, or Master.

Jim: Jesus demonstrated the Christ in a way that no one else has. Yet he didn't say, "OK, I've got it, but you guys will never get it." Rather, he said, "The Father loves me and the things I've done"—referring to his healing works—"and you can do greater things." So Christ is God's power always with us. This came as a revelation to Mary Baker Eddy, and we can benefit from that insight. We can listen for the Christ, and we can heal as Jesus did.

Elise: I think the Christian Science confession of faith, if you will, is Matthew 16:16. Jesus asked his disciples who people thought that he was, and they gave various answers. Then he asked them, "Who do you think that I am?" Peter answered: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." We take this literally—that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. That relationship of Jesus to God, and of us to Jesus and to God, then, is explained in First Timothy 2, which speaks of "God our Saviour; who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (verses 3—5). To me, that puts everything into its proper relationship. There's one God, and Christ Jesus showed us how we are directly related to God—that we are endowed with divine identity.

Phil: Jesus also said, "The time will come when I will leave you, and I promise you a comforter that will teach you all things and bring all things to remembrance." Mary Baker Eddy boldly states in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures that she understands this Comforter to be Divine Science, or Christian Science (see p.55). There's a contrast between a promised Comforter and a comforting promise. The latter might be a philosophy, an approach to God, that allows you to get through this world, that gives you some hope, holds your hand as you live in this world. Now, I would never disparage that approach. To me, though, it's not enough. Because Christian Science is the promised Comforter, that Comforter is here right now, is bringing all things to remembrance, is here to teach us all things. It's about following the footsteps of Christ Jesus, who did not just get through the world but had an impact on the world. So we are to have an impact, not only on ourselves in living in this world, but on others around us—literally, to help lift them up.

There are a lot of self-help groups available today. For some people, that is what helps them. What's really helped me have a sense of direction in my career, and physically with health problems, is a worship of God that moves me beyond the limitations and the criteria of this world so that, as Paul said, "I'm not conformed to it, but we can actually transform the world around us." Rather than the approach, "I'm happy with my lifestyle. Help me, God, to get through this world in my lifestyle," I want God to define my lifestyle. Christian Science is what does that. This God who is divine Mind, the source of all intelligence, direction, guidance, divine authority—when He takes charge and we pray as our Master prayed, "Father, Thy will be done, not mine," watch out, because amazing things happen.

Jim: I know; I once cut a tree down on myself and was banged up pretty good. I wasn't a Christian Scientist at that time and went through the medical route with all the things that go into that. Some months afterward, I was dealing with the side effects of medication, including severe breathing difficulties. My wife, who had come into Christian Science as a church soloist, said, "You ought to call so and so," someone who was the husband of one of my wife's high-school friends. I was desperate, and I was coming at it from the most elemental level—I wanted to breathe. I didn't want this pain. I wanted to be healed. So I called him. He was in another city on the other side of the country, and was in the public practice of Christian Science. I didn't know what the heck that meant then. He simply said, "We're not getting off the phone till you're free." I had an instantaneous healing then and there, complete dominion over my breathing.

Phil: I was overseas a few years ago, conducting several workshops for fellow Christian Scientists. I had put a lot of prayer into it. At the last meeting scheduled, I had just given my introduction when someone nudged me. One of the participants had slumped in his chair. A colleague with me went to his side. She had been for many years a professional Christian Science nurse. (She told me later that, with all her nursing experience, she knew that he had passed on.) My first thought was, "Not on my watch!" All the prayer that had gone into these workshops, into this whole trip—the affirming of one perfect God governing us all, protecting, defending us in our relationship to the Almighty—was intact and effective, and I was not going to accept this picture. I wasn't the only one praying. Within a couple of minutes, he revived and was taken away to another location, walking on his own. He came back to the meeting about an hour later, completely restored. Christian Science teaches us to go right back to the Gospels, right back to Jesus' teaching, and not to accept death as irreversible.

Elise: I was raised in a Christian Science family, and the first healing that I remember is very vivid for me. I was six years old and had gotten a bike for my birthday, and I was out riding my bike in the street. I got between a rock and a curb and fell, and apparently knocked myself out on the pavement. The next thing I remembered was my dad carrying me into the house. I was crying, and all the neighbors were out asking if I was all right. My dad said that I'd be fine. I was bleeding all over his shirt, having almost bitten through my lower lip. Dad took me into their bedroom and put me down on the bed. There was no panic, just a great sense of peace and confidence in God's healing presence. One of them began reading to me from the Bible and from Science and Health, and the other one sat silently beside me praying. After a little while, I stopped crying and settled down to listen to what was being read about God, and about my relation to Him. Soon, I fell asleep. When I woke up a little later, I was healed. My lip had completely knit together. But beyond the physical change, there was this deep sense of peace and of the presence of divine Love, and that's what I remember most.

Phil: On the "what Christian Science is not" side, one basic misconception is that it isn't Christian. In talking with other Christians, I explain that there are a lot of Christian principles that we agree on—the Virgin birth, the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Christ Jesus. Also, I've heard it incorrectly said that Christian Science teaches salvation through works alone, instead of through grace. In Christian Science, it's salvation through God's grace and through works. It's God's authority, His power, His love for us that saves us, that's responsible for our ability to grow spiritually, to heal others, to work out our salvation. But we need to do our part. Mrs. Eddy said, "Who would stand before a blackboard, and pray the principle of mathematics to solve the problem?" (Science and Health, p.3).

Elise: I'm so glad you brought out that point about salvation, Phil, because the Greek word for save, sozo, also translates equally well as heal. So in the Bible, salvation and healing come from the same root word. When we talk about healing, we're actually talking about salvation, about that full salvation from fear, poverty, sickness, sin, death, sorrow.

Jim: There's also the misconception, "You're not doing anything," when a Christian Scientist is hurt or sick and he or she turns to prayer. I've always tried to say quietly but firmly, "Oh, Christian Scientists do a lot." And they're doing it each moment—affirming God's presence and His allness; denying the error (the injury or illness) that appears to be there; relying on truths revealed in the Bible and in Science and Health; and therefore, knowing there's nothing to be afraid of. It's a proactive "something" that we do.

Elise: I tell patients that healing is really all about God, what God is doing. God is loving, caring, protecting, healing—is saving. So, what do we do? God is all-powerful, all-present, and we are simply knowing what God is doing.

Phil: Science and Health says: "The 'man of sorrows' best understood the nothingness of material life and intelligence and the mighty actuality of all-inclusive God, good. These were the two cardinal points of Mind-healing, or Christian Science, which armed him with Love" (p.52). It's a bold statement. Accepting the all-inclusive God is one thing, but that necessarily means accepting "the nothingness of material life and intelligence." The logic becomes inescapable, and these are "the two cardinal points of Mind-healing." This is something I feel that we should not be apologetic for in Christian Science, because understanding these points is what heals.

Jim: And the revelation of these ideas came through someone. They didn't just drop out of the sky. As I've yielded to the thoughts expressed in Mary Baker Eddy's books—that she was inspired by the Bible, that healing proves the truth of what was revealed to her—I find that's critical in dealing with someone who says, "Well, you guys are a cult," or "You think she's God." I say, "No. We start with the Bible, and Mary Baker Eddy has given us a key that unlocks it." She discerned the unseen reality of God's kingdom, here and now. I am a Christian Scientist in order to see and live that reality.

Elise: Jesus began his ministry by preaching, "Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt. 4:17). Repent means to change your mind—from the material to the spiritual view. It takes spiritual sense to discern that, indeed, the kingdom of heaven is here right now. I think that misconceptions about Christian Science boil down to the fact that relying on God is scary for some people. We can talk about the theology of it, or try to see it from the medical perspective, but if you haven't yet cultivated the spiritual sense to actually feel your direct relationship to God, and to feel God's presence and peace, then His care and help can seem apart from your own experience. Christian Science demands something from us as disciples of Christ. It's not enough just to say that we believe that Jesus was the Son of God, and to accept Jesus' mission and purpose on earth. The demand is that we put Jesus' teachings, and what he demonstrated, into practice in our lives.

Phil: That's such a great point, Elise. It leads toward our concept of Church, too, because the demand of Christian Science is the demand that Jesus put on all of his followers. Our church is a laity, a system of democracy, each of us as equals without a hierarchy. But it's not a laity of parishioners; it's a laity of disciples. The only position that Jesus ever established in his church was that of disciple. It can seem like a scary proposition to take up that challenge, but that's where we find the Comforter, and its comfort.

Elise: There's a verse in John 14 where Jesus tells his followers: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid" (verse 27). To me, Jesus is saying, "Don't be scared by the demand to be Godlike, by the demand to practice the spiritual Christ, Truth, in your own life." Christian Science isn't "How to succeed in business, or in life, without really trying," because it isn't all about "me"—what I think I should have. The focus of Christian Science is on God—learning what God is, and what God does. This harmonizes the human condition. |CSS