Article September 1, 2013

The divinity of man

Originally published in the December 1, 1889 issue of the Christian Science Series (Vol. 1, No. 15)

There is nothing startling in the announcement of the Divinity of Man. Let it be well understood that in aspiring to Divinity, man is not usurping, even in claim, the place or Being of God. Divinity, not Deity, is meant. This distinction is forever fixed and immovable: that man is never God and God is never man. While they are co-existent and co-eternal, they never become confused nor intermingled. This is no Pantheistic doctrine, showing man to be a part of God, or God to be incarnate in man. Of course Divinity does not apply to Job's man, the mortal man, born of woman, and compared to the fading flower and withering grass. Job sees him so frail and fleeting that he is led to query, "If a man die, shall he live again?" But that there is an entirely different man, having valid claims to divinity, we shall find if we examine the inspired record. He is divine by origin. What was the origin of man? (1, 2, 3, 4.) The plural form shows that man is the generic term that includes the whole creation, masculine, feminine, and neuter. Let it be understood that we are at present considering the term in that sense.

In whose image was man made? (5, 6.) God is Spirit, and, as He could create nothing unlike Himself, "Spiritual and immortal man alone is His likeness, and that which is mortal is not man in a spiritually scientific sense" (Science and Health ). The scientific statement of Being declares it to be the absolute truth, that man is spiritual and not material.

Was God satisfied with His work? (7.) Surely nothing short of perfection could have merited the divine approbation. How are man's good qualities specified? (8, 9.)

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