As the editorial for this special edition of the Sentinel, we asked four fresh thinkers—Amanda Kiser, Christian Kongolo, Josh Kenworthy, and Madeline Demaree—“What does Christian Science have to say to the world?” A theme of the basis Christian Science gives us for hope emerged. We hope you are as inspired by their answers as we were recording them. 

Josh: What I feel Christian Science says to the world is that those deeply ingrained problems that seem so insurmountable are surmountable. The current climate—politically, socially, and even literally—is pretty hot. And the human tendency when problems seem overwhelming, and when there seems to be so much static in the mental atmosphere, is to retreat to some very niche kind of ism, or to turn to particular human avenues for doing good. Most of the latter are valuable. But at times when I’ve felt overwhelmed by what’s going on in the world, I’ve found Christian Science goes to a depth of mental action that gives me a whole new foundation. It allows me to still my thought and find spiritual peace. And out of that peace grows a profound sense of hope that material means and modes don’t offer. 

Amanda: That “whole new foundation” you refer to, Josh, is really about seeing a deeper sense of reality—the spiritual sense of life as divine Life, God, as revealed through Christ Jesus’ life and teachings. This gives a hope for the future that is much more promising than general predictions of life ahead seem to offer. Christian Science shows how transformative it is to have a living relationship with a living God. Rather than letting the world define our situations and circumstances, we begin with what we are seeing of the divine Principle, God, in quiet study, prayer, and communion. That spiritual understanding reveals a different picture, so that new ideas of how to work for healing and change come forward, and we actually feel God as a present and practical help. This can have major shifting power, affecting both the minutiae of our lives and the big-picture issues the world faces.

Josh :I love what you said about the minutiae, Amanda, because proving God true in the details of our lives helps guide thought to that bigger sense of hope. If a healing is based on proving a divine Principle true at one level, it stands to reason that it’s the same provable Principle on any other level. So if I’m seeing hatred in the world and feeling concerned about division “out there,” I like to be awake to places where I might be accepting division—and needing to correct it—in my own life. 

Proving God true in the details of our lives helps guide thought to that bigger sense of hope.

One day, I was praying to more wholeheartedly acknowledge the omnipresence of divine Love, when fears and hurts rushed in that I felt had been caused by some family members being opposed to my reliance on Christian Science for healing. Previously I’d buried such feelings, but I knew I couldn’t acknowledge the omnipresence of infinite Love and also accept as real the belief that there could be individuals living in a place where Love wasn’t present. As I held to this thought of Love’s all-presence in the months leading up to a meeting with these relatives, my heart softened, and I felt forgiveness. As a result, I headed to the family gathering joyful at the thought of spending time together. 

Instead of seeing “Christian Scientist” as a label that made me separate, I strove to be a Christian Scientist by exchanging fearful self-consciousness for the Mind of Christ—by knowing God’s all-presence, goodness, and power, and thoughtfully seeing everyone as His pure image and likeness. The gathering was happy and harmonious, and this healing left me with a much lighter heart. It awakened a fresh sense of hope and possibility for new relationships and a closer sense of family, which soon came about. The scientific basis on which I realized this change gave me a deeper conviction that the healing of division and separation is possible, even inevitable, for all individuals and on a global scale.

Madeline: I’ve also found that the big issues that feel “out there” in the world are something we can chip away at in our own lives and communities. One of the ways I like to do this is to read The Christian Science Monitor with something I like to think of as “prayerful intent”—reading with the intention of addressing in prayer the things that come up. One day, in response to a Monitor cover story on race relations, I spent time treasuring the true unity of all humanity as God’s spiritual offspring, and the abundant opportunities we each have to evidence that by loving our neighbors as ourselves. Later that day, I had the opportunity to offer a ride to someone from a very different background from me, and it was a wonderfully harmonious and neighborly experience for us both. I felt like that opportunity came about because of my prayers focused on the subject earlier in the day.

I like to read The Christian Science Monitor with “prayerful intent”—with the intention of addressing in prayer the things that come up.

Christian: Listening to you all, I thought about what’s written in Mary Baker Eddy’s primary work on Christian Science, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; constitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars; fulfils the Scripture, ‘Love thy neighbor as thyself;’ annihilates pagan and Christian idolatry,—whatever is wrong in social, civil, criminal, political, and religious codes; equalizes the sexes; annuls the curse on man, and leaves nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed” (p. 340). We want to see those things happen. But when I read that recently, I was like, “Wait a minute! Doesn’t that offer a different sense of how we can achieve the goals that are so precious to us?” This tells us that it’s knowing the infinitude of the one God, good, that brings about the changes we want to see, and it guides us to have the right starting point of understanding that we are all truly spiritual, not material. It also guides us to strive to live that spiritual fact every day. We have to get to know God better, and the more we do it, the more we are contributing something to solving all those issues. 

Madeline: Christian, that passage you quoted always makes me think of the First Commandment in the Bible, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3), and how Mrs. Eddy had this amazingly expansive, spiritual view of what that commandment entails—saying that it signifies that we can “have no other spirit or mind but God, eternal good, and that all men shall have one Mind” (Science and Health, p. 340). The First Commandment is just one sentence in the Bible, and the Bible is a long book! What Science and Health does for us, and for the whole world, is to help us see the spiritual meaning of the Scriptures. This spiritual richness shows how the Bible can be our “chart of life,” as Science and Health describes it (p. 24).

Christian: The Bible shows us how to know ourselves in the right way. Basically, as made clear in the first chapter of Genesis, seen in our right light we are divine Principle’s creation or idea, as perfect as our source. As this true man or woman, we are never cursed, but loved. The opposite story of creation in Genesis 2, by contrast, is basically an allegory, showing us the limitations of the material world, including the sense that everything is subject to scarcity. The economy is run with that concept. Time is seen as a scarce commodity. But beginning from the opposite basis of everything being spiritual leads to practical solutions. 

I prayed about how I could support my community, and the idea came to launch a business incubator to encourage the town’s youth to be entrepreneurial.

The Norwegian town I grew up in is known for its beautiful fjords and trees, but a job shortage has led many families to relocate and has kept youth from finding summer jobs. While I was in Boston for my master’s studies, I prayed about how I could support my community back home, and the idea came to launch a business incubator to encourage the town’s youth to be entrepreneurial. At first, I resisted the idea. I questioned my capacity to find the time and funds needed. But the idea kept coming back, so I yielded to it. I sent the mayor a message asking if he would have time for a meeting when I was home for Christmas, and he agreed. His team and the remainder of the municipality council not only approved the idea but also offered funds to launch it. We have already assisted our first group of teens to launch a company, and I can’t wait to see the upcoming blessings the idea will bring!

Amanda: A Bible verse in First Peter says, “Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you” (3:15). To me, Peter is talking about the light and truth in Jesus’ teaching and healing ministry, and ultimately in his triumphant victory over sin and death. I love how Christian Science makes these world-altering events so practically meaningful for us today, and shows the pure and perfect Principle proved by Jesus to be the bedrock for a hope that can actually make a difference, here and now. 

Jesus proved that staying faithful to God, good, ultimately results in victory over pride, animosity, greed, lack, lust, selfishness, fear, even disease and death.

Last year, traveling in Israel with my husband, I became overwhelmed with fear due to an illness I started experiencing—a fear exacerbated by the uneasiness of being in an entirely new place. But, I knew I could pray. The next morning I woke up to light pouring through the windows, and the clearest of messages from the Christ was speaking directly to me in words from the Gospel of Matthew: “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light” (6:22). The message was so real and piercing, it woke me up—literally and figuratively! I felt the holiness of God’s presence right there, gently reminding me that if I keep my entire focus on the fact that Spirit, Truth, is all, my “whole body” will inevitably be “full of light.” All fear and doubt dissolved at that point, and not only did the symptoms clear up completely, but the day ended up being one of the most special of our trip—harmonious and inspired, letting God lead us each step of the way.

Jesus proved that staying faithful to God, good, ultimately results in victory over pride, animosity, greed, lack, lust, selfishness, fear, even disease and death. Christian Science brings to light how he did this through the spiritual understanding of evil’s illusive nature, and how evil can always be destroyed through the power of God, by yielding to that power as the sole source of our being, and of all that is real and eternal. And like so many Christian Scientists around the world, the four of us can attest to this with conviction because we’ve seen the power of these ideas to heal.

Josh: I’m so grateful for the healing I have experienced, but Christian Science also demands something of us. And that’s a good thing! People get that. They don’t want the easy fix. If we just fluff around with these ideas intellectually, they do nothing. What’s required of us is to hold guard over our consciousness—to really watch what we take into our thought. Are we just accepting a material viewpoint or insisting on the spiritual reality that can bring healing to any situation?  

Christian: That’s so true, Josh. Christian Science gives us great ideas, great thoughts about our spiritual being. But we also have to live our spiritual identity and nature. We have a responsibility to demonstrate what we understand of God, and the more we demonstrate what we know, the bigger the issues we find we can pray about effectively. We have divine help to achieve this because the Science of Christ is a divine demand on us, and the Christ is constantly here to enable us to keep watch and abide on the rock of Truth. 

Our hope for the manifestation of good is based on a profound and provable Principle, divine good, that is always active. 

Madeline: The Bible offers many examples of how that divine help enabled people to overcome great adversity both personally and for the benefit of their communities. Christ Jesus and his followers constantly faced adverse circumstances. But in the midst of criticism and even violence, they were still demonstrating the healing power of God. Jesus helped people who found themselves in dire social straits, like the widow mourning the death of her only son, whom Jesus restored to life, or the lepers who had been cast out from society, whom he cured. Peter and John healed a beggar who had been lame since birth. The early Christians didn’t run from societal challenges—they embraced those who were different from them with an understanding of the universal, divine Principle, Love, and it healed the struggling people they came in contact with.

Our hope for the manifestation of good is based on a profound and provable Principle, divine good, that is always active. Mrs. Eddy talks about how Christian Science is at the point of perfection and must be practiced from that point (see The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 242). It’s a revolutionary gift to be able to say, “This isn’t some distant time we’re talking about. Literally at this moment we have the tools to see the reality of good in operation throughout the world.” Just as you were saying, Christian, as we are drawing closer to God and learning more about the divine Principle, we’re learning better how to see its present, active operation. To me, that’s the great gift everyone can find in Christian Science.