Christian Science

by J.J. Park, Glasgow | Category: Spotlight On | Aug 1981

This cult has its origins in the New England States of U.S.A. in the 19th century. Its chief teacher was Mrs Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910) who later became the founder and leader of the First Church of Christ, Scientist, at Boston, Mass. in 1895. Today there are many branches throughout the world with a total membership of about 380,000.

The teaching is concerned with the body rather than the soul, with sickness and healing rather than with salvation. The vocabulary of traditional Christianity is used but the meanings assigned to God, Christ, heaven, salvation etc. are very different from what the reader of the Bible is familiar with. God is infinite mind, spirit, soul, principle, life, truth, love. Christ is the one who shows the way to relief from sickness but there is no place for His personal sacrifice for the sins of the sinner. The words of the apostle Paul, "How that Christ died for our sins" might as well never have been written. Indeed the death of Christ is presented as a sham. Mrs Eddy has written, "His disciples believed Jesus was dead, whereas He was alive, demonstrating within the narrow tomb, the power of Spirit to overrule mortal, material sense". Such a statement, and there are many others like it, is enough to raise the suspicions of the reader of the Bible and to cause him to wonder whether the Bible is being handled honestly. One may well wonder how such ideas arose in anyone's mind.

Mrs Eddy was born Mary Baker at Bow, near Concord, New Hampshire U.S.A. As a child she was temperamental and something of a trial to her parents. As she grew up she suffered from neuroses and also spinal trouble. Her first husband died a few years after their marriage, leaving her with a posthumous child. She then married a second time but this marriage ended in divorce. Her main book, "Science and Health" was published in 1875. In 1877 she married Asa G. Eddy, an astute business man who knew the value of copyright. The book sold widely and made Mrs Eddy a size able fortune.

In 1862 whilst seeking cures for her spinal trouble she came in touch with Phineas P. Quimby, a medical practitioner, at Portland, Maine. He was interested professionally in hypnosis but also discovered healing by suggestion. He came to believe that a patient's illness was due to mistaken beliefs and that its cure lay in discovering the truth. Though not really a religi9us man he thought he had discovered the secret of the healing work of the Lord Jesus. Before he died in 1866, he published his findings in the "Quimby Manuscripts". He was the leader of the New Thought movement and told his patients that man was "not cured by medicine but by the state of his mind". It seems he effected some cure or relief for Mrs Eddy's spinal trouble but, also in 1866, she was injured by a fall, her spinal trouble returned and she feared her case was hopeless. She turned to the New Testament and read Matt. 9:1-8, the story of the man sick of the palsy who was carried by four of his friends. The words of v.2 "seeing their faith", greatly impressed her and set off a train of thought on the Lord's method of healing. Thereafter, her whole thought was taken up with the search for the cause of pain and sickness and the spiritual cure of these. This is still the central emphasis of Christian Science teaching. She gathered round her a band of followers, including Asa G. Eddy, and formed them into a group in 1879. In 1881 she formed the Metaphysical College of Massachusetts and in 1895 the group had grown so much that she formed the First Church of Christ, Scientist at Boston, Mass. This still remains the principal church and all others are ruled there from by a self-perpetuating board of governors. In 1883 the Christian Science Journal was published monthly; in 1898 the Christian Science Sentinel was published weekly and in 1908 the Christian Science Monitor became a daily paper which it still is. Christian Science churches and reading rooms exist today in many parts of the world. Officially, it is denied that Mrs Eddy's writings or beliefs owe anything to the work of Phineas P. Quimby.

It is in the denial of the reality of evil that Christian Science differs from other beliefs. Strict living and serenity by self-discipline are said to encourage outlook favourable to the functioning of the whole organism of man. However, certain passages in "Science and Health" seem to favour recourse to medical or surgical treatment in certain cases. But the main theme is the triumph of mind over matter. Pain is unreal, being induced in man by false material sense. We do not really suffer pain; we only think we do because our material senses mislead us. If only we can bring our minds into subjection to real truth, we will not know pain or sickness and when these come the mind must be disciplined until false material sense gives way to real truth. The ordinary person may well wonder how such mental process will relieve the pain of an acute appendicitis, inflammation of the middle ear or even an active boil. But Mrs Eddy avers that such is possible when the mind is truly brought into subjection to the higher spiritual influence of truth and goodness.

She seems to have nothing to say about the Fall and its effects or of God's purposes for the redemption of mankind. There is no reference to Abraham or the promises made to him, to the Tabernacle or Temple, or to a people together for God on the pattern of the Old and New Testaments, or to the coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ. The book, "Science and Health" was revised several times and finally published as "Science and Health: with Key to the Scriptures" but the latter phrase is a misnomer for most of the Scriptures are not referred to at all. It may be a key to the thoughts of Mrs Eddy but it does not so much as begin to unlock the truths of the Bible. A person reading only Mrs Eddy's work would never learn that he is a sinner in the sight of God or that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Nor would he learn that sickness and pain are the result of sin. He would be misled into the notion that sickness does not exist and the sooner he dispenses with ideas of sin and salvation the better for himself Following such advice, the unfortunate human being will one day find himself standing before God's throne of judgement without a Saviour.

Those who wish to read more about Christian Science are referred to "Christian Science Today" by C. S. Braden 1958. The errors of theology in Christian Science teaching have been exposed by several competent writers. One of these is an anglican clergyman H. J. Parks who wrote a pamphlet in a series on Modem Heresies published by the Church Book Room Press, London, E.C.4 in 1974.

J.J. Park, Glasgow | Aug 1981
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