Christian Science

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Christian Science is a religious teaching regarding the efficacy of spiritual healing according to the interpretation of the Bible by Mary Baker Eddy, in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (First published in 1875). Students of Christian Science are usually, though not always or necessarily, members of the Church of Christ, Scientist. Christian Science has no connection with Scientology and is distinct from Christian fundamentalism.

Overview

Christian Science does not rely on conventional medicine but holds that illness, eventually including death itself, can be healed through prayer and growing closer to God. This belief extends to the possibility of healing any kind of disharmony, not just illness. Christian Scientists see sin, disease, and death as illusions resulting from a false sense of separation from God. They believe that healing is accomplished when one's understanding of God grows. This may include a better understanding of one's perfection as the image and likeness of God.

At the core of Christian Science is the teaching that God and God's creation are entirely good and spiritual, and that God has made all things in His likeness. Christian Scientists hold that the reality of being and of all existence is spiritual, not material. They see this spiritual reality as the only reality and all else as illusion or 'error'. Christian Science acknowledges that we all seem to be experiencing a material existence, but holds that this experience ultimately yields to a true spiritual understanding of God and creation. They believe that this is how healing through prayer is possible.[1]

Prayer, from the Christian Science perspective, does not ask God to intervene, but is rather a process of learning more of God's spiritual reality - "awakening mortal thought", by degrees, to spiritual truth. Christian Scientists claim the effect of this spiritualizing of thought is healing, -- physical, emotional, and otherwise. Consequently, health care is not attempted through drugs, surgery, or other physical manipulation, but through "Christian Science treatment", a specific form of prayer intended to spiritualize thought.[2].

While there is no formal compulsion on Christian Scientists either to use Christian Science healing or to eschew medical means[3] Christian Scientists avoid using the two systems simultaneously in the belief that they tend to counteract or contradict each other. Material medicine and Christian Science treatment proceed from diametrically opposite assumptions. Medicine asserts that something is physically broken and needs to be fixed, while Christian Science asserts that the spiritual reality is harmonious and perfect, and that any false belief to the contrary needs to be corrected.

Today it is estimated that there are 400,000 or more students of Christian Science in over 60 countries worldwide. There are anywhere between 1,850 to 2,000 branch congregations in the Christian Science church.[4]

The Christian Science Journal and the Christian Science Sentinel document claims of Christian Science healing. These are sometimes supported by the observations of medical practitioners involved prior to the application of Christian Science healing.

Mary Baker Eddy claimed to have discovered this method of healing when she was healed of an injury in 1866 after rereading a passage of one of Jesus' healings. She felt that the method of healing must have been that used by Jesus Christ to heal the cases documented in the New Testament. Mary Baker Eddy's study of the Bible over many years along with her application of what she had learned to actual and varied cases of illness in the late 19th century, brought her to the point where she felt compelled to document her findings and teach her discovery to those who were interested. The resulting textbook, first copyrighted in 1875, and the primary source for learning Christian Science is Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.

Mary Baker Eddy defined Christian Science as follows: "...divine Science, which, reduced to human apprehension, she has named Christian Science."[5]

For information authorized by Church of Christ, Scientist and the Christian Science Board of Directors, refer to the #authorized external links section below. Access to information from sources representing #advocacy, #neutral, or #criticism perspectives is also provided.

The Tenets of Christian Science

1. As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life.

2. We acknowledge and adore one supreme and infinite God. We acknowledge His Son, one Christ; the Holy Ghost or divine Comforter; and man in God’s image and likeness.

3. We acknowledge God’s forgiveness of sin in the destruction of sin and the spiritual understanding that casts out evil as unreal. But the belief in sin is punished so long as the belief lasts.

4. We acknowledge Jesus’ atonement as the evidence of divine, efficacious Love, unfolding man’s unity with God through Christ Jesus the Way-shower; and we acknowledge that man is saved through Christ, through Truth, Life, and Love as demonstrated by the Galilean Prophet in healing the sick and overcoming sin and death.

5. We acknowledge that the crucifixion of Jesus and his resurrection served to uplift faith to understand eternal Life, even the allness of Soul, Spirit, and the nothingness of matter.

6. And we solemnly promise to watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus; to do unto others as we would have them do unto us; and to be merciful, just, and pure.

From "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 497:3-29

The Scientific Statement of Being

The Scientific Statement of Being presents a fundamental axiom of Christian Science. It attempts to explain the spiritual nature of man, which is the central belief of Christian Science. It is the most cited textual passage in Christian Science practice, and is read aloud in churches (along with I John 3:1-3) and in Sunday schools at the end of every Sunday service:

There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual.[6]

Healing

The basis of Christian Science healing is the view that 'man' (i.e. the male/female spiritual being who appears as an individual human being) is the reflection or expression of a wholly good and perfect God, and therefore is perfect. Christian Scientists believe that God loves every individual, because God is the Creator of all. Christian Scientists also believe that sickness is the result of either fear, ignorance, or sin, and that when the erroneous belief is corrected, the sickness will disappear. They state that the way to eliminate the false beliefs is to replace them with true understanding of God's goodness. They consider that suffering can occur only when one believes in the supposed reality of a problem; if one changes one's understanding, then belief is revealed as false, and the acknowledgement that the sickness has no power since God is the only power, eliminates the sickness.

Christian Scientists regard the material world as a kind of consensual illusion which is due to a misperception of the true spiritual world. Such a misperception can, they believe, be changed by reorientation of thought, or prayer in Christian Science terms. Thus the illusion can be dispelled, revealing the present spiritual reality, which results in healing.

Prayer

Christian Science teaches that prayer is a spiritualization of thought or an understanding of God and the nature of the underlying spiritual creation. The world as it appears to the senses is regarded as a distorted version of the world of spiritual ideas: the latter is the only true reality. Prayer can heal the distortion, bringing spiritual reality (the "Kingdom of Heaven" in Biblical terms) into clearer focus in the human scene (not changing the spiritual creation but giving a clearer view of it). The result is healing. (According to Christian Science there are not two creations, a spiritual and a material one, but only a spiritual creation which is incorrectly perceived as material.)

Christian Scientists believe that prayer works through Love, and that this is the way Christ Jesus healed. Their aim is to reinstate the element of healing which, they believe, was lost with early Christianity. They cite such Bible texts as (Mark 16:17-18; Matthew 10:8) in support of their contention that Christian faith demands demonstration in healing. This is a faith in the omnipotence of God, which according to the Christian Science interpretation of the Bible, logically rules out any other power: (Luke 17:5-6). The Christian Science view is that Jesus taught that we should claim good as being present, right here and now, and that this will result in healing: (Matthew 21:22; Matthew 7:7-11).

An important point in Christian Science is that the healing of sin is more important than the healing of physical disease, and that prayer and the moral regeneration of one's life go hand-in-hand. (Christian Science teaches that while disease may be a result of sin or wrong-doing it is not necessarily so--it may equally be the result of fear, or ignorance of God's power and goodness.) The chapter on "Prayer" in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, gives a full account of healing through prayer, while the testimonies at the end of the book are written by people who believe they have been healed through spiritual understanding. Christian Scientists claim no monopoly on the application of God's healing power through prayer, and welcome it wherever it occurs.


Evil

The Christian Science position on the nature of evil can be described as follows:

If there is any evil power in the world, then God cannot possess all power, and is thus not omnipotent. If God is omnipotent, evil does not exist. Christianity is incompatible with a belief in the reality of evil.

To answer the question of whether God punishes evildoers, Christian Scientists would say that the illusion of evil punishes itself. As long as a person continues to act evilly, desires to do so, or does not forgive him/herself or others, suffering will be the result.

Philosophy

Christian Science might be considered as a form of theistic monistic idealism: there is but one substance which is God and in Whom we are all embraced in love. Philosophically speaking Christian Science seems closer to the Platonic and neo-Platonic elements that influenced Christian theology in previous eras than to the Aristotelianism that prevailed in mainstream Christian thought. In comparison with other systems Christian Science is probably closest to Neoplatonism. (However, Mary Baker Eddy explicitly distanced her teachings from the Neoplatonic philosophy.)

Christian Science teaches that the spiritualization of consciousness can (and should) have a practical effect in physical healing, as well as in moral regeneration. Christian Science may also have some resonance with the thought of Parmenides insofar as the latter can be interpreted in the contemporary world.

Christian Science shares with George Berkeley a belief in the unreality of matter, but it rejects matter not just as a superfluous term or concept, for, according to Christian Science, what we call the material world is a distortion of the underlying spiritual reality, a distortion which can be dispelled through prayer. Christian Science, like Buddhism, believes in the illusory nature of the world of the senses, but unlike Buddhism it does not believe that aging and death are inevitable - in Christian Science they can be overcome with the defeat of sin or "mortal mind": (John 8:51). Consequently immortality (or ascension) is possible, and indeed in the longer term it is inevitable. The reality of each one of us is believed to be a spiritual idea only and not born of the flesh. Therefore, birth and death are illusions, because the material body is considered an illusion. Christian Science believes that Christ overcame death and ascended because he understood spiritual metaphysics.

Christian Science was articulated by Mary Baker Eddy who rejected the "coldness" of traditional philosophy and emphasized the importance of spiritual love as well as abstract thought, and the integration of the two. She claimed that it is not enough to think true thoughts: our consciousness must be imbued with the Love which is God, and furthermore that Love must be lived as well as felt. She referred to this futility of a mere intellectualism, in Science & Health 366:30-9, stating: "If we would open their prison doors for the sick, we must first learn to bind up the broken-hearted. If we would heal by the Spirit, we must not hide the talent of spiritual healing under the napkin of its form, nor bury the morale of Christian Science in the grave-clothes of its letter. The tender word and Christian encouragement of an invalid, pitiful patience with his fears and the removal of them, are better than hecatombs of gushing theories, stereotyped borrowed speeches, and the doling of arguments, which are but so many parodies on legitimate Christian Science, aflame with divine Love."

In light of the above, the question might be asked as to what one "loves" in a spiritual or Christianly agape sense about those closest to us. It is presumably nothing physical or material, as those material/physical attributes would refer to materially human personality or psychology, as opposed to God's creation. Loving, in a Christian Science sense is "seeing," witnessing to or upholding, insisting upon accepting as valid only the spiritual individuality or identity of each individual as God's likeness or expression or idea. This spiritual identity consists of this individual's own particular reflection of the qualities, attributes or ideas of their Maker/Creator/God, such as love, faithfulness, innocence, intelligence, and so forth. In Christian Science terms these are the 'real' qualities that constitute our true spiritual being, eternally known to God and maintained by God regardless of what the finite material senses testify to. These qualities cannot be perceived materially but only through spiritual sense, which Mary Baker Eddy defines as "a conscious, constant capacity to understand God". (S&H 219:1-2) This is an understanding of what God is and what our relationship to Him/Her is.

Science

Christian Scientists are not Creationists or biblical literalists - they regard the Bible as often having symbolic rather than literal meaning. Consequently they do not believe that the Theory of Evolution is necessarily false from a human perspective--they do not object to its teaching in schools, nor do they demand that alternative accounts be taught. They regard it, even if true, as referring to the illusory, mortal realm rather than the spiritual. For similar reasons, Christian Science does not object to contemporary geology, physical cosmology, or biology.

In regard to the scientificity or otherwise of Christian Science healing, even if a change in thought seems to result in a change in human experience (like physical healing) there is no obvious means of connecting the supposed cause with the observed effect. According to Karl Popper a scientific theory must be falsifiable. There is no obvious way to set up an experiment whereby the claims of Christian Science could be falsified. In this sense any claim that Christian Science has to being scientific, except in the much looser sense of "science" as "knowing" (Latin "scio"), is questionable.

Theology

In terms of Christian theology, Christian Science bears some similarity to the teachings of Meister Eckhart. However, it rejects the attribute of mysticism to its teachings, and should not be confused with pantheism.

Christian Science avoids the theological problem of evil by its teaching of the unreality or nothingness of evil. However, it does not address the problem of where the illusion of evil came from--beyond the position that, since it is nothing, it came from nowhere. (Asking the question, for Christian Scientists, is like a mathematician spending his/her time trying to work out where the illusion that 2+2=5 came from--a waste of time that gets one nowhere and indeed postpones the solution of the problem.) Christian Scientists believe that if one changes a belief in evil to an "understanding" of the universality of good, one's experience will adjust accordingly, and that eventually the question "where does evil come from" will disappear with the negative phenomena that occasioned it.

Christian Science differs from conventional theology since it regards God as both Father and Mother. This does not refer to any anthropomorphic quasi-physical characteristics, but simply to the teaching that God is characterized by qualities traditionally considered feminine (gentleness, compassion, nurturing etc.) as well as by those traditionally considered masculine (strength, principle, protection etc.) According to Christian Science, every person, as God's image or reflection, embodies those qualities as well in their essential being.

Christian Science distinguishes between "Jesus" the man, and "the Christ" or divine manifestation. In considering the question of the relationship between divinity and humanity in reference to Christ Jesus, it is important to consider the Christian Science definition of God as "The great I AM."

While some Christian Science teachings are unorthodox from the point of view of conventional theology (e.g. the rejection of substitutionary atonement and of Hell as a place of eternal punishment), others are orthodox (e.g. the Virgin Birth, the Resurrection of Jesus).

While Christian Scientists revere Mary Baker Eddy as the discoverer and founder of Christian Science, they do not regard her as having added anything to essential Christianity but simply as having elaborated its essence and consequences. (A comparison might be made to the status of Thomas Aquinas for Catholics, Martin Luther for Lutherans, or John Calvin for Calvinists.)

Another way to illustrate the foundations of the theology of Christian Science is to consider the problems involved in the philosophy of dualism. Many belief systems posit a "god versus something else" or "spirit versus matter". Mary Baker Eddy in a sense followed the reductionism of her time, but instead of reducing all things to the material, she reduced all things to the spiritual.

Christ and the Trinity

Webster's on-line dictionary (m-w.com) defines the term Christ in Christian Science as "The ideal truth that comes as a divine manifestation of God to destroy incarnate error." This definition mirrors Mary Baker Eddy's own definition in Science and Health as "The divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error." Both definitions establish the Christ as completely divine, but spiritual and not material. Jesus, the son of God therefore embodied the Christ to such a degree that he, and he alone will carry the title Christ, but as a corporeal being he was not the totality of the Christ.

Mary Baker Eddy writes "Throughout all generations both before and after the Christian era, the Christ, as the spiritual idea,--the reflection of God, --has come with some measure of power and grace to all prepared to receive Christ, Truth" and even today, the Christ as explained in Christian Science continues to come to mankind, giving us a greater understanding of our holy spiritual identity through healing and the destruction of sin.

Although many uphold the trinity as defined by the Nicene Creed, the trinity in Christian Science is found in the unity of God, the Christ, and divine Science or -- "God the Father-Mother; Christ the spiritual idea of sonship; divine Science or the Holy Comforter." The same in essence, the trinity indicates "the intelligent relation of God to man and the universe."

Medicine

Many Christian Scientists find the effectiveness of their healing system makes it their first choice for treatment over drugs and surgery. They believe in following the example of Jesus, bringing the real or ideal man more clearly into thought. Christian Scientists believe that Jesus was "the Wayshower", a proof by example of the divine method of healing sin, sickness and death. According to the Christian Science belief, there are no limits to the type of medical conditions that can be healed through prayer.

The Christian Science Church does not forbid the use of medicine by its members, nor does the Church exert informal pressure on them to eschew it. Though Christian Scientists respect the work of medical practitioners, most prefer to use prayer and to rely on God. Christian Scientists who choose to rely on medical treatment for a specific problem normally give up Christian Science treatment for the period of treatment. This is because one treatment approaches healing from a material and the other from a spiritual perspective, and thus they are incompatible. Christian Scientists are practical when it comes to using material aids such as vision correction, splints for broken bones and dental services and will use what is necessary at the time. However, numerous healings of short and long-sightedness, dental problems and broken bones have been recorded in the periodicals published by the Church, some of which have been confirmed by medical practitioners.

Mary Baker Eddy's views on this subject are as follows: "If Christian Scientists ever fail to receive aid from other Scientists--their brethren upon whom they may call,--God will still guide them into the right use of temporary and eternal means."[7]

Dissension

Throughout the history of Christian Science there have been a small number of dissenting branches, unacknowledged by the Boston organization. Such dissenters often point to certain "estoppel" clauses of the last Church Manual issued by Mary Baker Eddy before her death which, had they been interpreted literally, would have led to a radical decentralization of the Christian Science Church. The issue has involved the Church in repeated litigation brought by dissenters, most prominently between 1919-22, when a group of Trustees of the Christian Science Publishing Society filed a suit against the Christian Science Board of Directors.[8]

Criticism of Christian Science

Christian Science has been criticized by skeptics from the very beginning. Mark Twain devoted an entire book to the topic, in which he scathingly attacked not only the belief itself, but also its practitioners. (However, there was some ambivalence in his approach to Christian Science healing.) After Mary Baker Eddy sent him a copy of Science and Health, he apologized to her for his remarks.[citation needed]

Medical Controversies

Christian Science is considered to be a religion, rather than a medical science, by medical practitioners. Critics point to cases of people who died following their choice of Christian Science care rather than medical treatment. Defenders counter that there is no similar burden placed on medical science to justify the hundreds of thousands who die each year under medical care.

Christian Scientists have been controversial for their failure to provide conventional health care for children (Asser and Swan, 1998).

In the United States, the constitutional guarantee of protection of religious practice from intrusion by government has been used by Christian Scientists and other religious groups to seek exemption from legislative or regulatory requirements regarding child abuse and neglect, including medical neglect in more than three quarters of the states. There are now statutes in 44 states which contain a provision stating that a child is not to be deemed abused or neglected merely because he or she is receiving treatment by spiritual means, through prayer according to the tenets of a recognized religion. Although these exemptions take different forms and interpretations in different state jurisdictions, the overall effect has been to limit the ability of the state to prosecute parents for suspected or alleged abuse or medical neglect of children when such occurrences may be the result of religious practice. Severe (even fatal) physical discipline, failure to seek medical care, or refusal of a proven efficacious treatment of a critically ill child may be protected from prosecution because of the religious exemption clauses now found in a majority of state codes. (However, most of these cases do not involve Christian Scientists.)

Two important sets of interests are in apparent opposition - those of children in the perceived benefits of medical care and those of parents in making a decision about their children's well-being. Some parents believe that the constitutionally protected freedom of religion allows them to choose the method of healing (spiritual or medical) they feel will best benefit their children. However, this interpretation of the US constitution is in contradiction to important court rulings to the effect that parents may not martyr their children based on parental beliefs and that children cannot be denied essential health care.[9] (A Christian Scientist would deem spiritual treatment as being "essential health care" that would most expediently lead to their child's health and well being.)

The Journal of the American Medical Association (22 September 1989) reported on a study of more than 5,500 "Christian Scientists" as compared to a "lay group" of almost 30,000. The death rate among "Christian Scientists" from cancer was double the national average, and 6 percent of them died from causes considered preventable by doctors. The "non-Christian Scientists" on the average lived four years longer if they were women and two longer if they were men. It was speculated that the reason for this was that male Christian Scientists are more likely to seek medical help than female believers. However, if that is so, the characterisation of the first group as "Christian Scientists" for the purpose of evaluating the healing system of Christian Science, must be misleading, since it is conceded that some of them may have been using medicine.

Furthermore, the "lay group" were presumably using conventional medicine or some alternative healing means rather than nothing at all--consequently the study only evaluates the comparative efficacy of Christian Science vis-a-vis some other systems, rather than its healing efficacy per se. Defenders point out that many people turn to Christian Science after medical techniques have failed; consequently, the two groups may not be comparable.

Since Christian Science practitioners do not diagnose disease, it is unclear how Christian Scientists are to know when they should avoid being in contact with others, in order to avoid infection or contagion. Similarly, it is unclear how they would know when to decide about having surgery before a condition--e.g. cancer--reaches the stage where it is considered inoperable.


Theological Controversies

Christian Science is criticized by some mainstream Christians for its theological unorthodoxies (mostly due to its assertion of the illusory nature of the material world, its dual definition of "Jesus" and the "Christ", its non-emphasis on the Trinity and a personal God, and its claim of the unreality of evil).

Christian Science doesn't explain why the phenomena designated (by some) by the term evil, even though they are claimed to be unreal, seem to be real.Template:Dubious Mary Baker Eddy touches upon this subject in her book Unity of Good in response to the question: "Does God know or behold sin, sickness, and death?" She writes: "The nature and character of God is so little apprehended and demonstrated by mortals, that I counsel my students to defer this infinite inquiry, in their discussions of Christian Science. In fact, they had better leave the subject untouched, until they draw nearer to the divine character, and are practically able to testify, by their lives, that as they come closer to the true understanding of God they lose all sense of error."

There has been internal controversy in the Christian Science movement regarding the status of Mary Baker Eddy herself. Some Christian Scientists claim (and others deny) that her appearance on the world stage was specifically prophesied in the Bible.

Some Christian theologians characterize Christian Science as a cult (Martin, 2003) (also refer to Christian Science#Criticism providing criticisms of Christian Science). A basis of such criticisms includes the comment of Mary Baker Eddy in reply to a questioner who asked how she knew there ever was such a person as Christ Jesus:

"If there had never existed such a person as the Galilean Prophet, it would make no difference to me. I should still know that God's spiritual ideal is the only real man in His image and likeness."(Eddy, The First Church of Christ Scientist and Miscellany, pp. 318, 319). This is interpreted by opponents of Christian Science as Mary Baker Eddy downgrading the importance of Jesus, rather than making a basic metaphysical point.

There are apparently contradictory statements on the question of the death of Jesus in Mary Baker Eddy's writings; since Christian Science teaches that death is an illusion, this may help to explain the apparent contradictions. There is also some question as to whether the story of the Fall (from Genesis 2: 4 onwards) is to be regarded as an illusory record or a record of an illusion. [citation needed]

Christian Science and homosexuality

Christian Science publications, including The Christian Science Sentinel, have in the past published testimonies wherein the testifier describes their own "healing" of homosexuality. The writings of Mary Baker Eddy prescribe the living of a morally decent life. There is some dissent among Christian Scientists as to what exactly the position with regards to homosexuality ought to be; in this matter as in others (such as abortion) the Church itself chooses not to have an official position, as it's considered that each individual Christian Scientist should seek their highest sense of right through prayer. Most Christian Scientists would readily agree that each of us is complete and whole in their inmost being, so were a person to pursue any sexual lifestyle (i.e. homosexual or heterosexual) out of a false sense of incompleteness, that would be open to healing.

Response to criticism

In response to criticisms, Christian Scientists argue that their beliefs are philosophically consistent and theologically coherent (e.g. they avoid the theological problem of evil), as well as being practically applicable in healing. They acknowledge that Christian Science healing has not been universally successful, any more than has material medicine.

Christian Science may be compared positively as well as negatively with conventional medicine: for example the fact that Christian Science healing is not reliant on the controversial practice of animal testing; that it does not involve massive state expenditure on health care; and that persons relying on Christian Science healing are not at risk of drug side-effects or "iatrogenic" (physician- or hospital-induced) ailments.

Christian Scientists argue that a study of the life of Mary Baker Eddy, taken as a whole, would reveal a sincere and selfless individual--the kind of person whom it would be difficult to imagine falsifying the origin of her teachings.

Christian Scientists, like Mary Baker Eddy herself, generally defend the separation of church and state as affording a protection for civil freedom and religion. However, Mary Baker Eddy insisted on obedience by Christian Scientists to state laws in regard to health care. Progressively for her time, she was in favour of women's rights, and rejected the "corporeal punishment" of children. (While she generally steered clear of politics per se, she also stated her opposition to imperialism and economic monopoly--The Christian Science Monitor, which she founded, has traditionally been a staunch defender of civil liberties and individual freedom, though it did support the prohibition of alcohol.)

Adherents of Christian Science cite the Bible (e.g. Mark 16: 15-18 and Luke 10:1, 9, 17) as an indication that belief in God should be demonstrated in healing. Mary Baker Eddy, however, was no biblical fundamentalist. She wrote: "The decisions by vote of Church Councils as to what should and should not be considered Holy Writ; the manifest mistakes in the ancient versions; the thirty thousand different readings in the Old Testament, and the three hundred thousand in the New,--these facts show how a mortal and material sense stole into the divine record, with its own hue darkening to some extent the inspired pages." (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 139.)

Organizations

Adventure Unlimited is a Christian Science non-profit organization based in Denver, Colorado. Its purpose is to provide inspirational and educational activities and forums for Christian Scientists, especially children and youth.

Christian Science Organizations are established at many colleges and universities, and provide a functional resource for Christian Scientists in college for support and unity, but also aim to provide the public with a better understanding of Christian Science through prayer, public lectures, and contribution to informal discussions, health expositions, and other events catering to philosophical awareness, family unity, alternative healing methods, etc.

See also

  • List of Christian Scientists (religious denomination)

Footnotes

  1. (Eddy, 1934 [1906]: pp. 1-17.)
  2. Eddy, 1934 [1906], pp. 1-17
  3. Eddy, pp.443:1--444:30
  4. Mother Church website sites both numbers
  5. Eddy, 1934 [1906], p.471.
  6. Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p.468:9
  7. Eddy, 1934, p. 444.
  8. Proceedings in Equity, 1921, Christian Science Publishing Society, Boston
  9. See Prince v. Massachusetts, 321 US 158 (1944) and Jehovah's Witnesses v. Washington King County Hospital, 278 F Supp 488 (Washington DC 1967), affirmed per curiam 390 US 598 (1968).

External links

Authorized by Church of Christ, Scientist and the Christian Science Board of Directors

Other advocacy

Neutral

Criticism

Citations

  • Eddy, Mary Baker, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Boston: Trustees Under the Will of Mary Baker G. Eddy, 1934. (This book has gone through numerous editions.)
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