What is Christian Science?
Christian Science is a religious system founded in the United States by Mary Baker Eddy, built on her book Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures. The writers in this collection examine it closely, and the central question they press is simple: what does it say about the Person of Christ, and does its teaching agree with the Bible it claims to unlock?
Its Own Claim
The movement presents itself as a discovery — a revelation given to its founder that heals body and soul alike. One writer quotes a supporter's description of how it was announced:
William Kelly"THE REVELATION OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE came to Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy in the year 1866, and its truth and power were immediately demonstrated by signs following." … "It is the perfect salvation from sin and sorrow, disease and death, which Christ Jesus came to bring. Christian Science, in a word, is the law of God — Good, Principle, Being, Life, Truth, Love, and Eternal Harmony — put into practice here and now."
The Book Above The Bible
Although it advertises itself as a key to Scripture, in practice the key displaced the lock. Eddy reorganised her churches so that no one preached; two appointed readers simply read aloud from the two books, and she fixed the order:
A. J. PollockIn 1895 Mrs. Eddy announced that there were to be no more sermons, and that each church should instead have a First and a Second Reader, who should read without comment from the Bible and from Science and Health. The Bible was put first and Science and Health second, but Mrs. Eddy soon reversed this. Mrs. Eddy herself arranged what had to be read.
Its Teaching About Christ
The system keeps Christian words but empties them. After setting out her statements at length, one writer sums up where they land:
A. J. PollockIt teaches that Jesus was and is not divine. It teaches that Jesus was only human. It teaches that Jesus was and is not Christ, that Christ never came in flesh, that Christ is simply an idea.
That judgment is not treated as one disagreement among many. It is treated as the single test that settles everything else:
A. J. PollockBy this test Christian Science must be judged Christian or anti-Christian. By this test it must stand or fall. There is no possible middle ground. To be unsound about the Person of Christ spoils everything else. What planet can be right in relation to the other planets if it is out of relation to the central sun? Christ is the central Sun of Christianity.
Sin, Death And The Cross
If sin is not real, the cross has nothing to deal with. So the sufferings described in Isaiah 53 are reinterpreted, and the load is shifted from the Saviour back onto the sinner:
A. J. PollockChristian Science explains the healing stripes of Isaiah 53:5 as "the rejection of error" on the Lord's part. It therefore denies the atonement. It denies the vicarious, substitutionary work of Christ. It makes atonement the sinner's task, and not the Saviour's work. The atonement requires, they say, "constant self-immolation on the sinner's part."
No Persons Left
The denial reaches further than sickness. Another writer traces it to the system's claim that personality itself is an illusion, and shows what that costs:
William KellyIt "boldly declares there is no personality, neither personal good, personal evil, nor personal men!" … This awful delusion openly denies not only the Father and the Son, but also the devil and man as persons. It is therefore more daringly opposed to all truth than Judaism or even Paganism, and leaves no room for that fellowship of the believer with God the Father, through the Lord Jesus the Son, which we know as Christians.
Theory Against Practice
The founder's own life is offered as the plainest disproof of her theory. She told the world matter and death were unreal, and then lived exactly like everyone else:
A. J. PollockOld age and decay asserted themselves, and in the end she — DIED. If her teaching and her practice matched, we might believe her only deluded; but she acted like everybody else about food, drink, clothing, and so on. In her closing years she had a fine house, beautifully and luxuriously furnished, with servants, a carriage and pair, a coachman, and the rest, just as if she had never taught these fine theories.
Why It Attracts
Followers often look calm and content, and that peacefulness is used as an argument for the system. One writer answers the question directly:
H. B. CoderBecause "Christian Scientists" live in a "fool's paradise." Having accepted the falsehood that there is really no sin, no evil, no suffering — all these things being merely "errors of mortal mind" — the devil, whose existence they deny, deceives them at will.
Cures do occur, and the commentators do not deny them; they refuse to treat them as proof, since similar cures are claimed by movements equally unsound about Christ, and healing by ordinary means proves nothing about a system's source (A. J. Pollock).
Summary
- Test. One question decides the whole case: is the teaching sound about the Person of Christ? Everything else follows from that answer.
- Substitution. The system replaces the personal Christ with an idea, and replaces the Bible's authority with a book the founder wrote and ranked first.
- Subtraction. Sin, disease, death, the devil and even human persons are declared unreal — which leaves no need for a Saviour and no room for fellowship with the Father through the Son.
- Self-Contradiction. The founder aged, furnished a luxurious house, ate, dressed, and died like anyone else; her practice refuted her theory.
- Substance. Against the illusion stands the real thing: rest and joy through the atoning death and finished work of Christ on the cross, "the only Saviour of sinners" (A. J. Pollock).