Christian Science

An Overview By Scott Shiffer

Founder/Leadership

Mary Baker Eddy is the founder of the Church of Christ Scientist .  She was born in New Hampshire in 1821.  Eddy was married in 1822 to George W. Glover.  She married Dr. Daniel M. Patterson in 1853 after Glover died from the yellow fever.  After she divorced Patterson, she married Asa G. Eddy.  Some time later Mr. Eddy passed away do to coronary thrombosis.  Mary Eddy contested the autopsy report saying that he died of arsenic poisoning.  Mary Eddy claimed that the arsenic had been administered mentally; she even had a physician, Dr. Eastman, who agreed with Mary Eddy's claims.  It is noted, however, that had no medical credentials and basically ran an abortion clinic.

P.P. Quimby, a scientist and author wrote about a science he called the "Science of Man."  In his book he used both the terms the "The Science of Christ" and "Christian Science."  Quimby also referred to his work as "Science and Health."  Mary Baker Eddy published her book Science and Health with Keys to the Scriptures in 1875.  This is interesting to note, because she met Quimby prior to this in 1862.  Eddy even claimed to discover her work in 1866; this was two years before Quimby's work was published.  What she published in 1875 had a great deal of plagiarism from Dr. Quimby's work contained in it, but then many of her other writings had blatant plagiarism as well.  Mary Eddy was known to have plagiarized from several other people's works as also.  Among these was included The Metaphysical Religion of Hegel, by Francis Lieber.  Mary Eddy, who at one time respected Dr. Quimby, by the end of her life, claimed that he was "unlearned" (151).  Time and time again, Eddy proved that she had no concern for Ethics in her writing or in her claims such as healing; she said she had the gift, but never once practiced it when given the opportunity.

Mary Eddy denied material reality, but for health reasons used drugs such as morphine in her old age.  Eddy also did a splendid job of taking peoples money in her old age.  In fact, she would ask for small donations and state that anyone was allowed to participate in these, thus accepting money from all her congregations.  Each person might have only sent a small donation, but it added up to such a number that Walter Martin commented that Eddy made Russell and Rutherford look like amateurs.

Authority

Mary Baker Eddy was the only authority figure in the Christian Science movement during her lifetime.  Although she said she would, she never chose a successor.  Annie C. Bill was said for a time to have been Eddy's successor, but this caused a controversy.  The controversy was not long lived and it quickly lost momentum.  Today a board of directors, which is made up of five different members, governs the church.  The current President of the Board is J. Thomas Black.  He and his congregations today are not evangelistic in nature.  This has led to a decline in the membership as well as an increasing amount of old age among its members.  The Christian Science members are not evangelistic in the way that Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons are. Mary Eddy claimed the Bible to be her only authority, however, she later contradicted this. Eddy even claimed that the Bible had hundreds of thousands of errors in it.  Today Christian Science followers use Mary Eddy's book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.  Without her book it is impossible to understand the Bible.

Doctrine of God

In the Christian Science Church, God is neuter, an It; God is not a personal being.  God is not Jehovah God of the Old Testament or even the God who is preached in the Bible as a whole.  Rather, God is a principle, even the Divine Principle.  God is Truth, Love, Soul, Spirit, and Mind.  God is Health and Well Being.  God is intelligence.  God is all substance meaning that he is all in all.  God is not physical because matter does not exist.  The Holy Spirit is one with God.

The Holy Spirit is also referred to as Truth and Love.  This spirit is the Holy Ghost or Comforter.  It is what reveals the Divine Principle and Truth.  Just as Christian Science rejects the Christian concept of God and the Holy Spirit, it also rejects the concept of the Trinity.  Christian Scientists believe that the idea of the Trinity suggests polytheism and this does not line up with their view that God is one and God is all.  They seem to believe almost a type of polytheistic monism, although they might not agree with that assessment.  The man Jesus was also not God and thus not part of a Trinity.

Christology

As noted above, Jesus was a man and he was not God.  According to Christian Scientists, Christ and Jesus were also not one and the same.  Jesus did have a virgin birth, but not in the orthodox Christian sense.  Mary conceived the spiritual idea of God and gave that idea the name of Jesus.   This man Jesus never healed anyone or performed any miracles.  Corporeal bodies did not exist so there was no need for a corporeal healing. Disease, sin, sickness, and death do not exist, they are only illusions; people die because they cannot separate themselves from this illusion to the reality in which there was no way to die because all is spiritual.  To be healed of sickness is to know there is no sickness.  This idea negates the need for Jesus to physically heal anyone. In fact, when Christ went to the cross his blood did not propitiate or atone for the sins of mankind. Jesus never even really died on the cross.  His disciples thought he was dead in the tomb and this was simply not true according to Eddy.  Instead, Christ was alive in the tomb where he was showing man's ability to overrule the mortal material sense of things. 

This was possible because the spiritual Christ was infallible.  Once again, Christ was not the same as the man Jesus.  The Christ held all of the divine attributes of God. Christ also held all the power of God.  When Christ went to the cross what he atoned for was the idea of an existence apart from God; but there is no existence apart from God, because God is all in all.  So what he was actually doing was showing people that they and God are one.  When the Bible teaches that Christ ascended into Heaven, it means that he went even higher into his understanding of spiritual things. In the end, we must conclude that they believe that Jesus was not God incarnate; God could not simply enter a man.  Thus Christ was spiritual, Jesus was physical, and physical matter does not really exist; hence Jesus, in the Christian Science view, is not the savior.

Doctrine of Salvation

Man finds his origin in spirit not in matter such as the dust of the ground.  Man is God's image and thus man is spirit.  In Christian Science there is no concept of sin, in fact there is no sin period.  Sin is a material thing and therefore it would exist in matter, because matter does not exist, sin cannot be a reality.  Along with the non-existence of sin, is the non-existence of the devil and of death.  They are both illusions. If the devil is an illusion then Satan does not exist, thus there is no physical hell to cast Satan into. Hell, according to Eddy is actually mental anguish. Heaven, also being spiritual, is the "atmosphere" of the soul. Because there is no sin, there is no need for a sacrifice to be made that will pay for man's sin.  Man is already saved; all he needs to do is recognize the reality that matter does not really exit. Salvation can be defined as Life, Truth, and Love, in other words salvation is God.  Because God is not physical, there will be no resurrection of the physical body. Because God is not personal, prayer does nothing to help man, and because man is already saved there is no need for a prayer of salvation or repentance. Man is able to observe his corporeal self, but it is an illusion, man is spirit and the goal is to realize that all reality is actually spirit in essence.  Once this has been realized, man need not fear death, nor physical illness, because they are corporeal and thus outside reality.