By JUDITH NJOKU
The word science comes from the Latin word scientia, which means understanding or knowledge. This knowledge can be “natural” (the physical sciences), “social” (studying human behavior), or “formal” (mathematical type studies).
All these branches of human knowledge and understanding help to improve our sense of exact truth. For instance, mathematics assures us that when adding 2 plus 2 we end up with 4. Someone who is ignorant of this and gets 5 as an answer simply has not applied the knowledge and rules of mathematics correctly. But this ignorance cannot change the true answer. A cook with ingredients for Chinese food may end up preparing a different type of food if she lacks the knowledge and methods of Chinese cooking. African mothers traditionally added water or charcoal to a pot of soup after they serve a small portion of it when they had late night visitors and could not easily warm the whole pot of soup. The water helps liquify the broth while the charcoal helps absorb the sourness and excess liquid. This science or knowledge of food proves useful. But when one fails to apply specific knowledge to the need at hand, the outcome will fall short.
Can we not apply this idea to matters of faith and religion? Does science — systematic knowledge — connect with Christianity? Christian Science teaches that yes it does and that there are underlying laws of God’s kingdom that apply to our lives. Christianity is the faith tradition that follows the teachings of Jesus Christ. Faith is trust in something beyond oneself, validated in daily experience. From this viewpoint, as Christian Science teaches, Christianity is more than a system of religious belief, that is, it is about more than simply going to church or believing in God. It is so much more than just a human belief system, but rather spiritual laws about God that can be known. As we come to understand Jesus’ healing ministry and the spiritual laws he relied upon, we can find our Christian practice to be a source of provable, helpful truth. It is living love — the love that the Bible says is God. The Bible stresses behavior and heart that reflect Jesus Christ.
Christian Science teaches that, as the Son of God, Jesus came to express and demonstrate the Christ, his Godlike nature, and the practical assurance of God’s care for all humanity. Beginning to see the underlying reality of man —- of all men and women —- as the Christlike image and likeness of God, is a powerful healing awareness. To the Christian Scientist, this knowledge is the Science of Christ. That is, it is the law of God or divine Truth, by which Jesus healed. The world tends to see Jesus’ healings as “miracles”. But Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, wrote, “Jesus of Nazareth was the most scientific man that ever trod the globe.” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 313). His scientific understanding and knowledge of God enabled his works. More than miracles, they have an underlying truth that supports the results. The Bible records that Jesus challenged people to think, and demonstrated what he taught about God’s nature and saving power by healing (without drugs) all kinds of diseases — contagious diseases, gender-related ailments, paralysis, hereditary problems, and other disorders.
How did Jesus Christ heal “all manner of diseases”, as the Bible describes, without material applications? What was behind his healing power? The lame walked, the blind saw, the dumb spoke, and so many others were healed and forgiven. Jesus Christ was able to do all these works because he understood God’s power and goodness. He knew his heavenly Father so well that he clearly saw and understood God’s creation — the spiritual sense and facts of being — instead of accepting without question the material senses’ testimony. This divine Science, these laws of God that Jesus practiced and demonstrated in his healing works, explain the use of the phrase “Christian Science”.
Christian Science helps explain these laws of God which, when put into practice, bring effective results. They can heal reliably when understood and rightly applied, as Christ Jesus proved throughout his ministry. He was governed by God, the infinite divine Mind or Spirit. And he declared, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). He conquered material limitations and errors. The Bible clearly teaches that this prayer-based healing power is learnable and repeatable. In other words, it is scientific.
In its first chapter, the Bible states, “…God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). This divine consciousness, or heaven, is our real home and natural way of thinking. God is in reality our life, our consciousness, and our all. On this biblical basis, Mary Baker Eddy founded the Christian Science church. Her discovery of this Science was especially prompted by her complete healing of the effects of a life-threatening accident after reading one of Jesus’ healings. She studied the Bible and prayed for answers. At a certain point, it became clear to her that spiritual healing was based on understandable and knowable divine laws of God, Spirit. She proved through her understanding that these laws could be applied by anyone to heal any form of human suffering. This spiritual healing is not miraculous, but purely the effect of understanding God’s all-power. God is the healer. We thus can begin to see all God’s creation as entirely spiritual and God-governed in order to challenge the common limiting assumptions we face every day. This is Science.
