CONCLUSION

The stated purpose of the exhibit “Biblical Roots of Christian Science,” is to illustrate that Mary Baker Eddy discovered Christian Science in the Bible; it was not her invention for its healing method is the same as that of Christ Jesus and the early Christians. The first four decades of Mrs. Eddy’s life are well documented as a time when she exhibited a deep spiritual hunger and engaged in consistent deep study of the Bible. Her healing in 1866, through turning to God through the Bible when all material aid was exhausted, was for her “the falling apple that led me to the discovery how to be well myself, and how to make others so.” (Ret. 24:14)

This exhibit has sought to identify for the enquirer the steps of spiritual preparation which Mrs. Eddy herself took as the basis of Christianly Scientific healing.  1. Emphasis on “the prayer of fervent desire for growth in grace.” 2. Rejecting a sense of man’s alienation from God, which she came to recognize as “the underlying cause of the long years of invalidism she endured before Truth dawned upon her understanding.” 3. Seeking spiritual answers to the disciplines of human living, which she felt “serve to unite thought more closely to God.” 4. Developing an understanding of the crucial distinction between the spiritual values of Christianity and psychic phenomena. 5. And coming to recognize the quintessential difference between reliance on the human mind (suggestion, will power, hypnotism) and on the divine Mind (prayer, spiritual understanding, unselfed love.) The exhibit accomplishes this by looking for the Biblical roots of some of the statements in the first five chapters of Science and Health, – the preparatory chapters. Chapter six begins “In the year 1866, I discovered the Christ Science or divine laws of Life, Truth, and Love, and named my discovery Christian Science. “ (S&H 107:1) Mrs. Eddy expounds her discovery in Science and Health from this point forward.

 

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This exhibit is available for display in your Reading Room.
First Church of Christ Scientist, Pasadena is happy to make this exhibit available to any other Christian Science church wishing to stage a similar exhibit in their Reading Room. We can provide an e-file and much encouragement to help you! Please call our clerk at (626) 793-5151 for more information.

This exhibit is copyright © 2012, First Church of Christ Scientist, Pasadena