Occasionally, I’ve heard someone tell me that the book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, is difficult to understand.
I’ve puzzled over the years how to respond to this type of observation because when I read the book, no matter how many times, I learn so much about spiritual reality. It is one book, aside from the Bible, that I never tire of reading and studying.
No doubt, many of the words Eddy uses require a dictionary and explanation to understand. Phrases like “mortal mind” and “animal magnetism” are not conventional. And then there are her frequent references to matter and Spirit. What does that mean? Many ask.
But interestingly, I’ve noticed that some people with what an academic might call a “low reading ability,” love Science and Health and do understand its message.
And I’ve noticed that people with high reading ability may not get the message at all, and be even turned off by it.
So I’ve decided that reading ability has nothing to do with comprehending Science and Health. It’s something more.
And I think I know what it is.
Understanding Science and Health happens to the degree that the reader accepts Spirit as the ultimate reality.
Science and Health is all about spiritual life, spiritual reality, and God as Spirit. Eddy’s main message throughout the book is, “Life in and of Spirit!” Everything she writes grows out of a deep and profound understanding into the nature of all things, that the universe is spiritual, made by Spirit, and reflective of Spirit. Matter and its conditions—sin, disease, death—are not the realities they appear to be. As one understands Spirit better, sin, disease and death lessen until they totally disappear. Heaven! And there is no sense of matter anymore.
When I read Science and Health from this point of view, it makes sense.
I’m still wrestling with many passages that I do not understand very well, but from experience, I’ve learned that as I persevere and the light grows brighter, eventually I figure out those tough passages and see how they intelligently connect with every other statement in the book.
If one reads the book from the point of view that matter and evil are real, Eddy’s statements may appear preposterous and unreasonable. They do not make sense tot he materialist. It’s like a person who reads and understands English trying to read Chinese with no knowledge of the language. It’s all jumble! Not understanding Chinese doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with the Chinese language. Far from it. But it requires humility and desire to buckle down and learn the symbols so one can understand a new tongue.
And with Science and Health, it’s well worth the effort to buckle down and learn the symbols to reap understanding of the message. The book can bring tremendous healing into one’s life. Its ideas are powerful. They are what Jesus Christ taught.
So, if you’re having a hard time figuring out the book, try a different perspective, a more enlightened spiritual perspective. Think out from Spirit. Accept Spirit’s allness. Accept the goodness of God and the nothingness of evil. Sit down, read again, and see what appears on those pages that you didn’t notice before. I hope you have a much better experience!
Happy reading…
Oh, dear Evan, I simply love your blog more and more each day! During the last couple of days, I have really started understanding that Spirit is All and matter is nothing (inspired by page 275 of “Science and Health”) and had decided to read S&H cover to cover with this new (for me) concept that Spirit is All and matter is nothing. And here comes your inspiring, insightful message, which has assured me that I’m on the right track. Thank you so very much!! Always with love,
I find Science and Health to be an ongoing study, but more rewarding, and inspiring than anything I have studied academically. I am grateful for the wise choice of words Mrs. used in all her writings. Words do not have to be conventional to be important.
Thanks for all you do!
I read a testimony many years ago by a man who broke both ankles in a fall and spent 12 years under the care of doctors. Finally at the urging of his wife, he tried reading S&H and as I recall his initial response was to fling the book across the floor because he couldn’t understand it.
Sometime later his wife suggested that he read it from the perspective of wanting to know God…not just to find healing. When he changed his approach, he found that he not only understood the book, but he loved what he was reading. The book, along with the Bible, because his constant companion. Not surprisingly, he found himself complete healed in a short time…freed from the crippling disability and the chronic pain.
Each time I review the Bible Lesson, I find taking a moment of silent thought and prayer of asking God to help me understand what I am about to read, will allow me to help others by understanding the information written.
By trusting in the Lord first we seem to get the right message as He already knows our needs and our direction.
The quiet place is all that is needed to get us there and enhance our understanding.
Well, that was an honest assessement about rading S&H! It IS understandable; applying it is another question it seems for many.
For years I struggled with S&H “trying” to comprehend it and bounce lines off from my human educational/relational/applicational standpoint. Then I read both “All Science is a revelation” and “Truth is from inspiration and revelation” in Prose Works. “Truth is a revelation” S&H
‘This way of apprehension of S&H then’, I thought, ‘is from Spirit’s standpoint, not mine!’ So, I realized, why struggle humanly to understand? Since then many more things have been revealed effortlesly.
From this experience, I learnd to stop intellectualizing citations in S&H. I share this fact or truth now with anyone I meet that says they are having diffiiculty understanding S&H.
I concur with most on here. This is a very practical blog.
To anon,
Great point, that Truth is a revelation. It is not something that comes out of the human mind. It comes from divine Mind. So, in fact, I find that reading Science and Health with the right motive shuts down the human mind so I can hear divine Mind, and then the revelations of Truth come through loud and clear.
When I was 11 years old, a copy of Science and Health was given to me. I asked my mother if I could read it. (She had been quietly studying Christian Science for years.) She suggested I read the first chapter on “Prayer.” I read that chapter — and the rest of the book — and never stopped. The ideas in Science and Health carried me through junior high, high school, college — and the rest of my life. I know I didn’t understand all of it — just as I don’t today. I never let that bother me because I knew I was reading the truth. “Continue to read,” says Mrs. Eddy, “and the book will become the physician . . . ” (SH 422:8-9)
The fellow who broke both ankles, etc. was a police officer and it happened, as I recall, on duty.
I heard him give his testimony at TMC, then later read it.
He was on fire with truth.
I loved S&H from a child.
oh how I love all this…love, love, love it! Thank you, dear Evan!
Spirit indeed is ALL! What a wonderful God we have! Hugs.