Rating: 
Summary: If you've ever felt like something is missing in your life,
Review: or wondered if this is all there is, or why you just don't seem to fit in, this book will give you answers.
The preface says, "The time for thinkers is come." And indeed, the author challenges human belief systems on every page. "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter," is one of her main points, and the entire book works with showing just exactly why this is true. ( Isn't it interesting that a woman living at the turn of last century stated this fact, showed how you can realize its truth, and that now physics is showing that, indeed, what we call substance isn't so substantial after all, and that everything is made of energy. And exactly what energy is, is in a state of flux.)
This book has done more for me and my family than any other book except the Bible. I read it daily. My great grandmother was healed of an advanced case of diagnosed tuberculosis and given 2 weeks to live by the doctors. She went on to marry and live in a harsh climate as a rancher's wife. One of her sons was healed of typhoid fever while in WWII. The doctors had given him up. Our daughter was protected in a roll over accident that was so bad the police officer called it a "fatal accident with no casualties." (When the car involved was towed to the owner's home, all the neighbors assumed the owner was dead.) A cousin was healed of the effects of drinking a bottle of lye when she was three years old. They lived several miles from town, so the only help available was prayer. The entire family saw my grandmother cary her sensless from the room and to a neighbor's house, who practiced the healing taught in this book. They returned about half an hour later, my cousin walking in just as normal a toddler as you would want to see. This neighbor's daughter also witnessed the healing and still comments on it. All these healings came from applying the idea, "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter," and understanding its meaning. Read this book and you, too, can benefit from understanding just how this radical idea can be true, and help you, too.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoy reading the book on a daily basis.
Review: I like the fact that there are many scriptural passages in this work. Actually reading the book, I found Mary Baker Eddy defined several important words in Chapter 17 - Glossary. At the start of the chapter she says, "In Christian Science we learn that the substitution of the spiritual for the material definition of a Scriptural word often elucidates the meaning of the inpired writer. On this account this chapter is added. It contains the metaphysical interpretation of Bible terms, giving their spiritual sense, which is also their original meaning." Here are some of her definitions given in this chapter - God. The great I Am; the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-acting, all-wise, all-loving, and eternal; Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love, all substance; intelligence. Man. The compound idea of infinite Spirit; the spiritual image and likeness of God; the full representation of Mind. Mind. The only I, or Us; the only Spirit, Soul, divine Principle, substance, Life, Truth, Love; the one God; not that which is in man, but the divine Principle, or God, of whom man is the full and perfect expression; Deity, which outlines but is not outlined. Gods. Mythology; a belief that life, substance, and intelligence are both mental and material; a supposition of sentient physicality; the belief that infinite Mind is in finite forms; the various theories that hold mind to be a material sense, existing in brain, nerve, matter; supposititious minds, or souls, going in and out of matter, erring and mortal; the serpents of error, which say, "Ye shall be as gods."
God is one God, infinite and perfect, and cannot become finite and imperfect. Good. God; Spirit; omnipotence; omniscience; omnipresence; omni-action. Almighty. All-power; infinity; omnipotence. Angels. God's thoughts passing to man; spiritual intuitions,
pure and perfect; the inspiration of goodness, purity, and immortality, counteracting all evil, sensuality, and mortality. Jesus. The highest human corporeal concept of the divine idea, rebuking and destroying error and bringing to light man's immortality. Christ. The divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error. Error. For this definition, Mrs. Eddy refers to Chapter 14 - Recapitulation on page 472.
Question. - What is error?
Answer. - Error is a supposition that pleasure and pain, that intelligence, substance, life, are existent in matter. Error is neither Mind nor one of Mind's faculties. Error is the contradiction of Truth. Error is a belief without understanding. Error is unreal because untrue. It is that which seemeth to be and is not. If error were true, its truth would be error, and we should have a self-evident absurdity -- namely, erroneous truth. Thus we should continue to lose the standard of Truth. In the paragraph before, on the same page, she states,
"The way which leads to Christian Science is straight and narrow. God has set His signet upon Science, making it coordinate with all that is real and only with that which is harmonious and eternal. Sickness, sin, and death, being inharmonious, do not originate in God nor belong to His government. His law, rightly understood, destroys them. Jesus furnished proofs of these statements." On the next page she writes,
"The Science of Mind disposes of all evil. Truth, God, is not the father of error. Sin, sickness, and death are to be classified as effects or error. Christ came to destroy the belief of sin. The God-principle is omnipresent and omnipotent. God is everywhere, and nothing apart from Him is present or has power. Christ is the ideal Truth, that comes to heal sickness and sin through Christian Science, and attributes all power to God. Jesus is the name of the man who, more than all other men, has presented Christ, the true idea of God, healing the sick and the sinning and destroying the power of death. Jesus is the human man, and Christ is the divine idea; hence the duality of Jesus the Christ." On page 259, Mrs. Eddy states,
"In divine Science, man is the true image of God. The divine nature was best expressed in Christ Jesus, who threw upon mortals the truer reflection of God and lifted their lives higher than their poor thought-models would allow,--thoughts which presented man as fallen, sick, sinning, and dying. The Christlike understanding of scientific being and divine healing includes a perfect Principle and idea,--perfect God and perfect man,--as the basis of thought and demonstration." And lastly, on page 467, she answers -
Question. - What are the demands of the Science of Soul?
Answer.--The first demand of this Science is, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." This me is Spirit. Therefore the command means this: Thou shalt have no intelligence, no life, no substance, no truth, no love, but that which is spiritual. The second is like unto it, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." It should be thoroughly understood that all men have one Mind, one God and Father, one Life, Truth, and Love. Mankind will become perfect in proportion as this fact becomes apparent, war will cease and the true brotherhood of man will be established. Having no other gods, turning to no other but the one perfect Mind to guide him, man is the likeness of God, pure and eternal, having that Mind which was also in Christ.
Rating:
Summary: God is All.
Review: To get a better understanding of Christian Science, I found it helpful to read page 468 to page 471.
Mrs. Eddy in Science and Health answers the following:
Question.- What is the scientific statement of being?
Answer. - There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual. Then comes the Question.- What is substance?
Answer. - Substance is that which is eternal and incapable of discord and decay. Truth, Life, and Love are substance, as the Scriptures use this word in Hebrews: "The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Spirit, the synonym of Mind, Soul, or God, is the only real substance. The spiritual universe, including individual man, is a compound idea, reflecting the divine substance of Spirit. Proceeding further she answers the Question. - What is Life?
Answer.- Life is divine Principle, Mind, Soul, Spirit. Life is without beginning and without end. Eternity, not time, expresses the thought of Life, and time is no part of eternity. One ceases in proportion as the other is recognized. Time is finite; eternity is forever infinite. Life is neither in nor of matter. What is termed matter is unknown to Spirit, which includes in itself all substance and is Life eternal. Matter is a human concept. Life is divine Mind. Life in not limited. Death and finiteness are unknown to Life. If Life ever had a beginning, it would also have an ending. This leads to the Question.- What is intelligence?
Answer.- Intelligence is omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence. It is the primal and eternal quality of infinite Mind, of the triune Principle,- Life, Truth, and Love,- named God. And finally the Question.- What is Mind?
Answer.- Mind is God. The exterminator of error is the great truth that God, good, is the only Mind, and that the supposititious opposite of infinite Mind- called devil or evil- is not Mind, is not Truth, but error, without intelligence or reality. There can be but one Mind, because there is but one God; and if mortals claimed no other Mind and accepted no other, sin would be unknown. We can have but one Mind, if that one is infinite. We bury the sense of infinitude, when we admit that, although God is infinite, evil has a place in this infinity, for evil can have no place, where all space is filled with God.
We lose the high signification of omnipotence, when after admitting that God, or good, is omnipresent and has all-power, we still believe there is another power, named evil. This belief that there is more than one mind is as pernicious to divine theology as are ancient mythology and pagan idolatry. With one Father, even God, the whole family of man would be brethren; and with one Mind and that God, or good, the brotherhood of man would consist of Love and Truth, and have unity of Principle and spiritual power which constitute divine Science. The supposed existence of more than one mind was the basic error of idolatry. This error assumed the loss of spiritual power, the loss of the spritual presence of Life as infinite Truth without an unlikeness, and the loss of Love as ever present and universal.
Divine Science explains the abstract statement that there is one Mind by the following self-evident proposition: If God, or good, is real, then evil, the unlikeness of God, is unreal. And evil can only seem to be real by giving reality to the unreal. The children of God have but one Mind. How can good lapse into evil, when God, the Mind of man, never sins? The standard of perfection was originally God and man. Has God taken down His own standard, and has man fallen?
God is the creator of man, and, the divine Principle of man remaining perfect, the divine idea or reflection, man, remains perfect. Man is the expression of God's being. If there ever was a moment when man did not express the divine perfection, then there was a moment when man did not express God, and consequently a time when Deity was unexpressed- that is, without entity. If man has lost perfection, then he has lost his perfect Principle, the divine Mind. If man ever existed without this perfect Principle or Mind, then man's existence was a myth.
The relations of God and man, divine Principle and idea, are indestructible in Science; and Science knows no lapse from nor return to harmony, but holds the divine order or spiritual law, in which God and all that He creates are perfect and eternal, to have remained unchanged in its eternal history.
The unlikeness of Truth,- named error,- the opposite of Science, and the evidence before the five corporeal senses, afford no indication of the grand facts of being; even as these so-called senses receive no intimation of the earth's motions or of the science of astronomy, but yield assent to astronomical propositions on the authority of natural science.
The facts of divine Science should be admitted,- although the evidence as to these facts is not supported by evil, by matter, or by material sense,- because the evidence that God and man coexist is fully sustained by spiritual sense. Man is, and forever has been, God's reflection. God is infinite, therefore ever present, and there is no other power nor presence. Hence the spirituality of the universe is the only fact of creation. "Let God be true, but every [material] man a liar."
Rating: 
Summary: religion for the mentally challenged
Review: Have you ever read a real philosophy or religion book? Something like The Confessions of Saint Augustine, Pilgrim's Progress, The Imitation of Christ, or Plato's Dialogues? If you have, then don't read this homespun drivel. It is perhaps conceivable that uneducated persons in rural areas could take this nonsense as gospel, but the fact that many hundreds of people still believe in this book to this day is a tribute to a basic human idiocy which subordinates our God-given reason to the babblings of anyone claiming to be an authority. Has there ever been a cult leader who had no followers? This book is written in a flowery, old English kind of dialect, Eddy apparently believing that it carries greater religious weight to say "thy heart," instead of "your heart." And there are all these nonsensical expressions, like saying of God that he is "all in all." She uses obscurity as such to cloak her work in the guise of religious power. She only said one accurate thing in her book: the time for Thinkers has come! Why haven't Christian scientists listened to this admonition? Instead, they let Eddy do the thinking, and they follow like sheep. Garbage. I think it's funny that there are copies available here for one cent. Face it, you couldn't pay people to take this book.
Rating:
Summary: Some questions answered- Part I
Review: It is interesting how Mrs. Eddy answers some intriguing questions regarding Christian Science. Have Christian Scientists any religious creed?
Mary Baker Eddy answers the question in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures p.496-97.
Her answer - They have not, if by that term is meant doctrinal beliefs. The following is a brief exposition of the important points, or religious tenets, of Christian Science: - 1. As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life.
2. We acknowledge and adore one supreme and infinite God. We acknowledge His Son, one Christ; the Holy Ghost or divine Comforter; and man in God's image and likeness.
3. We acknowledge God's forgiveness of sin in the destruction of sin and the spiritual understanding that casts out evil as unreal. But the belief in sin is punished so long as the belief lasts.
4. We acknowledge Jesus' atonement as the evidence of divine, efficacious Love, unfolding man's unity with God through Christ Jesus the Way-shower; and we acknowledge that man is saved through Christ, through Truth, Life, and Love as demonstrated by the Galilean Prophet in healing the sick and overcoming sin and death.
5. We acknowledge that the crucifixion of Jesus and his resurrection served to uplift faith to understand eternal Life, even the allness of Soul, Spirit, and the nothingness of matter.
6. And we solemnly promise to watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus; to do unto others as we would have them do unto us; and to be merciful, just, and pure. On page 17 of Science and Health in Chapter 1 - Prayer, Mrs. Eddy has this to say about the prayer of Jesus Christ. Our Master taught his disciples one brief prayer, which we name after him the Lord's Prayer. Our Master said, "After this manner therefore pray ye," and then he gave that prayer which covers all human needs. There is indeed some doubt among Bible scholars, whether the last line is not an addition to the prayer by a later copyist; but this does not affect the meaning of the prayer itself.
In the phrase, "Deliver us from evil," the original properly reads, "Deliver us from the evil one." This reading strengthens our scientific apprehension of the petition, for Christian Science teaches us that "the evil one," or one evil, is but another name for the first lie and all liars.
Only as we rise above all material sensuousness and sin, can we reach the heaven-born aspiration and spiritual consciousness, which is indicated in the Lord's Prayer and which instantaneously heals the sick.
Here let me give what I understand to be the spiritual sense of the Lord's Prayer: Our Father which art in heaven,
Our Father-Mother God, all-harmonious, Hallowed be Thy name.
Adorable One. Thy kingdom come.
Thy kingdom is come; Thou art ever-present. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Enable us to know,--as in heaven, so on earth,--God is
omnipotent, supreme. Give us this day our daily bread;
Give us grace for to-day; feed the famished affections; And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And Love is reflected in love; And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil;
And God leadeth us not into temptation, but delivereth
us from sin, disease, and death. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.
For God is infinite, all-power, all Life, Truth, Love, over
all, and All.
Rating:
Summary: A little truth is a dangerous thing
Review: Many religious lunatics have made an impression on American history by citing just enough truth to make their homespun theories seem plausible. Mary Baker Eddy is a classic example of this. If she had told her followers to drink cool aid laced with cyanide to rid themselves of the body, which isn't real anyway, she would universally be recognized as evil. But her insidiousness is more subtle than that, and her power to seduce remains alive in the world today. She cloaks her irrational scheme in the wisdom and love of Jesus, and acts as if he is the authority which blesses her creation. It is obvious that the bible can be quoted in a manipulative manner to support just about any ridiculous idea. The Jehovah's Witnesses refuse blood transfusions because the bible says you should not "drink blood." Hello? Anyone home? These people die for their beliefs, supposing their deaths to be noble because in line with their absurd interpretation. Thousands of innocent women were murdered because the bible says we should "not suffer a witch to live." Similarly, thousands upon thousands of Christian Scientists have needlessly suffered and died because of the absurd web of half-truths and lies woven by master charismatic illusionist Eddy. Eddy has convinced them that the REAL reason Jesus healed all diseases is because he realized that a person is Spirit and not matter, that matter is unreal, therefore matter cannot suffer disease or death, therefore disease and death do not exist! Voila! If you just realize this with sufficient force, you cannot suffer diease or death either. Of course, we all have doubts and that's why you die eventually. Better still, we won't discuss death at all, since it is an illusion. Christian Scientists generally die hidden away in their basements, ostracized by their families for their lack of faith. There are three reasons that this "religion" has survived: one, children will believe anything their parents tell them, especially if it is repeated enough; two, the "church" historically has a lot of money; and three, the rest of us get inoculated from serious disease, which means that the "Scientists" don't get them either. Except when they do. But we won't talk about that. For instance, when an outbreak of flu knocked out the whole student body of Christian Science "college" Principia, it was because the students fell victim to "mortal mind" and started believing the news reports that the disease was present. Of course, most people couldn't care less about Christian Science. I mean, the adherents generally are trying to love one another; they do not bother the rest of us. The people who truly hate Christian Science are those who have suffered needlessly thereby, such as the mothers and fathers who lost children due to some preventable and treatable childhood ailment (like something stuck in your windpipe). There are lots of them out there, people who are angry that they were lied to, that they were weak enough to be led down the garden path, that their loved ones died because of it, and because the rest of them are still oblivious. It is an insidious religion, whose secrets cannot be discussed by members, and in which doubters (or independent thinkers) are shunned. It all comes from this book written by Eddy, whose egomania was only kept in check, evidently, by her being reasonably sure that she wasn't God. (She most likely was the lady in Revelations with stars around her feet and fire coming from her nose, or whatever). The joke is not on her, though: she obtained the power and fame that she sought. No, the joke is on the poor kids who grow up believing in this nonsense because mommy and daddy told them it was so. The continued existence of Christian Science is more proof that there just may be no hope for mankind to overcome all its silliness.
Rating:
Summary: The Book that Started a Pathological Sect
Review: As someone who grew up in an orthodox Christian Science family I can assure you that the hackneyed philosophy enshrined in this book is both tragically flawed and potentially life-threatening. To buy into it's view of life and the world you would first have to accept its premise that material existence is an illusion and your physical body is a manifestation of "error". It claims that by simply embracing Mary Baker Eddy's brand of "Truth" you can both prevent and cure any disease, which in itself is illusory, and can overcome death. I attended a C.S. "church" (I place the word church in quotes, because without them I feel it would insult the integrity of genuine churches) throughout my childhood and was thus insulated from the terrible real-world consequences of this profoundly perverted belief system until I left home to live on my own. Only then did I encounter people whose lives had been permanently maimed by total reliance on this religious equivalent of snake oil. These were people who were disabled or had lost loved ones because they had relied on prayer rather than seek medical help. Eventually this evil touched my own life. I have lost a grandmother, an aunt and my mother to medical conditions that could have been treated and cured had they only gone to a doctor for help instead of this book. Do yourself and your loved ones a favor. Don't buy this book. If you see this book on your friend's coffee table, burn it. Trust me, you'll be doing everyone a great service. Christian Science is not a true religion. It is a deviant cult on a par with Scientology and the Unification Church. The passage of time has bestowed upon Christian Science an undeserved patina of legitimacy, and that has made it all the more dangerous. If you want to learn about the reality of Christian Science, read "God's Perfect Child", by Caroline Fraser or "Christian Science", by Mark Twain. They tell it like it is.
Rating:
Summary: Is this truth?
Review: Are the teachings in this book true? Is Christian Science the truth? No. This book will lead you astray as it twists scripture taken out of context. Jesus clearly says, "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" and "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me." Jesus is the Truth, the Bible is the truth, but this book is NOT the truth.
Rating:
Summary: a "must" read
Review: I was surprised to read one review of Science and Health titled, "Strange Days Indeed. Most peculiar." posted on 12/30/02; because my reading and studying of the book has lead me to the opposite conclusion. Using Science and Health's healing system has brought cure to all kinds of health-related problems I've experienced. It's proved so successful in my life that I now use its methods for dealing with most anything that comes up in the day. So rather than being a healing book for the 1800's, I find it fresh with new and even startling ideas about my relationship to the higher power. The very fact that there has been successful healing for over 125 years has strengthened my confidence in it. The reviewer also mentioned that "over the long-term," this health system has been, "unsuccessful and sometimes deadly." And that "the average life span of a Christian Scientist is shorter than national average." I'm not sure where that information came from or what study is being referenced. I can only speak for myself-- the ideas in Science and Health have saved my life and given me a life. While, regrettably there is not a 100% record of successful healing, I like to know what health system, including medical, can boost of such a record?
Yet ironically, we hardly hear about the sad errors of these other systems. This is not to air dirty laundry or debate, but to simply point out that no side has a perfect record. There are thousands of verified published healings, as well as those in Science and Health that attest to its healing efficacy. It's interesting to note that in the United States more people spend money on alternative than on traditional medicine with prayer being a preferred method for many. Perhaps that is why spirituality books, like Science and Health, continue to be one of the hottest selling categories in bookstores. As a best seller for over 90 years it continues to gain popularity, with more copies selling in the last five years than any time before. So rather than relegating it to "religious history" I see it as the future of religion and medicine.
Rating:
Summary: Christian healing is nothing new!
Review: This is a valuable must-read resource book for anyone wishing to understand and demonstrate the "lost art" of Christian healing as it is explained to us in the Bible. Contrary to some of the opinions of other reviewers, there is really nothing weird, desperate, cultish or new about healing through spiritual understanding in the Christian tradition.
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