The word theology has lost its charm. The reason for this is clear,—its original meaning was "the thought of God;" but it has wandered far away and some of us have wandered with it. Through Christian Science we are now returning to the Father's house,—the true thought of God. There are three historic theologies, points of view respecting God, all of which are rapidly giving place to the concept which is presented in the teaching of Christian Science. They may be designated as the Calvinistic, the Arminian, and that which declares for universal salvation, and their common and very serious defect is this, that they all limit the infinite and teach men to do so.
Calvinism stands for divine sovereignty,—God plans and executes: no harrier can stay His hand, all that is He purposed for His own glory. Some men were elected to eternal salvation: on these His love is poured, in these His mercy is revealed. Others were chosen vessels of wrath, that He might forever manifest in them His inflexible justice. The New England theology was called "modified Calvinism." Instead of choosing the evil to be damned, God, it is said, "passed them by," or "left them to their own iniquity;" but, whatever the relieving phrases, the stubborn fact remains,—Calvinism puts a limit on the divine goodness. It stands condemned for its stern thought of God.
A protest was entered by Arminius, and it has been repeated by a large portion of the Church. It was claimed that God purposes the salvation of all mankind; His mercy is unlimited, but He has made man free, and a vast number choose death rather than life and will suffer eternal condemnation. The responsibility is wholly with men, who control their own destiny,—God has lost moral control of the individual and thus of the universe. This system shifts sovereignty from God to the will of mankind. Divine Love is frustrated: the infinite plans universal good, but cannot execute His purpose of mercy; His government is characterized by at least partial failure, and there is eternal heartache. The weakness of this system is this, that it limits the divine power. Further, as God has created man, and in some respects the conditions of his life, knowing that a vast multitude will choose death and be forever damned, it is difficult to see how the Arminian theology, now held by many Christian people, escapes in limiting the divine goodness. It certainly limits the power of God; hence it must give place to a higher thought.
With much confidence in the future and pride in its breadth of view, the doctrine of universal salvation has been put forth, and in greater or less degree it has permeated all the churches. In social life a growing sense of the unity, the interrelation of the human race fosters it, while perhaps the most dominant influence has been the subdued or triumphant teaching of the great poets, Wordsworth, Tennyson. Browning, and Whittier, who have long been singing of the ultimate harmony. Our race has ever dreamed of glad days. An Eden is located at the beginning, a Paradise at the close. "Distance lends enchantment." This increasingly prevalent theology challenges the limits put both to the goodness and power of God. It declares that "love and power are equal." God purposes salvation for every individual and the race. His resources are unlimited, and He has all eternity in which to work out His plan of love. There will be no failure; somehow, somewhere, in some far-off day, all will return to the kingdom; sin, storm, and conflict will cease. Then harmony will be universal and God will be All-in-all.
This is a great idea, though it is fettered by long material struggle and seems to put the infinite under time and space. A serious problem is suggested, however, when we ask, What about the here and now? What relation has the world's evil, as reality, to the goodness and power of God? There is but one reply, and that reply has been wrought into philosophy, poetry (in its hour of struggle), and theology. It is that, in the government of God, evil becomes necessary for the development of good, that we know light in contrast with darkness, joy in contrast with sorrow, good in contrast with evil. This dread monster, evil, then becomes the friend of humanity,—"the foil of the good," "the needed background of struggle for the expanding soul." The far-off harmony, when reached, will be appreciated only because of the experience of discord. This is the popular theory of to-day. But if evil is included in God's plan of good for man, then evil is not evil, but good, and moral distinctions vanish.
This concept bears a striking similarity to the serpent's argument in the garden of Eden: "Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." Carried to its ultimate, the argument would amount to this: the wisdom of God could produce the perfect humanity only through long ages of sin. But how can it be that the presence and appeal of that which God abhors is a means of promoting His holy purpose? Could wisdom find no other way for creating the perfect man, reflecting the divine nature, except through long ages of sin and suffering? Such a view puts a serious limit on the divine wisdom. God is infinite in goodness, power, and wisdom, and theological systems which would limit Him. are already showing signs of disintegration; they sink back into the materialism with which they try to harmonize infinite Spirit; their weakness is their inadequate thought of God. Christian Science alone insists that God can have no limit; being infinite, He creates and upholds all that has reality, and it is good. Nothing can exist apart from God; evil is not of Him, therefore it has no being except in the mortal dream, and it disappears in proportion as man awakes to spiritual consciousness.
Above the mass of popular error, Mrs. Eddy's words stand as a beacon-light: "God creates and governs the universe, including man. The universe is filled with spiritual ideas, which He evolves, and they are obedient to the Mind that makes them. Mortal mind would transform the spiritual into the material, and then recover man's original self in order to escape from the mortality of this error"(Science and Health, p. 295). St. Augustine, greatest of early theologians, was not blind to the unreality of evil. Ten years after his conversion he writes in his "Confessions," "Foolish deceivers asked me, 'Whence is evil?' at which I was very much troubled, because as yet I knew not that evil was nothing but a privation of good, until at last a thing ceases altogether to be." When men gain a clear view of the spiritual idea and live by it, all that seemed opposed to the ever-present good will vanish like mist before the morning sun. Then God will appear unlimited, as Mrs. Eddy states.
The salient points in the historic theologies mentioned contain elements of vital truth, which Christian Science conserves when separated from the mortal error that has been their source of weakness. There is a "Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." Its scatered beams are always shining, God has not been left without a witness, and Christian Science has come to restore the apostolic faith, with its lost power of healing. It is giving the two-fold demonstration of its "apostolic succession." The true idea of God's sovereignty is now revealed. A pure Christian idealism makes it possible without including sin and woe. The infinite is no longer obstructed in human thought by the material order, for there is but one order,—the spiritual. Ecclesiastical forms cannot confine His authority within their channels, for they are material and not of Him. If infinite Mind and its manifestation comprehends all of being, then God is the only power and the truth in Calvinism has been set free in Christian Science.
The strong point in the Arminian theology is its sense of individual responsibility. This is given a new setting in Christian Science. Through the false concept of material creation and of life in matter all woes have come. Every individual must conquer every enemy, including the last, which is death, and rise into the consciousness of spiritual being, where alone is harmony and heaven. From materiality to spirituality is his problem, the "new birth" from day to day, until the goal of harmony is reached. Thus Christian Science begets a sense of responsibility and kindles an energy which the old systems but dimly shadow forth.
The theology which claims that God is bound to bring all people to final salvation, involves a stupendous truth, but alas, how little spiritual enthusiasm it has kindled or personal overcoming it has effected. Between the claim and the fulfilment the discrepancy has been too great to inspire confidence. The truth in Christian Science includes the idea of universal salvation, but separates it from materialism. It associates it with the Christ-idea, gives it proper proportion, connects it with spiritual conditions that beget inspiration.
The change called salvation is not produced by death, nor wrought by magic in some fair realm. It is the putting off of the old, material man and the putting on of the new, spiritual man. Harmony is not removed millenniums hence; it is now, for God is all-harmonious and there is no room for discord. As men awake to "newness of life," they see the kingdom of heaven, the reign of Spirit, the all-Father, unlimited in goodness, power, and wisdom. This is the true "thought of God."
