IT is interesting to acquaint ourselves with the life and thought of those ancient worthies who, as our Leader says, "caught glorious glimpses of the Messiah, or Christ" (Science and Health, p. 333), and among these none perhaps is more deserving of recognition and honor as a prophet than the great Swedish thinker, Kristoffer Jacob Bostrom, who was born in 1797, became teacher to the sons of King Oscar I., a professor at Upsala, 1840-1864, and who died in 1866, the year that Mrs. Eddy discovered Christian Science.
This man is regarded in Sweden as the most independent thinker who has appeared in that country. Of his philosophy, which lie called rational idealism, one of his students, Professor Wikner, says: "Bostrom, in regard to his philosophy, may be compared to Plato and Leibnitz. With both he places himself at the point of view of idealism, and assumes that the absolute world is a totality of spiritual realities, which are included in each other so that they form a system, and with Leibnitz he shows that all these must be perceiving and individual beings."
Bostrom had a strong aversion against materialism. Upon being informed by one of his students that some younger philosophers in Germany were trying to conciliate idealism and materialism, he said he expected to hear soon that they would try to conciliate God and Satan. Some great thinkers have never been very sure about the truth of their own philosophy. With them the little word "perhaps" is in great favor. They have found it necessary to change their views from time to time. They have said with Emerson. "I wish to say what I feel and think today, with the proviso that tomorrow perhaps I shall contradict it all." Not so with Bostrom. From first to last he was firmly convinced that he had found the truth. In Sweden Bostrom's teaching has been a barrier against materialism and pessimism, and it has helped to correct some errors of the old theology. For instance, Bostrom rejected the old interpretation (satisfactio vicaria) of the doctrine of atonement, and gave an interpretation in accord with his philosophy. This view has since been developed and vigorously propagated by the eminent preacher Waldenstrom and is now accepted by a considerable number of Swedish Christians. Among all philosophers Bostrom approaches closest to Christian Science, since he regarded man as an idea in God. But he appears to have had no notion whatever that this thought might be used as a means of physical healing. Like all other philosophers, he confines himself to mere theory.
