It is a rather common assumption that the mental enlightenment out of which human progress is born is the result of one form or another of scholastic enterprise and endeavor. Research in the analysis and synthesis of factual and objective knowledge is credited with having provided us with the bases for innumerable advances in the well-being of mankind, especially in contemporary civilization. The contributions of academic achievement have been great, indeed, and the practical and technological applications of scientific knowledge have been truly awe-inspiring in some cases. Human knowledge and ingenuity have done much to promote physical comfort, to lessen the burden of toil, and to curtail limitations of time and space. Christian Scientists give academics credit for many of the gains of civilization, and they are convinced of the desirability and necessity of adequate and proper scholastic training. They do, however, realize a need for greater attention to learning based upon spiritual truth and law, and herein they take issue with others who insist that all knowledge rests upon an objective, materialistic foundation.
Perhaps it is because of the tremendous prestige that has accrued to practical, pragmatic knowledge—due to its many impressive applications in the world of physical experience—that numerous individuals regard the wisdom that comes from spiritual contemplation and revelation as unworthy of serious attention. Inspired wisdom, if it is appreciated at all by such persons, is often considered abstract, abtruse, impractical, untrustworthy, and, at best, so they believe, limited in its possible value to a few visionaries, seers, and idealists.
With the accelerated development of spiritual thinking in recent times, however, and partly because of the abundant evidence of the failure and insufficiency of materialistic modes of thinking and ways of doing in ensuring a more abundant life, human thought has been inclined to give greater and greater credence to the wisdom that comes from spiritual inspiration or impartation. Mary Baker Eddy has spoken discerningly and prophetically of the transition of thought from a material to a spiritual basis in these meaningful words from "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 256): "Advancing to a higher plane of action, thought rises from the material sense to the spiritual, from the scholastic to the inspirational, and from the mortal to the immortal." Christian Scientists today rejoice in observing many evidences that this transition is taking place in current thinking.
