The word "dominion," used in the first chapter of Genesis to indicate the nature of God's provision for man, does not signify authority that is conditional or limited. Some of the terms defining it in dictionaries are "sovereign or supreme authority," "the power of governing," and "independent right of possession, use, and control." The statement that God gave man "dominion . . . over all the earth" is thus a challenging one indeed.
Is it a fact, scientifically considered, that man, as the reflection of God, has unqualified and unlimited dominion? The plain answer of Christian Science is that it is. Does this mean that it is possible for each of us to demonstrate perfect control in the affairs that concern him humanly? The answer again is, Yes. It is not only clear through the inspired logic of Christian Science that it is so, but it is a fact continually being proved to some extent by Christian Scientists. They find day by day that they have authority and effectiveness in ways in which they formerly did not seem to have them; and they see that this improvement in their experience has come, and continues to come increasingly, through their growing understanding of man's God-given dominion, as revealed in Science.
Incidentally, Christian Science shows clearly why mankind, individually and collectively, has seemed not to have dominion. Certainly mankind has never lost its interest in authority and power, as it has understood them, but it has often misapprehended their true character; and that has been the trouble. True dominion, available to all, does not belong to human will, and cannot be exercised or swayed by that will, as mortals have supposed. It belongs to God, divine Mind, and is man's by reflection. "Man, made in His likeness," Mary Baker Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 516), "possesses and reflects God's dominion over all the earth."
