On more than one occasion Mary Baker Eddy speaks of Christian Science as being the higher criticism. On page 240 of "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" she explains, "I now repeat another proof, namely, that Christian Science is the higher criticism because it criticizes evil, disease, and death—all that is unlike God, good—on a Scriptural basis, and approves or disapproves according to the word of God."
Is not this the goal of all students of Christian Science—to engage in this higher criticism, to disapprove all that is unlike God on the Scriptural basis that God created all that was made and saw it as "very good"? May we note here at the outset that such criticism can in no way include man, created at the divine mandate (Gen. 1:26), "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness," spiritual, immutable, and immortal, for man has no element of evil, disease, or death. The higher criticism would criticize all that is unlike the spiritual and true creation—yes, all the counterfeit creation of materiality, the temporal and mortal, the seeming, which claims to be and is not. The operation of the higher criticism dispels the falsity and illumines the reality of existence, demonstrating in a practical way the spiritual nature of the universe and man, as well as the perfection and harmony of all true being.
Too often Christian Scientists indulge in the lower criticism, if we may call it that by way of distinction. Sometimes this criticism of others or of their actions poses as keen discernment or analytical intellectualism, but all too frequently it is gossip and breeds and nurtures resentment, impatience, intolerance, prejudice, and other errors in consciousness. If allowed to become a habit, such criticism eventually may paralyze normal functions and action. It bears false witness against our fellow man, thus breaking the ninth commandment (Ex. 20:16), "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour." The higher criticism illumines and magnifies the reality of existence, whereas the lower criticism would tear down, weaken, and destroy by claiming that evil can be person, place, or thing.
