Some people express surprise that Christian Science, as a religion, should give so much importance to the healing of disease. Many, in fact, accepting conventional doctrines, consider that religious and therapeutical questions are unrelated. And yet religious thought today is more and more occupied with what it considers to be the problem of healing. It is undeniable that Jesus established his teachings on the basis of healing. On several occasions he showed that true, divine service lay in the healing of a sick person rather than in the ritualistic observance of the Sabbath.
Let us, however, be quite clear that in restoring to Christianity its primitive and essential element of healing, Christian Science does not in any way blend or confuse material medicine with religion; nor does it seek to condemn those who wish other means of healing. Christian Science makes a clear distinction between Christian healing of a divine nature, which remains unchanged throughout eternity, and the various kinds of curative systems which are of human origin and hence temporary. In fact, while the disciple of Aesculapius makes physical healing an aim in itself, the disciple of Jesus of Nazareth sees in it but the natural phenomenon of the Christianization of human consciousness.
For the Christian Scientist, consciousness, not the material body, is fundamental. And consciousness is not in the body, but the body is embraced in consciousness. In other words, the body cannot manifest anything of itself; it manifests a state of consciousness. Christian Science defines health as the absolute consciousness of harmony, or the consciousness of the perfect unity of man and his source, the original, eternal, supreme, and sovereign good, which is God; whereas disease is a discordant state of consciousness, a sense of inharmony, of disassociation of being from its source, an ignorance of good or a losing sight of it.
