Mrs. Eddy goes straight to the heart of one of the leading issues of our age when she writes in Science and Health: "Absorbed in material selfhood we discern and reflect but faintly the substance of Life or Mind. The denial of material selfhood aids the discernment of man's spiritual and eternal individuality, and destroys the erroneous knowledge gained from matter or through what are termed the material senses." Science and Health, p. 91;
Now, the self-absorption of which Mrs. Eddy speaks did not, of course, originate in our own time. But probably in no previous epoch has it been so widely championed as a positive good. Through a variety of channels and in subtle and not-so-subtle ways, we are constantly being urged to absorb ourselves in material selfhood—to explore, express, liberate, gratify, and in other ways indulge what we think of as a material self. Behind this tendency lies a shallow belief that life is without ultimate purpose or meaning, that commitment to anything beyond self is pointless, and that therefore fulfillment can be found only by exploring and exploiting the potentialities of material selfhood. Historian Christopher Lasch tersely summarizes this tendency when he writes in his recent book The Culture of Narcissism of a self-absorption that "defines the moral climate of contemporary society." The Culture of Narcissism (New York: VV. YV. Norton & Company, Inc., 1978), p. 25;
Of course, we may believe we are in no way affected by this climate of self-absorption. We may even be highly critical of the offbeat or immoral modes of behavior we associate with it. But such an attitude underestimates the subtlety and pervasiveness of the tendency toward self-absorption in today's world. Think, for example, of our constant exposure to media advertising and the attitudes it reflects. A TV commercial, for example, showing a sleekly beautiful and totally self-absorbed woman speaking in quietly reverential tones about a particular means of further self-beautification is more than an inducement to buy a particular product. It plays upon and fosters a tendency to put self first. This tendency is reinforced in so many ways in today's world that some have seen our era as the Age of Self.
