Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy can be read so that it nourishes thought not only with the good residing in each sentence as we initially apprehend it, but also with the meanings that may lie at a deeper level. This kind of reading is radical in the sense that it searches out the root significance of the concepts the words express. It has two goals: first, to draw fresh spiritual energy from the textbook through a more profound understanding of its teachings, revealing the spiritual import of the Bible; and second, to feel and apply this energy of the Christ, Truth, as a source of redemption for human hearts and minds.
Such study can be undertaken in various ways. One useful method is to compare any sentence we hope to grasp more thoroughly with other statements on the same subject as they are found in the writings of Mrs. Eddy, who discovered and founded Christian Science. Here is an example. The angel in the tenth chapter of Revelation is described in Science and Health as having his right foot on primitive evil and his left foot on its derivative effects. "This angel," Mrs. Eddy writes, "had in his hand 'a little book,' open for all to read and understand. Did this same book contain the revelation of divine Science, the 'right foot' or dominant power of which was upon the sea— upon elementary, latent error, the source of all error's visible forms? The angel's left foot was upon the earth; that is, a secondary power was exercised upon visible error and audible sin."Science and Health, p. 559.
One day while I was reading this passage it occurred to me that I would be able to deal more triumphantly with the error under the angel's right foot if I had a more penetrating grasp of its nature. This is not developed in the quotation above; but on other pages of Science and Health and in Mrs. Eddy's other books the characteristics of elementary illusory evil are discussed from a variety of perspectives. These passages on a shared topic animate and complement each other, and anyone who gives them prayerful, comparative study can discover more and more richness of meaning.
