In her remarkable Christian sermon The People's Idea of God Mary Baker Eddy writes, ". . . our ideas of divinity form our models of humanity." Peo.,p. 14. And reviewing the history of mankind, we see how true this is.
Mankind's humanity, or lack of it, has always been in direct proportion to its apprehension of the true nature of God, and therefore of His likeness, man. And we need only to look at the past or at the world today to see the truth of Mrs. Eddy's assertion "The crudest ideals of speculative theology have made monsters of men. . . ."Ibid., p. 3.
How important, then, that our theology be based on right ideas of God, on true ideas direct from the Father—not on human theories or speculation about God but on God's idea of Himself. True knowledge of God must of necessity be His own self-knowledge, what the divine Mind knows of itself and its creation, man, including the universe. Not our idea of God but God's idea of Himself constitutes the only saving sense of God, the only sure basis for theology that makes people angels instead of monsters.
