Recently I was visiting some Web sites where Mary Baker Eddy's book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, is considered one of today's sacred texts. Mrs. Eddy, the founder and first editor of this magazine, had a lifelong appreciation of sacred texts. Over the years her personal library became home to an extensive collection of historic and contemporary Bibles and included other titles such as The Light of Buddha and Archaeological Writings of the Sanhedrin and Talmuds of the Jews. In her writings she speaks about Jewish faith, Buddhism, Eastern thought. But her frame of reference and spiritual foundation solidly rest on Christian teaching.
The Bible was undoubtedly her favorite sacred text. She speaks of the Bible's prominence in her childhood home, of her intense Scriptural study for several years during her mid-life, and of the foundational role the Scriptures played in the writing of her best-selling work, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.
It is probably this book that has most significantly shaped my spiritual path and has become for me a sacred text. And, like the special relationship Mrs. Eddy had with the Bible, my special relationship with Science and Health began before I could read.
