An editorial in The Christian Science Monitor, (“Personal Pulpits,” October 3, 2011), noted that a growing number of people are seeking an individual approach to religion rather than affiliating with an organized religion. It ended with this statement: “The challenge for America’s religious organizations now is how to embrace today’s spiritual wanderers while staying true to their own founding vision.”
That’s a challenge Christian Scientists are uniquely equipped to meet. Christian Scientists themselves are spiritual seekers who cherish their own individuality—their freedom to think for themselves and make their own decisions. They have aligned themselves with the Christian Science movement precisely because its “founding vision,” as well as the Church that upholds it, respects, supports, and strengthens their individuality. The statement, “The time for thinkers has come,” appears on the first page of the preface of the textbook of Christian Science, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.
In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy laid out in full detail the results of her own spiritual search of the Holy Bible—for all to read, test in their own lives, and decide for themselves if she had discovered the Comforter that Christ Jesus promised God would send to explain his teachings. And she founded a Church, not for the purpose of filling churches, but to make this Comforter available to all spiritual seekers. To that end she made the Bible and Science and Health the Pastor of the Church of Christ, Scientist, stating that these two books “will continue to preach for this Church and the world” (Manual of The Mother Church, p. 58). Every function of the Church she established is designed to let this Pastor’s voice be heard—church services, Sunday Schools, Reading Rooms, lectures, publications, and so on—as well as the work of Christian Science practitioners and teachers.
