As have many Christian Scientists, I have shared the textbook of Christian Science, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, with those unfamiliar with it. Many recipients expressed deep gratitude for the healing influence this book brought to their lives. For example, one individual remarked that the chapter entitled “Prayer” expressed what she truly believed about prayer, in contrast with what she had been taught. Others, however, voiced discouragement over the difficulty of understanding the textbook.
After a recent sharing of Science and Health, the individual jokingly asked if there was a “Christian Science for Dummies” book to go with it, alluding to the “For Dummies” series that explains many topics in simplified language. Although sincerely interested in Christian Science, she said she wasn’t sure she could understand Science and Health, as she had tried to read it previously. After hearing this, I knew specific prayer was needed.
I went to God to help me understand what impositions needed to be handled through prayer. In other words, I prayed to uncover how the lie that the Christian Science textbook is inaccessible to most people tries to make itself believable. As I did this, I recalled hearing in recent years that some felt the language of Science and Health needed to be updated so that it would connect with today’s readers. It occurred to me that this was an aggressive claim of a material perspective saying that thinking and experiencing life happen through an ever-changing material lens. This view with its shifting paradigm of beliefs claims it can silence or make unappealing or unclear the revelation of Truth that is Christian Science, and its promise of healing.
