Questions and answers about Christian Science

from the Christian Science Sentinel

The universal struggle to overcome sin in one’s life often leads to profound and probing questions. The following exchange occurred during a talk on Christian Science at a Protestant theological seminary.

Q: From the standpoint of Christian Science, are sin and sickness related?

A: Yes, very definitely so—but not in the sense that a person who is sick is necessarily guilty of some personal sin. Rather, sin, sickness, and death are all understood to be alike in the sense that they’re products of our failure to live out our actual God-derived being. We don’t feel that God puts man in a destructible mortal body to suffer and die inevitably. Jesus’ healings and other proofs of triumph over material limitations showed that he didn’t accept physical suffering and destructibility as natural, normal, or God-ordained.

Q: If that’s so, then where did evil and what Christian Science calls “mortal mind” originate in the first place?

A: I don’t think I or anyone else can pretend to answer that question in a totally satisfactory way from a theoretical point of view. A lot of people have found fault with some of the answers provided by traditional Protestantism to the problem of evil. To many it seems impossible that a good and omnipotent God could sanction the existence of evil in experience, let alone a personal devil capable of opposing Himself. On this basis, Christian Scientists believe that in the deepest sense evil doesn’t have an origin or any real existence and that this ultimately must be proved in one’s experience. I would add only that from the standpoint of Christian Science man’s true being and relation to God have been shown forth in the life of Christ Jesus and are possible of realization as we follow him step by step. To not achieve our true being and relation to God because we’re so worried about why we haven’t thus far achieved it, or to hypothesize about the origin of whatever might keep us from achieving it, wouldn’t make much sense or be very fruitful.

Q: Even if sin and man’s feeling of separation from God are overcome, what about guilt for the sins one has committed? Doesn’t this still have to be removed in some way, and doesn’t it persist after the sin itself is no longer practiced?

A: Let me just say that the word sin is used in a very large sense in Christian Science, a sense to be differentiated—as you do—from specific sins that flow from sin in its more basic sense. We don’t feel that the victory over sin as a whole is to be achieved easily or quickly. But we do feel that in proportion as the victory over sin is won, in proportion as sin itself is destroyed, we do experience God’s forgiveness. There’s no more penalty or guilt to the extent that this is accomplished.

If we continue to feel guilty, it may be that we haven’t completely put off the way of living and thinking that led to our acting sinfully in the first place. On the other hand, if we really have repented and been transformed, then the need is to be more accepting of God’s grace and forgiveness. It may take deep self-examination and honesty to determine whether our remaining guilt points to the need for more repentance or not. But as we strive to have the spirit of the Magdalene, as she sought out Jesus in Simon’s house and washed his feet with her tears, we will find our way free.

The following questions about healing were raised during a talk to a high-school comparative religions class.

Q: Why should I bother to pray when I can just take medicine and be cured?

A: There’s so much more to spiritual healing than simply a physical cure. For one thing there’s a feeling of newness that comes as a result of prayer. A person who has experienced spiritual healing has a new awareness of just how close God is and how much God loves us—all of us. This feeling of newness naturally spills over into every aspect of the Christian Scientist’s life and has the effect of touching others spiritually as well. For example, it’s not at all uncommon for someone to ask a Christian Scientist what it is that helps him or her when things at school or the office seem stormy. These questions often come when we’ve just experienced healing in some form—when we’ve had a newer sense of what God is and what He does for man!

Q: I’ve heard that the human mind contributes to the healing process, that it’s our healthy attitudes that are of help. Where does God fit in if this is so?

A: We don’t feel that the human mind, in and of itself, is what brings healing. In the Bible, when St. Paul writes to the Philippians, he urges Christians to “let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” This mind can’t be mere human intelligence. We see that it has to be the Mind that is God. Even Jesus said, “I can of mine own self do nothing … because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.”

For the Christian Scientist, the part the human mind plays in healing is in yielding to the good God has in store for His creation. If we’re busy trying to figure out or determine how healing should come through the human mind, that’s not the yielding that allows “this mind [to] be in [us], which was also in Christ Jesus”!

Q: If I asked you to pray for me, would you in your prayer bring me to God, or would you bring God to me?

A: Actually, if you were sick or injured, or in any kind of trouble, and asked me to pray for you, my prayer would be to have you see for yourself that God had never left you to begin with!