Christian Science

[LutheranScholar]

It seems to be a sect founded by Mary Baker Eddy in the late nineteenth century. This is what i get from their website, www.christianscience.com. It seems to be a sort of pantheistic monism with a Christian flavoring.

Tenets of Christian Science

1: As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life.
2: We acknowledge and adore one supreme and infinite God. We acknowledge His Son, one Christ; the Holy Ghost or divine Comforter; and man in God’s image and likeness.
We acknowledge God’s forgiveness of sin in the destruction of sin and the spiritual understanding that casts out evil as unreal. But the belief in sin is punished so long as the belief lasts.
3: We acknowledge Jesus’ atonement as the evidence of divine, efficacious Love, unfolding man’s unity with God through Christ Jesus the Way-shower; and we acknowledge that man is saved through Christ, through Truth, Life, and Love as demonstrated by the Galilean Prophet in healing the sick and overcoming sin and death.
4: We acknowledge that the crucifixion of Jesus and his resurrection served to uplift faith to understand eternal Life, even the allness of Soul, Spirit, and the nothingness of matter.
5:And we solemnly promise to watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus; to do unto others as we would have them do unto us; and to be merciful, just, and pure.

As of late, there have been some rather controversial charges made against them, to wit, they apparently don’t allow their children to be vaccinated and that has led to a couple of fatalities: theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/flashbks/xsci/suffer.htm , kindism.org/2013/01/14/passing-on-too-soon-preventable-deaths-in-christian-science/

I take it that they don’t have certain sacraments, like Baptism and Communion, as their emphases seem to be entirely spiritual…

*Christian Science Church Beliefs and Practices
Distinctive Beliefs of the Christian Science Church

Christian Science Beliefs - David McNew / Staff / Getty Images
David McNew / Staff / Getty Images
By Jack Zavada
Christianity Expert

Christian Science is distinct from other denominations in its teaching that matter does not exist. All is spiritual. Therefore, sin, sickness, and death, which appear to have physical causes, are instead only states of mind. Sin and sickness are treatable by spiritual means: prayer.

Let’s look now at some of the basic tenets of faith:

Christian Science Beliefs

• Baptism - Baptism is the spiritual purification of daily life, not a sacrament.

• The Bible - The Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, are the two key texts of the faith.

• Communion – No visible elements are necessary to celebrate The Eucharist. Believers practice silent, spiritual communion with God.

• Equality – Christian Science believes women are equal to men. No discrimination is made among races.

• God – The unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is Life, Truth, and Love. Jesus, the Messiah, is divine, not a deity.

• Golden Rule – Believers strive to do unto others as they would have others do unto them.

Life Church
They work to be merciful, just, and pure.

• Heaven and Hell – Heaven and hell exist not as places or as parts of the afterlife but as states of mind. Mary Baker Eddy taught that sinners make their own hell by doing evil, and saints make their own heaven by doing right.

• Homosexuality – Christian Science promotes sex within marriage. However, the denomination also avoids judging others, affirming the spiritual identity each person receives from God.

• Salvation - Man is saved through Christ, the promised Messiah. By his life and works, Jesus shows the way to man’s unity with God. Christian Scientists affirm the virgin birth, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ as evidence of divine love.

Christian Science Practices

• Spiritual Healing – Christian Science sets itself apart from other denominations by its emphasis on spiritual healing. Physical illness and sin are states of mind, correctable through properly applied prayer. While believers routinely refused medical care in the past, recently relaxed guidelines allow them to choose between prayer and conventional medical treatment. Christian Scientists turn first to the church’s practitioners, trained people who pray for members, often from a great distance.

Believers hold that, as with the healings of Jesus, distance makes no difference. In Christian Science, the object of prayer is spiritual understanding.

• Priesthood of Believers – The church has no ordained ministers.

• Services – Readers lead Sunday services, reading aloud from the Bible and from Science and Health. Lesson sermons, prepared by the Mother Church in Boston, Massachusetts, give insight into prayer and spiritual principles.

To learn more about Christian Science beliefs, visit the official Christian Science website.

(Sources: ChristianScience.com, ReligionFacts.com, and Religions of America, edited by Leo Rosten.)*

 

[Hatikvah]

Yes, I had the privilege of going to the Church of Christ, Scientist Mother Church in Boston, Massachusetts. They have one of the largest pipe organs in the world (and boy, it is big). I did not attend a service, but it was intriguing on the tour to learn the history. Their world headquarters are right next door.

 

[LutheranScholar]

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Sunday, September 4, 2016

Unless otherwise indicated, Scriptural quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Prelude

Andante tranquillo (from Sonata III) by Felix Mendelssohn
Hymn to the Moon & Earth Carol (from St. Francis Suite) by Richard Purvis

Guest First Reader: Robert MacKusick

Hymn 52

Mary Alice Dayton

Eternal Mind the Potter is,
And thought th’ eternal clay:
The hand that fashions is divine,
His works pass not away.
Man is the noblest work of God,
His beauty, power and grace,
Immortal; perfect as his Mind
Reflected face to face.

God could not make imperfect man
His model infinite;
Unhallowed thought He could not plan,
Love’s work and Love must fit.
Life, Truth and Love the pattern make,
Christ is the perfect heir;
The clouds of sense roll back, and show
The form divinely fair.

God’s will is done; His kingdom come;
The Potter’s work is plain.
The longing to be good and true
Has brought the light again.
And man does stand as God’s own child,
The image of His love.
Let gladness ring from every tongue,
And heaven and earth approve.

Scriptural Selection

Psalm 139:1-18

Prayer

Silent prayer, followed by the audible repetition of the Lord’s Prayer with its spiritual interpretation by Mary Baker Eddy (Read in context)

Hymn 211

Mother’s Evening Prayer
Mary Baker Eddy

O gentle presence, peace and joy and power;
O Life divine, that owns each waiting hour,
Thou Love that guards the nestling’s faltering flight!
Keep Thou my child on upward wing tonight.

Love is our refuge; only with mine eye
Can I behold the snare, the pit, the fall:
His habitation high is here, and nigh,
His arm encircles me, and mine, and all.

O make me glad for every scalding tear,
For hope deferred, ingratitude, disdain!
Wait, and love more for every hate, and fear
No ill,—since God is good, and loss is gain.

Beneath the shadow of His mighty wing;
In that sweet secret of the narrow way,
Seeking and finding, with the angels sing:
“Lo, I am with you alway,”—watch and pray.

No snare, no fowler, pestilence or pain;
No night drops down upon the troubled breast,
When heaven’s aftersmile earth’s tear-drops gain,
And mother finds her home and heav’nly rest.

Notices

Solo

Soloist: Rebecca Minor

Title: I Am

Music by Désirée Goyette
Lyrics: Désirée Goyette

I am Love’s child only reflecting light
Far from illusion I live never to dwell in night
One eternal day holy, sacred, pure
I am the child of “I Am” and one with Love, I am whole

Flowing unified each of us held inside
Love’s all-inclusive embrace, Outstretched, eternal, wide
Trusting we receive only what Mind conceives
We are what Truth know we are and one in Love, we are whole.

Copyright 2000
Lightchild Publishing

Golden Text and Responsive Reading

Golden Text:

Genesis 1:27 God
. . . God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Responsive Reading:

Psalms 8:1, 3, 4, 6 (to ; 89:14–17 (to ; 17:15
1 O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.
3 When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands;
14 Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face.
15 Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance.
16 In thy name shall they rejoice all the day: and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted.
17 For thou art the glory of their strength:
15 As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.

The Golden Text and Responsive Reading are from the Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson, a publication copyrighted by the Christian Science Publishing Society.

Bible Lesson-sermon

From the Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson

Offertory and collection

Elevation in A-flat (from Heures mystiques, Op. 29) by Léon Boëllmann

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Hymn 406

Margaret Glenn Matters

O Love, our Mother, ever near,
To Thee we turn from doubt and fear!
In perfect peace our thoughts abide;
Our hearts now in this truth confide:
Man is the child of God.

O Light, in Thy light we can see
That man is ever one with Thee.
In love our lives Thou dost enfold,
And now our waiting hopes behold
That man is God’s own child.

O joy that ever will remain,
Midst seeming sorrow, hate, and pain,
Our hearts to fill with this glad song
That soars above the mists of wrong:
Man is the loved of Love.

Scientific Statement of Being

From Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, p.468, line 8

Correlative Scripture

I John 3: 1-3

Benediction

Deuteronomy 33:12

Postlude

Pièce d’orgue (Fantasia in G Major ) BWV 572 by Johann Sebastian Bach

Copyright

Due to third party copyright ownership, not all hymn words from the Christian Science Hymnal and theChristian Science Hymnal Supplement Hymns 430-462 are posted. Copyright to many hymns is owned by The Christian Science Board of Directors. Hymn words may not be used or reprinted without permission. For more information email permissions@csps.com
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Meet The Pastor

The Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy together serve as pastor for Sunday church services and Wednesday testimony meetings at all Christian Science churches, societies, and informal groups around the world.*
christianscience.com/publications-and-activities/online-services-and-events/online-sunday-service

 

[LutheranScholar]

I guess that would be an outline for one of their services… rather different from an LCMS Divine Service:

*Parts of the Liturgy
Learn more about the part of the Liturgy

Invocation
Confession and Absolution
Kyrie
Hymn of Praise
Word of God and Sermon
Creed
Offertory
Sanctus
Words of Our Lord
Agnus Dei
Distribution
Nunc Dimittis
Benediction*

lcms.org/page.aspx?pid=1116

 

[pensmama87]

My grandmother was raised Christian Scientist and has told me some interesting stories about growing up. She never saw a doctor until her 20s.

It’s a very odd belief system.

 

[LutheranScholar]

My grandmother was raised Christian Scientist and has told me some interesting stories about growing up. She never saw a doctor until her 20s.

It’s a very odd belief system.

From what I see, it looks very Spartan ( bare essentials, no daily devotionals or prayer books, the Bible and *Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures *being their two sources of authority). It looks very pantheistic, almost like a New Aged " Christianity."

 

[pensmama87]

From what I see, it looks very Spartan ( bare essentials, no daily devotionals or prayer books, the Bible and *Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures *being their two sources of authority). It looks very pantheistic, almost like a New Aged " Christianity."

Yes, that would fit as a description.

There is a “reading room” near us and I’ve never quite figured out what they are for. There’s also the Christian Science Monitor, but the paper doesn’t seem to have a religious focus.

 

[LutheranScholar]

Yes, that would fit as a description.

There is a “reading room” near us and I’ve never quite figured out what they are for. There’s also the Christian Science Monitor, but the paper doesn’t seem to have a religious focus.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Science_Reading_Room

I reckon it’s a Christian Scientist’s library/ bookstore. After a busy day at work, I guess I can see the appeal of a quiet place to withdraw to so you can read and contemplate. Not so long ago, I would go to Morning daily Mass before work and Eucharistic Adoration after work to get myself into focus. Now, it’s just Bible Reading, the daily Rosary and then Concordia study with the morning and evening Prayers.

 

[arthra]

There is one aspect of Christian Science that I rather like and that is that women at the time of Mary Baker Eddy (1821 - 1910) were virtually unknown in the medical profession, that is, as doctors and such. I have to admire her for her pluck…

Mark Twain wrote of her:

“…she is interesting enough without an amicable agreement. In several ways she is the most interesting woman that ever lived, and the most extraordinary. The same may be said of her career, and the same may be said of its chief result. She started from nothing.”

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Baker_Eddy#Use_of_medicine

 

[pensmama87]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Science_Reading_Room

I reckon it’s a Christian Scientist’s library/ bookstore. After a busy day at work, I guess I can see the appeal of a quiet place to withdraw to so you can read and contemplate. Not so long ago, I would go to Morning daily Mass before work and Eucharistic Adoration after work to get myself into focus. Now, it’s just Bible Reading, the daily Rosary and then Concordia study with the morning and evening Prayers.

That link is interesting to me. One of the most puzzling things about them (to me anyway) is that they are frequently located in prime business areas, as our local one is. I’ve never seen someone in there, though it is open mostly during normal business hours. How on earth do they pay the rent?? Is CS still that popular? (Although the reading rooms are for everyone, I suppose.)

 

[Kielbasi]

My grandmother was raised Christian Scientist and has told me some interesting stories about growing up. She never saw a doctor until her 20s.

It’s a very odd belief system.

Considering the age that Ms. Eddy lived in, it might not seem quite so odd.

Medical science really wasn’t able to do much about many common ailments in the 19th century. Antibiotics hadn’t been discovered yet, most treatments weren’t any more effective than just hoping conditions resolved on their own- which they sometimes do.

This led to many alternative medical systems, osteopathy, chiropractic, homeopathy being discovered during that time.

Since the 19th Century was an age of faith, at least in the USA, new spiritual ideas like Christian Science were also tried. To be fair, activity at Catholic shrines for healing was also a lot higher during the same era.

Now people are just less inclined to seek the miraculous, as medical science has advanced. Christian Science has declined as it is just less appealing with effectual treatments available elsewhere

 

[Padres1969]

That link is interesting to me. One of the most puzzling things about them (to me anyway) is that they are frequently located in prime business areas, as our local one is. I’ve never seen someone in there, though it is open mostly during normal business hours. How on earth do they pay the rent?? **Is CS still that popular? **(Although the reading rooms are for everyone, I suppose.)

No it’s not. They don’t publish membership statistics, but as I understand it they’ve undergone a very significant decline in membership since their heyday early in the 20th century, with possibly as few as 80-85,000 members left in the world.

My knowledge of CS is relatively limited, but given their stances on Christ and their somewhat pantheistic theology would they even be classified as a Christian church?

 

[LutheranScholar]

No it’s not. They don’t publish membership statistics, but as I understand it they’ve undergone a very significant decline in membership since their heyday early in the 20th century, with possibly as few as 80-85,000 members left in the world.

My knowledge of CS is relatively limited, but given their stances on Christ and their somewhat pantheistic theology would they even be classified as a Christian church?

I’m pretty sure they would fall under the New Thought Movement newthoughtalliance.org/about/what-is-new-thought.html together with the Unity Church and some other movements unity.org/about-us/our-philosophy, divinescience.com/beliefs/ds_beliefs.htm, christianscience.com/what-is-christian-science/beliefs-and-teachings.

 

[Hatikvah]

My knowledge of CS is relatively limited, but given their stances on Christ and their somewhat pantheistic theology would they even be classified as a Christian church?

They clearly identify as Christian.

 

[Peter_J]

There is one aspect of Christian Science that I rather like and that is that women at the time of Mary Baker Eddy (1821 - 1910) were virtually unknown in the medical profession, that is, as doctors and such. I have to admire her for her pluck…

Your admiration is misplaced. Many children in the Christian Science community have died because their parents refused to give them necessary medical care.

 

[steido01]

My knowledge of CS is relatively limited, but given their stances on Christ and their somewhat pantheistic theology would they even be classified as a Christian church?

No. Sadly, they’re neither Christian nor scientists.

 

[Anne1964]

My great aunt’s family were Christian Scientists. My great aunt lived to be 93 and only saw a medical doctor once in her life. She did see an optometrist for glasses.

When I stayed with my great aunt for two weeks every summer as a child she would often take me with her to the Christian Scientist church as she was a reader for their services.

Sometimes I would sit in the reading room during services and sometimes I would listen to my great aunt read. I don’t recall the reading room as having much interesting for children although I did read their newspaper, The Christian Science Monitor.

My mother grew up near my great aunt in the 1920s-30s and she told many stories about how neglected the Christian Scientist children were. I recall one story in particular about a boy who had such a large tumor on his back that he walked bent over and had to wear a dress.

They believe that sickness is in the mind and that if they pray enough they can rid themselves of the sickness. Many children died due to this belief.

 

[adamhovey1988]

y’all aren’t going to believe this but I actually have the book. I’m not sure which ones but I know I have it it is lying around somewhere and I’m not sure why I have it but it’s this big book that says Mary Baker Eddy