Christian Science is the science of Christianity – the practical application of Christian ideas to everyday life. It is both a religious teaching and a study of healing, through prayer, found in the Bible’s universal truths.
Christian Scientists believe in one, infinite God who is All and all-good. They believe that God is not distant and unknowable, but that God is all-encompassing and always present, and that each individual is loved by God, cared for by Him, and made in God’s image—spiritual, not material.
Christian Scientists believe in the Bible and in Christ Jesus as the Son of God, or promised Messiah. And they believe that Jesus’ teachings and healing work expressed scientific Christianity, or the application of the laws of God—laws which are still practical and provable today, by anyone, anywhere. Christian Scientists consider the Commandments, as well as Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, to be central to their lives and practice of Christianity.
Above all, Christian Scientists believe in the saving, healing power of God’ s love—that no one is beyond redemption, that no problem is too entrenched or overwhelming to be addressed and healed. In other words, Christian Scientists don’t believe that salvation occurs at some point in the future, but that the presence of God’s goodness can be experienced here and now—and by everyone.
Christian Science is a religion that was founded by Mary Baker Eddy in 1866. After a severe fall, and slim diagnosis, she called for her Bible. After reading two accounts of Jesus healing, she recovered. Determined to understand what she had just experienced, Eddy spent years in quiet prayer and study. Though she had no intention of founding a faith, she went on to write the book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, taught people how to heal in the manner she discovered, and founded the First Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston, MA.
The Christian Science Society of Aspen Snowmass is a branch of this main established “Mother Church.” Christian Scientists rely on an understanding of Divine Law — benevolent, healing, saving, and practical — for healing and help in their lives.
Christian Scientists understand God as all loving, and only loving, and use the terms Truth, Life, Love, Spirit, Soul, Principle and Mind as synonyms for God. Above all, Christian Science is practical and provable.
First Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston, Massachusetts.
Photo credit: Don Seymour, Used with permission.
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