Mary Baker Eddy’s contributions to world thought

The subhead to this should be “one student’s perspective”!

Because even though I am listing some pretty significant contributions that occur to me, I bet there are way more that I don’t know or realize — AND there are contributions that haven’t yet become evident. Seriously. Mary Baker Eddy was that profound a visionary. My point is that many of her ideas, presented and published in the late 1800’s, are actually leavening what people, scientists and thought-leaders are saying today.

Some ideas may not be overtly stated yet, but I believe you can see evidence of people yearning for better spiritual insight because their current beliefs are falling short.

OK, so at the risk of looking too personal in my own scope, here’s my list.

1. God as both Father and Mother. This is huge for it unites the feminine and masculine qualities in one divine being. Since mankind is the reflection of this divine Being, then it means each of us is a reflection of this whole (fem +masc) being. Think about what all those spiritual qualities can possibly be, starting with Love. Any time you are expressing unconditional love you are reflecting the quality of your Father-Mother. And it means that there is no dominant or lesser gender.

2. The clear distinction between the Christ and Jesus. Oooh, also huge because it clears up the confusion (to me) of Christ Jesus being God (how could a finite form be an unlimited God?), yet Jesus performed God-like healings. Eddy describes the Christ as the unlimited, eternal and immortal divine nature of God. Jesus is the embodiment of the Christ, the human that demonstrated the Christ. Think about what that means to each of us: We can do what Jesus did, demonstrate the Christ, the divinely spiritual nature of God.

3. The importance of “thought” and its effect on physical condition. Eddy quotes Shakespeare in the forward to her book, Science and Health: “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” This is paired with the verse from St. John: “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” The whole basis for spiritual healing is spiritualizing thought by understanding, believing and knowing that all reality is divinely spiritual, not physical. What is evidenced on the body, in relationships, lifestyle situations is externalized thought, either good or bad. Today, medical science accepts that 60-90% of all diseases are stress-related. Stress is one’s reaction (mental decision) to a situation. The American Heart Association states that if you want to lower your stress (and lower your potential for heart disease), change your reaction. The world is getting closer to perceiving spiritual healing.
4. Consistent, replicable, scientific spiritual healing. To Eddy, the God of Love, our Father-Mother, created a universe of harmony and supreme intelligence. All is in order and all is for the benefit of His complete creation. And He is the only power and the All-power. Therefore, good effects (like freedom from sin, sickness and death) are not exceptions or miracles, they are normal and the result of this All-power.  However, experiencing this life of harmony requires an individual understanding of who God is, who we are as His creation and what is our relationship to Him. As this is done consistently — not blindly or capriciously — we can overcome any UNnatural situations in our health and living conditions.

5. The universality of non-denominational Christianity. Sigh. Is there not a better time to be understanding this than now? The Church of the Christ is beyond denominational borders, rituals and practices. It embraces all life, regardless of faith practices, and excludes no one. Is there not a yearning for this unconditional community? Here is Eddy’s definition of Church:

CHURCH. The structure of Truth and Love; whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle. The Church is that institution, which affords proof of its utility and is found elevating the race, rousing the dormant understanding from material beliefs to the apprehension of spiritual ideas and the demonstration of divine Science, thereby casting out devils, or error, and healing the sick.

I am not making any of this up, although the interpretation is certainly personal. All these ideas come from Eddy’s significant work on practical spirituality, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. A great overview is in what is called the platform of Christian Science, a 32-point briefing, pages 330-340.

I owe my life to the ideas in this book. The statements I have proven in overcoming grave illnesses and severe life trials. And there are thousands of people who have read Science and Health like me and are contributing their spiritualized thought to the world mental atmosphere.

Womanhood and theology

In the general news (web and paper) today there was a story about the passing of Reverend Letty Russell, recognized and honored as a “pioneer of feminist theology.” Rev. Russell began her illustrious career in the 1950’s as pastor of the East Harlem Protestant Parish in New York City.

With all due respect to Rev. Russell’s significant accomplishments, I think she stands on the shoulders of a few courageous women in the mid-1800’s. These women, initiating the fight for women’s rights, radicalized the interpretation of the Bible from a feminine point of view as a basis for equal rights.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott and Mary McClintock were among the organizers of the first Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, July 19 and 20, 1848.

To read their Declaration of Sentiments is to get a vivid picture of how women were relegated to subservient status in civil and social standing; and how these astute, brilliant, courageous women turned to the sacred authority of the Bible as well as the revered text of the Declaration of Independence as their basis for equal rights for all.

What the women were fighting was a male interpretation of the Bible as codifying men as the dominant sex and women as the weaker or lesser sex. The Declaration’s Founding Mothers’ understanding of biblical theology elevated woman and cast all humanity as equal. At the time this was a very radical view of women in theology. (Interesting to note, famed African-American abolitionist Frederick Douglass attended the Convention and signed the Declaration.)

Twenty-five years later, in 1873, another woman took on society’s skewed interpretation of the Bible by writing a revolutionary Bible commentary that has at its core the definition of God as both Father and Mother. The author of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, is credited with being the first religious writer to present God in this way. The theology of Science and Health, Christian Science, has woman firmly in place as the symbol of pure Christianity.

Check this out:

The ideal woman corresponds to Life and to Love. In divine Science, we have not as much authority for considering God masculine, as we have for considering Him feminine, for Love imparts the clearest idea of Deity.

This is not to put women ahead of men — au contraire, in Eddy’s view of Christian theology “woman” is the highest ideal of manhood, or rather wholehood, the complete being created by God.

To emphasize her point about the importance of the feminine attributes of God, a later edition of Science and Health in the 1870’s used the feminine pronouns (She, Her, etc.) when referring to God. (This was only done in that one edition; subsequent editions used the conventional male pronouns. Evidently the term “Father-Mother” was radical enough!)

In the second to last chapter of the book, Apocalypse, an exegesis of the biblical chapter of Revelation, Eddy writes her understanding of the meaning of “woman” in this ancient and profound vision. Whatever you understand Revelation to mean, this interpretation will give you a deeply satisfying insight. Worth the read.

By the way, Science and Health is still a radical commentary on the Bible!

My heartfelt gratitude to all the women pioneers in theology. Each succeeding generation of women AND men stand on their shoulders. And it proves, yet again, that it doesn’t require an army to change thought…only a few enlightened, committed and courageous women.

The strength and power of gentleness

The word for today is “gentle.”

Every day I think about one quality of God that I want to affirm is His, relate to my true spiritual identity, and live/practice throughout the day. This morning, when my husband and I were handling one of our cats (Roy), “gentle” came strongly to me.

Roy has had some kind of physical problem for quite some time causing him to throw up more than hairballs and plants. We have prayed earnestly, which brings some relief, but there was a bad bout last weekend so we took him to the vet.

All the various tests came out positive, not indicating a conclusive issue, so the vet prescribed a week of medications, 4 of them 2 times a day. He apologized there were so many to give him because he knows how hard it is to get cats to open their mouths and swallow medicine. Cats are not like dogs in that regard.

But my husband and I both resolved that we were giving Roy this kind of care out of love for him. So we don’t struggle (neither does Roy!) and get anxious, and we speak to him and hold him with so much love and affection. And today what came to me was that being gentle with him means we have all the mental strength to do what is our highest sense of right and that Roy can only be blessed by this.

And we are continuing to pray. Just because we have turned to medical support to give Roy relief doesn’t mean we have stopped (even temporarily) to see him as a spiritual being, loved and cared for by the Father-Mother of us all. Nothing has changed in this regard.

This little furry body is a temporary shell that for the time needs temporary help. But the permanency of Roy’s identity is already established as healthy, whole, pure. This is how he was created and there is no power outside of the divine Creator to make Roy any less of what his perfect (purrrfect?) nature is.

I was reading a Bible passage today from 2 Timothy:

“And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient”

At first I thought this was a cool way to think about working with Roy, but then I looked up the passage in the contemporary-language Bible, The Message:

 ”God’s servant must not be argumentative, but a gentle listener and a teacher who keeps cool, working firmly but patiently with those who refuse to obey.”

And I realized this applies to a running disagreement I have been having recently with a colleague, always via email! What a great guide for how to live as God’s loyal servant in the face of contentiousness. “Working firmly but patiently” is the gentle way to adhere to the principle of being.

Regardless of the outcome, I have to live the right way right now. Which actually is an outcome in itself!

The Bible verses go on to imply that God is correcting any misbehavior in the best possible way and that is not my job. My role is to be the gentle listener and teacher.

Since I am the reflection of God, then I already possess the quality of gentleness and NOT the quality “striving.” So I can do that with my colleague.

I figure my kitty Roy has taught me that!

Birds sing BEFORE the dawn

This is totally true. Where I live in Santa Fe is snug up against the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo mountains at about 7200 feet. The place is thick with pinons (smallish pine trees) and chamisas (big blue-green bushes). Coyotes prowl through the night and black bears come down to raid garbage cans in the spring. And the birds sing quite a RACKET in the dark just before the first light comes over the Sangres.

I love it. The cacophony wakes me and the cats up and just makes me feel happy.

That same non-specific happy feeling hit me at around noon today…and now, over 4 hours later I am still feeling this way. It is a relief — and notable, actually — because the last few days I have been feeling poohy…not bad but not good. And I usually feel good so this feeling, as I say, was notable.

I know why I have been feeling poohy, and I know why I am now feeling happy. Both are conscious decisions.

Currently I volunteer for a non-profit organization that is going through significant growing pains. It’s a neat organization and one that I wholeheartedly support, but the “sturm und drang” of working through old and new issues with a large diverse team has been getting me very down. The reasons are not important. This is the cloud I have been living under for several days.

However! Whenever I get into a funk, I dislike the feeling so much that I always turn to prayer to eliminate the funky feeling. Normal for me is feeling at peace, even buoyant. So I have been praying everyday to regain my natural state of peace. And today, it returned in a kind of golden wash…like the dawn always comes each morning. There wasn’t a big “ta DAH” or a big flash of insight that suddenly woke me up. It just quietly snuck in…a soft washing away of the dark cloud so that the ever-constant peace was revealed again. I’ve come to know that the peace is what is permanent and the cloud is temporary.

My prayer for the past few days has focused on God being in control of all His universe, which would be every living thing. All creation is spiritual, and even though we appear as mortals to each other, the dominant force of each identity is spiritual. This mortal condition may be our best understanding of our real (spiritual) selves, but it is still a teeny, tiny glimpse of what is spiritually true. So my prayer is to see the spiritual as more real than the mortal….starting with me .

This morning, I read this quote from Science and Health:

“It is our ignorance of God, the divine Principle, which produces apparent discord, and the right understanding of Him restores harmony.”

So true. Whenever I get into the funk it is because I am thinking, consciously or unconsciously, that there are people NOT created by God who can act un-Godlike and get away with it, or there could be a bad situation that is outside of God’s harmonious creation. Hellooooo! The Bible indicates that God is All-in-all. So who, what or how could there be anything OTHER than God’s good?

The more I understand about who God truly is as divine Love and all good, about who I am as His loved creation, and about what His inseparable relation is to me, the more steady and secure I feel surrounded and protected by His love. This is my natural state.

Ooooh, I read a great interpretation of a familiar Bible verse today that fits right here. I was reading the King James version:

“For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.”

Okay, so here is the verse from the contemporary Message Bible:

“We live and move in him, can’t get away from him! One of your poets said it well: ‘We’re the God-created.’ “

This isn’t a choice for us. Since we are the God-created and can’t get away from Him (why would you want to!!) then we are the beneficiaries of all His blessings: good, love and abundance.

So, whatever happens with my non-profit group, it can’t be outside God’s love and goodness. There may be more thrashing, but I am not going to be distracted from what I know about God’s allness. I am maintaining my peace. And I am expecting the dominant force of true spiritual goodness to be revealed.

Boy, I am feeling pretty happy!

Expecting good results

How many times have you gone to a meeting or social event with a preconceived notion of how it is going to turn out? And whatever your expectations are, good or bad, the meeting or event usually follows your expectation. Unfortunately, too often I have negative expectations.

But the ironic thing is, I would prefer to have a good result — a good meeting, a fun social event. Who wouldn’t? So the real question is, Why don’t I have a positive expectation going in to the event?

There could be valid reasons, like there are big issues at the meetings with lots of differing opinions…or I don’t know anyone at the social event and it might be uncomfortable, etc.

Whatever the reasons are, they set you up for a negative experience. And that’s not a great way to go in to a meeting or event!

I am thinking about this today particularly because I have one of “those” meetings coming up…lots of big issues to discuss, many different opinions, emotional reactions.  And I am thinking I don’t want to go in with this bad expectation. How can I change my thinking? How can I expect good to be present in the meeting?

A good place to start is with the divine Mind, the super intelligence that guides the entire consciousness of the universe. In my spiritual study, based on the Bible commentary Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, there is only one Mind, one Love, one Creator. Since there is only One then there must be only one super-power controlling Its creation.

And since this Creator is Love, then the creation and every effect of this creation must be good. Where, then, is room for bad effects or results?

In contentious meetings it always seems to come down to lots of opinions and personal agendas…lots of egos. Then it escalates with emotional reactions. And hey, I am not exempt from getting caught up in this. I have gone into meetings with my arguments all set for defending my own point of view — vigorously.

But I have also seen how the atmosphere can change from electric to calm when I stop defending and start listening…when I listen to the other points of view I get a fuller perspective. And usually a middle-ground that is acceptable to most becomes obvious.

I think I know how to approach my upcoming meeting. I need to drop my personal view of “ego”: my own and what I perceive is other people’s egos.  In other words, there can’t be a bunch of little egos running amok in the Divine consciousness. I really need to have present in my thinking that there is only ONE Ego, the divine Mind who controls all consciousness. Here’s a definition of this Ego from Science and Health:

I, or Ego. Divine Principle; Spirit; Soul; incorporeal, unerring, immortal, and eternal Mind.

By affirming that THIS Ego is the only power in control, then I am not focusing on all the supposed other egos or reacting to them. My responsibility is to reflect and respond to the qualities of the divine Ego. In this Ego there is no negativity or hurt, only harmony and good. There is only blessing for all. What is this Ego communicating to me right there in the meeting? How can I be an instrument for good, instead of adding my personal “two cents”?

Even IF there were little egos running around, not one of them has the power to challenge the power of the divine Ego. This yielding of a personal ego to the Divine begins with me. I must affirm the ever presence and omnipotence of right thinking that only blesses, never harms. By affirming, I am aligning with the Divine…I am on the side of good.

When I know there is only Mind who creates and causes good, then there can only be good results.

This is a much better expectation going in to my meeting!

Getting rid of obstacles

Boy, I am surrounded by obstacles today. So I am praying about how to get rid of them. And, since I am right now knowing “the end from the beginning”, I plan on following up with another blog on the effects of the prayer: practical progress and resolution.

Sidebar: what is knowing “the end from the beginning”? This is a phrase from the Bible and it essentially encourages those who believe in the allness of God’s love to believe and expect to see the effect of God’s abundant goodness (the end) right now, whatever the condition (the beginning). Because He has purposed it.

I have been working on a big project for a couple of months now and while there have been very good indications of support, several key people and organizations I need to hear from have not responded to me in many weeks. Nothing, not even an email saying “Huh?”. So this morning I was thinking, Gee, I need to prayerfully consider what are the obstacles here preventing needed communication.

Then I get an email from a friend on another project asking for prayers because she is feeling overwhelmed by too much work (much of it confusing) and too little time. And expected project completion is being hindered.

AND THEN I get a call from a good friend on another project….appears we have a cash flow problem with some emergency funds needed right away. Without the funds, necessary work is prevented from continuing.

Seems to me that the common denominator in all these issues is the interruption of the flow of progress: flow of communication, flow of ideas, flow of cash — flow of beneficial work. Not only that, there is an element of fear — a fear of not getting necessary work done. In each of these cases the purpose of the work is to bless a whole lot of people — in fact, improving the lives of others is implied in the mission statement of each above organization.

When the motive of an activity is good, I like to think that activity is “on the side of the angels.” IOW, it has a spiritual basis so is automatically anchored in the all-powerful foundation of the Divine. With this foundation comes all the characteristics of the Divine: goodness, strength, intelligence, righteousness, etc. These Divine qualities are also the armor of protection for any right activity.

To me, any motive of good is inseparable from the Divine and actually flows FROM the Divine to each of us. Like, when an idea comes to you or me to do something good, where does that idea come from? In my spiritual study, I have come to believe that it comes from the Divine consciousness of good, that ever-present atmosphere that surrounds all being and we learn to express.

This is a constant flow of good, and it can’t be interrupted or separated from its source of Divine good. I mean, who or what could be more powerful than the Divine? Not only that, this flow of good can’t ever cause harm by being too much in one situation and too little in another. It is abundant good with only constant positive effects.

So what is hindering, blocking, preventing, interrupting the flow of progress of all these ideas? Is it a thing, or people, or “circumstances”? Can fear? Does anything have the power to stop the flow of good from the Divine?

In praying about this, I need to see that the basis of all the activities is spiritual, not material. Spiritual ideas are the basis of all these activities, which then get translated into practical action. But the basis, the source, the genesis, is spiritual.

This is a favorite excerpt of mine, from an article titled “Angels”, by Mary Baker Eddy:

“God gives you His spiritual ideas, and in turn, they give you daily supplies. Never ask for tomorrow: it is enough that divine Love is an ever-present help; and if you wait, never doubting, you will have all you need every moment. What a glorious inheritance is given to us through the understanding of omnipresent Love! More we cannot ask: more we do not want: more we cannot have. This sweet assurance is the ‘Peace, be still’ to all human fears, to suffering of every sort.”

The ideas that are needed to progress in any project are always flowing, without interruption. There is nothing to be afraid of.

Should I ask the Divine for more time, more money, more people to progress the work? No, any true value is in the idea first, which leads to practical steps. Will more time, more money, more people come as a result? Possibly…but what will definitely happen is that whatever is needed to continue the progress of a valuable activity will come as a result of the strength and goodness of the spiritual idea.

This conviction, this clarity and assuredness in the constant Divine guidance, is what is meant by knowing “the end from the beginning.” So I already know the end! He has purposed only good.