What is Christian Science?

Other Beliefs & ReligionsIn theological review

The short answer

Christian Science was founded by Mary Baker Eddy, whose book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures is its textbook beside the Bible. It teaches that God is divine Mind, that matter, sickness and sin are errors of mortal mind rather than realities, and that Jesus showed the way to overcome them rather than dying to bear sin. Scripture answers that confessing Jesus Christ come in the flesh is the test of truth, that sin is real, and that Jesus healed real bodies and bore real sins in his own body.

The fuller answer

Christian Science is not simply Christianity with an interest in healing. Mary Baker Eddy founded the Church of Christ, Scientist in 1879, and her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, first published in 1875 and revised by her for the rest of her life, is read in its services alongside the Bible as its authorised interpretation. In Eddy's system, God is Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth and Love. Matter is unreal, a false belief of mortal mind. Sickness and sin are therefore errors to be corrected by right understanding, not realities to be treated or forgiven.

By this you will know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,

1 John 4:2 (BSB)

John gives the test this system struggles to pass. Every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. The flesh must be real for the confession to mean anything. Christian Science teaches that Jesus and Christ are distinct, Jesus being the human man and Christ the divine idea, and that his body and death were not what they appeared. John binds the truth to the flesh itself. A Christ who only seemed to inhabit matter is precisely the kind of teaching the apostle tells his readers to refuse.

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

1 John 1:8 (BSB)

The same letter answers the claim about sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Christian Science treats sin as an error of belief with no real existence. The Bible treats it as a real rebellion with real guilt, which is why it needs real forgiveness rather than better thinking. The pastoral edge matters here. A person taught that sickness is unreal may delay care for a treatable illness. Christians honour the desire behind the teaching, freedom from suffering, while insisting that bodies are real, doctors are a gift, and prayer trusts a real God with real pain.

This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases.”

Matthew 8:17 (BSB)

Matthew quotes Isaiah over Jesus' healings: he took our illnesses and bore our diseases. The healings of Matthew 8 are not lessons in correcting false beliefs about bodies. Lepers are cleansed, fevers leave, a paralysed servant is made well at a distance, and Matthew says this fulfils prophecy about a servant who carries sickness itself. Those healings point forward to the cross, where Jesus bears sin in a real body that really dies and really rises. Christian Science keeps the language of healing while removing the body, the sin and the cross that make the healing good news.

Sources

Berean Standard Bible (BSB)
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures

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Who is the Holy Spirit?The Holy Spirit is God himself, the third person of the Trinity, not a force, a feeling, or God's power in the abstract. He is there at creation, hovering over the waters. He speaks, teaches, and can be lied to, and when Peter confronts Ananias he says the lie told to the Holy Spirit was a lie told to God.What is faith?Faith is trusting God's word and God's Son with your whole weight. Hebrews defines it as the assurance of what we hope for and the certainty of what we do not see. It is not believing without evidence, and it is not mere agreement that something is true. It is the hand that receives what grace gives.Why does God allow suffering?The Bible does not give one reason for every instance, and anyone who offers you one is overselling. It does give a frame: the world is fallen and groaning, human evil does real damage, God is patient toward a world he intends to judge and remake, and in the meantime he has entered the suffering himself in Jesus Christ. The final answer is not an explanation but an ending: a day when he wipes away every tear.Do all religions lead to God?No, and the reason is not tribal loyalty: the faiths contradict each other about God, sin, and salvation, so they cannot all be roads to the same place. More decisively, Jesus did not present himself as one guide among many, saying, I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me. Christians can respect their neighbours of other faiths, and should, without pretending the differences are small.