Debate

This afternoon I attended a session of the Brisbane Writers Festival.  Six distinguished writers and speakers debated the topic: Reading the Bible is good for you. The arguments for and against were very interesting and I came away pondering the topic and arguing on both sides of the question.  Let’s face it the Bible is not like any other book.  As one speaker remarked, for a start it’s a library of books; you don’t just read it from start to finish and move on.  Like a great work of art, it may speak to you at first glance, but it can be appreciated on many levels, and with even a little background understanding, the work becomes more meaningful.

But it can be puzzling and difficult, not to mention contradictory.  It can also transform thought, lifting it out of the realm of the mundane. The Bible is the world’s best-seller and five of the six debaters acknowledged that it is a significant book.  However, all agreed that – sadly – it has been used to justify unenlightened and narrow-minded initiatives both in the past and even to this day. 

Enter Mary Baker Eddy’s book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.  What a remarkable title for a book – a book purporting to unlock those Bible truths just like a key opens a door. 

As we are studying Luke this month, I thought I’d check if there are any references to Luke’s gospel in Science and Health.  Well, there are 39 direct quotes, just from Luke.  The first one (high-lighted in purple below) comes from Luke 1: 33 and is found in Chapter 16, The Apocalypse, page 565 –

Led on by the grossest element of mortal mind, Herod

       decreed the death of every male child in order that the
       man Jesus, the masculine representative of the                      The conflict
12    spiritual idea, might never hold sway and de-                         with purity
       prive Herod of his crown. The impersonation of the
       spiritual idea had a brief history in the earthly life of our
15    Master; but "of his kingdom there shall be no end,"
       for Christ, God's idea, will eventually rule all nations
       and peoples — imperatively, absolutely, finally — with di-
18          vine Science.

Now that opens up new views of those eight words from the Bible.  How can that not be good for you?