Higher Criticism

In my daily consecutive reading of Mrs. Eddy’s Prose Works, I came this morning to page 136 of Miscellany.  Mrs. Eddy explains why she has created a Trust to handle her property, and says she has done it so that she “may have more peace, and time for spiritual thought and the higher criticism.”

“Higher criticism” was a phrase I had been vaguely aware of, but had never looked it up.  So I did just that and found this very enlightening – from New World Encyclopedia. http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/higher_criticism

            Historical criticism or higher criticism is a branch of literary analysis that investigates the origins of a text. "Higher" criticism is used in contrast with Lower criticism (or textual criticism), whose goal is to determine the original form of a text from among the variants.

Higher criticism, whether biblical, classical, Byzantine or medieval, focuses on the sources of a document to determine who wrote it, when it was written, and in which location. In biblical studies higher criticism is used to address the synoptic problem, the question of how the texts of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are related to one another. In some cases, such as with several Pauline epistles, higher criticism confirms the traditional understanding of authorship. In other cases, higher criticism contradicts church tradition (as with the gospels) or even the words of the Bible itself (as with 2 Peter). The documentary hypothesis, which attempts to chart the origins of the Torah, is another key finding of the work of higher criticism.

The work of higher criticism helps modern readers to understand something about the historical context in which the scriptures were written.

Higher criticism treats the Bible as a text created by human beings at a particular historical time and for various human motives, in contrast with the treatment of the Bible as the inerrant word of God. Lower criticism is used for attempts to interpret Biblical texts based only on the internal evidence from the texts themselves.

Thank you, New World Encyclopaedia!

Now Mrs. Eddy did not have the Internet or weighty tomes of writings by scholars of the Bible to consult.  Her “higher criticism” must have been accomplished through inspiration gained from the actual sacred writings.  The year was 1907.  And how much she had already contributed to that knowledge from her divinely inspired writing, especially of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures!

In her Message on the occasion of the dedication of the Extension of The Mother Church, of June 10, 1906, Mary Baker Eddy refers to Christian Science as the higher criticism.  And on page 240 of Miscellany, she answers a questioner on the subject.

I called Christian Science the higher criticism in my dedicatory Message to The Mother Church, June 10, 1906, when I said, “This Science is a law of divine Mind… an ever-present help.  Its presence is felt, for it acts and acts wisely, always unfolding the highway of hope, faith, understanding.”

I now repeat another proof, namely, that Christian Science is the higher criticism because it criticizes evil, disease, and death – all that is unlike God, good – on a Scriptural basis, and approves or disapproves according to the word of God.  In the next edition of Science and Health I shall refer to this.

There is further reference to this statement on page 237:

The contemplated reference in Science and Health to the “higher criticism” announced in the Sentinel a few weeks ago, I have since decided not to publish.

I now wonder if Mrs. Eddy was expecting to gain greater spiritual understanding through her further study of her work Science and Health as well as the Bible.

Joyce Voysey