Lately, the idea that all
the churches, all the ministers, need Science and Health with Key to the
Scriptures along with their Bibles, has been coming more strongly to my
thought than it ever has before. And I would like to see a Bible (or at
least the New Testament) translation done by a student of Christian Science.
So, I was interested to read
the following in Richard Nenneman’s Preface
to our book: “Mr. Powell’s universality also led him to feel, perhaps
more than he explicitly said, that Christian Science was something too large
for the Christian Science church alone. He did not deny the need for the
institution Mrs. Eddy had set up to guard the purity of her discovery, but he
also saw the need for Christian Science to leaven the teaching and practice of
the other Christian churches” (p. xxv).
Of course Mrs. Eddy initially expected that
Christian Science would take the place in Christianity that it deserved.
In Chapter 1, Powell goes overboard a little
in quoting famous people who commented favorably on Christian Science and Mary
Baker Eddy. However, he praises the way Christian Scientists were living
their faith. This reminds me of a comment a school teacher was heard to
make about one of her students who attended a Christian Science Sunday School and
was a sincere student of the Science: “She lives her religion.”
I can somewhat appreciate Robert Peel’s
assessment that the author had more goodwill than insight in writing the book.
But I can also appreciate why the book appealed to me. It showed me that
it was possible to be good; it told me of a religion where there were no fetes
to raise funds. I like the way Powell says it: ‘Without pulpit
“begging,” without resort to church suppers, without any kind of money-raising
by indirection, Christian Science has solved the problem of church
support’ (p. 45). This was very attractive to me.
Joyce Voysey
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