The Origin of Christian Science

by Thomas Polhill Stafford

 

CONTENTS.

PREFACE	ix.
INTRODUCTION	xi.
CHAPTER I
The Problem and the Proof	15-32
Mrs. Eddy's claim of originality—Relation of Christianity and Christian Science—The original source of Christian Science—Neoplatonism and the Neoplatonists—Spinoza and other sources. Where what is new in Christian Science is to be found—Scientific method used—An objection anticipated.
CHAPTER II.
Theology	33-73
General parallels—Christian Science a form of pantheism—The doctrine of emanation—Mrs. Eddy's god an impersonal god—Mrs. Eddy's god not an individual—All anthropomorphic conceptions ruled out—God a being without will—Certain kinds of knowledge denied to God—God exists in active state only—God does not suffer—God is without sympathy—God does not answer prayer—The indifferent deity of Christian Science.
CHAPTER III.
Cosmology	74-112
The unreality of matter—Rejection of medicine—Rejection of the Lord's Supper—Rejection of the resurrection of the body—Instances in which Mrs. Eddy does not apply the principle of the unreality of matter—Other inconsistencies—Mind the creator of the world—Eternal character of creation—The world eternal—The creative act eternal—The world necessarily created—The perfection of the world—The harmony of all things—The beauty of the world—Miracles denied.
CHAPTER IV.
Anthropology	113-157
Preliminary explanations—The real man eternal and perfect—Definition of life—Its relation to eternity and time—Identification of certain ideas—Man identified with his maker—Man not a free agent—The fall of man interpreted as an ascent—Mrs. Eddy's doctrine compared with Hegel's—The explanation of the nature of Jesus Christ—Christ identified with mind—The resurrection of Christ not an objective fact but a spiritual truth—The trinity—Mrs. Eddy's estimate of herself.
CHAPTER V.
Psychology	158-206
Great value of parallels in psychology—One infinite mind—Relation of individual minds to the universal mind—A point of difference—A destructive defect—Nature of “immortal Mind”—It is ever active, never passive—Source of its knowledge—Its ideas eternal—It errs not and knows not error—Nature of error—Psychological basis of the Christian Science trinity—Knowledge that proceeds from cause to effect—Inferior knowledge—Idea of time—Minimizing of faith—The human will—Knowledge that proceeds from effect to cause—Hopeless inconsistencies—Love identified with understanding—Logical force of the parallels traced out—Hindrance of language—Identification of revelation and intellectual discovery—Mysticism—Predictive prophecy—Mathematical demonstration.
CHAPTER VI.
Ethics	207-236
Christian Science a philosophy, not a religion—Evil a negation—Material origin of evil—Origin of the idea of evil—God has no idea of evil—Pain and sickness explained as evil is—How Christian Science simplifies life—The virtues of temperance, moral courage, love and sympathy—Desire and self-denial—Blessedness, salvation and regeneration—The greatest good—Found in the fading out of personality—Conclusion.
Bibliography	237-240

The Origin of

Christian Science

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A Key to the Writings of
Mary Baker G. Eddy

——BY——
T. P. STAFFORD, A.M., TH. D.

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THE WESTERN BAPTIST PUBLISHING CO.

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI.

1912.

Copyrighted, 1912,
By T. P. Stafford.

DEDICATION

To the memory of my mother, who lived and died in the faith that Jesus of Nazareth is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and who first taught me to love the Gospel and to hate heresy.