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PSYCHOTHERAPY AND CHRISTIAN SCIENCE:* Two systems which, both seeking to cure disease by mental healing, possess, at least superficially, points in common. For the better elucida-

* Statement from the Christian Science standpoint. Orthodox Catholic Church Psychotherapy

tion of the relation between the two, the following should be read in connection with PsrcaoTHER,Ary, § 6. It is admitted, and it moat so be understood by the reader, that this emendation is from the standpoint of a Christian Science practitioner; and it must also be understood that the theology and the healing of Christian Science are inseparable-in other words, it is the religious activity of the Christian Scientist, regenerating and transforming the mental, moral, and spiritual state of practitioner and patient, that brings physical healing. Christian Science, therefore, is a system which treats a diseased condition successfully, because it makes a whole man (cf. definition and derivation of the word "health" in the Standard Dictionary). Briefly, the therapeutics of Christian Science (see Science, Christian, I., 1, § 6) may be said to be set forth in the following passage from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 138: " Jesus established in the Christian era the precedent for all Christianity, theology, and healing. Christians are under as direct orders now, as they were then, to be Christlike, to possess the Christ-spirit, to follow the Christexample, and to heal the sick as well as the sinning. It is easier for Christianity to cast out sickness than sin, for the sick are more willing to part with pain than are sinners to give up the sinful, so-called pleasure of the senses. The Christian can prove this to-day as readily as it was proved centuries ago. Our Master said to every follower: ` Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature!

. Heal the sick! . . Love thy neighbor as thyself!' It was this theology of Jesus which healed the sick and the sinning. It is his theology in this book and the spiritual meaning of this theology, which heals the sick and causes the wicked to ` forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts.' "Lack of space prevents amplification of the statement that the theology and the healing of Christian Science are one, but if the earnest inquirer will accept the scriptural accounts of healing as being true, and will conform his mental attitude, reading, and study to the endeavor of proving, and not of disproving, these statements, he will get an insight into the methods by which the healing works of Jesus and others were accomplished, and understand why Mrs. Eddy refers to such works, no matter in what century they are done, as mind-healing. As an aid and incentive to further research the student is directed to the following definitions from the Standard Dictionary:" Christian . Relating to or derived from Christ or his doctrines." " Science. Knowledge gained or verified by exact observation and correct thinking, especially as methodically formulated and arranged in a rational system." " Theology. The branch of theological science that treats of God, etc." " Theological Science. The branch of science that treats of God and the relations of God and man." (Cf. also the word" soteriology," appropriated by both materia medics and scholastic theology, but which explains Christian Science as Christ Jesus exemplified its true meaning, i.e., the science of delivering.) No Christian can doubt that the relation of God to man is that of a deliverer from all evil, including the evil of disease; nor can the Christian doubt that Christ Jesus brought to

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the world just that message. Christian Science is a rational system of exact knowledge, derived from the spiritual meaning of the Bible and the doctrines of Christ Jesus, setting forth the relations of God and man. The understanding of this demonstrable system as methodically formulated by Mrs. Eddy so influences the mental, moral, and spiritual state of man as to heal him and make him "every whit whole" (John vii. 23). This is true and sure healing, and the highest expression of psychotherapy.

Henry van Arsdale.

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