A faith that isn't blind

8/7/2012

A faith that isn't blind

What makes the healing prayer taught in Christian Science distinct from other types of prayer for healing? Mary Baker Eddy devotes an entire book - Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures - to this question. Specifically, page 12 clears up some of the fog and mystery surrounding Christian Science prayer. Interestingly, the discussion begins with a statement of what it is not. The healing prayer practiced in Christian Science is not a human “mind over matter” blind faith-cure method.

Mrs. Eddy writes, “‘The prayer of faith shall save the sick,’ says the Scripture. What is this healing prayer? A mere request that God will heal the sick has no power to gain more of the divine presence than is already at hand.”

If we use prayer something like a balloon or emergency flare we send up, - “Hey, I could really use some help over here on my problem,” - where is God in this prayer? Circling around somewhere outside the problem, needing our help through prayer to find it and fix it?

Holding sickness at the center of a case and bringing God to it indicates a misunderstanding of the Everpresent One. Spiritual healing involves correcting misperceptions of the who and what and where of God. God is the infinite All – the one reality, power, presence. If we are holding onto a problem, or a disease, to be one fixed reality, which we hope another reality, our God, will come to heal – this is a human “mind over matter" blind faith-cure attempt.

Sometimes faith-cures have positive physical results and sometimes very negative. It all depends on the strength of the human will of the healer acting through his blind belief. But whether the results are good are not, there is no guarantee they will be permanent. And if one’s spiritual understanding of the one reality as God, or Good, isn’t growing, the case can be left in a worse state than before, vulnerable to any new belief – regardless of the appearance of a physical improvement.

As Mrs. Eddy says, "The common custom of praying for the recovery of the sick finds help in blind belief, whereas help should come from enlightened understanding. Changes in belief may go on indefinitely, but they are the merchandise of human thought and not the outgrowth of divine Science."

When it comes to the healing prayer taught in Christian Science, Mrs. Eddy makes an important distinction between a blind belief - holding limited human thoughts about God - and the total yielding to divine Principle, to the Science of God and man, in the human understanding. Mrs. Eddy puts blind belief completely outside of the practice of Christian Science when she explains, “It is neither Science nor Truth which acts through blind belief, nor is it the human understanding of the divine healing Principle as manifested in Jesus, whose humble prayers were deep and conscientious protests of Truth, - of man’s likeness to God and of man’s unity with Truth and Love.”

There we have Mary Baker Eddy’s statement of what constitutes the Christian Science practice of healing prayer, “the human understanding of the divine healing Principle as manifested in Jesus, whose humble prayers were deep and conscientious protests of Truth, - of man’s likeness to God and of man’s unity with Truth and Love.”

Jesus’ theology of the perfection and spirituality of man as the likeness to perfect Spirit who is God, and of man as inseparable from Truth and Love, heals. When one protests for, affirms with well-reasoned understanding, the truth of God and man, healing is the natural outcome. Health is the outward evidence of an inner truth. Prayer doesn’t change reality, or exchange one form of reality for another. It is the confirmation of Truth’s, God’s presence and the permanence of health in God’s creation. Healing prayer affirms what is real and true, and physical, mental, emotional and spiritual healing confirms the truth.

Jesus said, “To this end was I born… that I should bear witness unto the Truth.” (John 18:37)The same goes for each one of us. Healing is normal to the Christ. It is not a special talent or unique dispensation given to some and denied to others. Christian healing – Christian Science healing - is the natural confirmation of God’s presence and power – His Christ - here and now reflected in us.

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Dennis R

8/7/2012 06:36:12 am

Not all prayer in other traditions is blind faith. I was part of a tradition that based healing on the Word of God. We saw healing as an already accomplished fact. We used scriptures such as "By His stripes we are healed." to claim healing. Sometimes we used intercessory prayer, and saw wonderful results. My wife's best friend had a brain aneurysm. I prayed "in the Spirit" until I felt the release. It disappeared. I can sure you that my faith was not blind. I was basing it on what I understood from Scripture. I might not have used the terminology that a Christian Scientist was using, but we did see results.

I have been at one time what people derisively call a "faith healer" but my faith was not not blind. There may be people who do have blind faith, but I had spent much time studying the Bible and praying. I followed Scripture with the best understanding I had at the time.

Michelle Nanouche

8/7/2012 07:00:02 am

Hello, Dennis!

Thanks for your comment. You are absolutely right to clarify the point that the Christian Science tradition does not have a corner on the market on healing through faith in God and His Word. What a wonderful healing of your wife's best friend!

The explanation Christian Science gives of healing prayer doesn't apply exclusively to Christian Scientists. But it does explain why healing happens, when it does happen, and is permanent, in any faith tradition. Results matter. And results from healing prayer based on an understanding of what God is, and that health is an accomplished fact, can be considered a Christian Science healing, whatever terminology used or church one may go to. The Science isn't owned by a church, any more than math is owned by accountants.

Christian Science prayer isn't owned by any sect. It is bigger than that. One might call it "prayer that works" or "Jesus' method of healing" and be just as accurate.

Faith is an element of any true healing through prayer. It is a shame that the term has come to be more associated with blind belief in God or human mind over matter techniques, but unfortunately it has. Perhaps that is why Mrs. Eddy made such a distinction in her writings to the difference between Christian Science prayer and blind belief and faith-cure, while also emphasizing the importance of faith. She may have seen the need for clarifying the Principle or law of healing at the base of Christ healing through faithful prayer, that leaves no possibility of accepting disease or death as ever God's will.

If you check out the links in the post, one of them takes you to Mrs. Eddy's article "Faith-cure" in her autobiography, Retrospection and Introspection.

Thanks again for speaking up so the air could be cleared!

Kim

8/7/2012 07:17:48 am

Great points by all! There is a science to Christianity that belongs to us everyone. Thanks for the great post Michelle.

Michelle Nanouche

8/7/2012 07:47:36 am

It's such a great discussion. Thanks, Kim!

Diane

8/7/2012 07:10:36 am

Thanks Michelle for so clearly making the distinction between various types of prayer and spiritually scientific prayer. Very helpful!

Michelle Nanouche

8/7/2012 07:48:33 am

You are so welcome, Diane!

Michelle Nanouche

8/7/2012 12:11:55 pm

Two conversations are going on at once concerning this post! One here in the comments and another on te blog's Facebook page. I will try to catch you all up on what is happening there:

Marylyn wrote: "Great discussion Dennis and Michelle! I've often wondered about the word faith. I came across a book called "The Heart of Christianity" by the Luthren writer Marcus Borg. He discusses the four Latin meanings of faith and how the word was used in primitive Christianity and how it has changed in the last one hundred years." Then I asked her to post the four definitions.

Michelle Nanouche

8/7/2012 12:13:57 pm

She wrote, "I'll try:) 1. assensus is faith as belief, the dominant meaning today both within the church and out of it. Two developments account for its dominance in modern Western Christianity: the Protestant Reformation and the birth of modern science.
2. Faith as fiducia. radical trust in God. Borg's metaphor likens it to floating in a deep ocean or trusting in the "sea of being in which we live and move and have our being. The opposite is mistrust, anxiety or worry.
3. Faith as fedelitas. Fidelity (also title of an article by Eddy) means a radical centering in God. Its opposite is infidelity or being unfaithful to our relationship to God. Also the opposite is idolatry. Fidelity means paying attention to our relationship with God and not getting distracted by other would be gods.
4. Faith as visio: a way of seeing the whole, a way of seeing what is. I love the following passage about Luther's decade of "agonized torment and ascetic self-denial, seeking to be righteous enough for God." Borg says that during these years Luther "had assensus aplenty - and it terrified him. Precisely because he believed "all of it," he was filled with fear and anxiety. His transformation occurred through an experience of radical grace that transformed how he saw (visio), led him to see that faith was about trusting God (fiducia), and led him to a life of faithfulness (fedelitas) to God. For Luther, saving faith was not assensus. It was about visio, fiducia,and fedelitas." Get the book!!!"

I think I will!

Tamara

8/7/2012 03:02:04 pm

I went back just to start to read the links and found this great discussion! Wow, never thought that the meaning of faith could be so multifaceted. It's amazing how the last three are so perfectly connected. Really cool, Marylyn!

Dennis R

8/7/2012 12:31:07 pm

I just remembered a term that we used to use that you might consider blind faith. The term was mental assent. Someone could agree on a truth, but not internalize it. The post on the four types of faith brought it back to me.

Michelle Nanouche

8/7/2012 12:42:52 pm

Interesting term, Dennis. Thanks for that!

Michelle Nanouche

8/8/2012 04:27:53 am

Thought I would toss these ideas from pages 23 and 24 of Science and Health into the discussion. Interesting in the light of the differences in the original meanings of faith!

"Rabbinical lore said: "He that taketh one doctrine,
firm in faith, has the Holy Ghost dwelling in him."
This preaching receives a strong rebuke in
the Scripture, "Faith without works is dead."
Faith, if it be mere belief, is as a pendulum swinging be‐
tween nothing and something, having no fixity. Faith,
advanced to spiritual understanding, is the evidence gained
from Spirit, which rebukes sin of every kind and estab‐
lishes the claims of God.

"In Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and English, faith and the
words corresponding thereto have these two defini‐
tions, trustfulness and trustworthiness. One
kind of faith trusts one's welfare to others.
Another kind of faith understands divine Love and how
to work out one's "own salvation, with fear and trem‐
bling." "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief!"
expresses the helplessness of a blind faith; whereas the
injunction, "Believe . . . and thou shalt be saved!"
demands self-reliant trustworthiness, which includes spir‐
itual understanding and confides all to God.

"The Hebrew verb to believe means also to be firm or
to be constant. This certainly applies to Truth and Love
understood and practised. Firmness in error will never
save from sin, disease, and death.

"Acquaintance with the original texts, and willingness
to give up human beliefs (established by hierarchies, and
instigated sometimes by the worst passions of
men), open the way for Christian Science to be
understood, and make the Bible the chart of life, where
the buoys and healing currents of Truth are pointed out."

8/8/2012 06:03:05 am

Thank you. I was working my way through the links and the last one seems to be broken.

Michelle Nanouche

8/8/2012 02:28:25 pm

All fixed! Found an alternative link to the same article. Thank you for the head's up! It is a real team effort making sure the links work. They sometimes change from day to day!!

an aspiring James Neal

8/9/2012 01:44:45 am

Great blog on a vital topic!
And interesting comments too.
Mary Baker Eddy indicated in her last article, Principle and Practice, that unless we make the distinction between Christian Science and faith cure we would lose to Christian Science to this age.
It isn't to say that all faith cures are bad or evil, but it is vital to those practicing Christian Science that they know what it is and isn't.
Pleading to God for a healing or thinking God is arbitrary is His decisions, is the opposite of an unconditional, ever-present, divine Love that embraces each of His children.
Thanks, Michelle, for bringing such clarity to this topic!

Michelle Nanouche

8/9/2012 05:40:46 am

And thanks to you, aspiring, for that idea from "Principle and Practice"!

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