"Open Door" to
Infinity
The dimension of
Science
Processes which are diminishing in energy, like the winding down of
clock spring or the draining of a battery are said to be entopic in
nature. Spiritual development, on the other hand, goes into the
opposite direction. It is an enriching process. The process
which Mary Baker Eddy has defined in all of her numerous works sets up
a non-entopic stage, which is quite a unique one. She has set up a
stage that brings together a number of apparently isolated aspects of
her work, which appear closed in themselves and finite in their
isolation, but are designed to open the scene to infinite discovery
when they are brought together.
The discovery, here, is demanded. No answers are provided. This may
seem irrational. In reality, it is rather revolutionary, and is in
fact the only path possible for stepping away from entropy.
What she has done is simply this: She has set up a structure that
involves a lot of questions that demand a lot of deep searching for
answers. The foundation for this structure is the biblical city
foursquare described in Revelation 21, the second last chapter of the
Bible. She takes this metaphor with which the Bible closes and
reshapes it into a foundation for reaching out to infinity.
John the Revelator described the city as foursquare. Any structure
that is four-square has sixteen elements. Mary Baker Eddy's textbook,
likewise, has sixteen chapters. Thus, the two structures coincide. But
she doesn't stop here. Virtually everything she has created is
arranged in sixteen parts, or multiples thereof. The Lord's prayer,
interspersed with her spiritual interpretation, is presented in
sixteen stanzas. Her illustrated poem, Christ and Christmas, is made
up of sixteen verses. Her Church Manual of the Church of Christ
Scientists, is made up of sixteen major
sections. The platform of Christian Science has thirty-two elements
(to times sixteen). The chapter Recapitulation in her textbook on
Christian Science contains twenty-four questions and answers (one and a half times
sixteen). The most profound correlation, however, is imbedded in the
Glossary of her textbook on Christian Science which contains 144 definitions (nine time
sixteen).
What she does not provide, however, are the answers to such questions as
to what this vast interrelationship means, and how it all fits
together. This is the explorer's task. She provides a few basic definitions,
however. In her interpretation of the biblical city foursquare, she
presents major points in multiples of four that describe the nature of
the four-square matrix.
Any matrix can be seen as made up of
horizontally arranged elements, or rows of elements, that share a
common characteristic or main theme. In like manner, when the elements
are seen in vertical alignment, or columns, they can be regarded as
representing an upward flow of progressive development. For these
columns and rows definitions can be found in Mary Baker Eddy's
interpretation of the biblical city foursquare. More definitions can
also be found in the Glossary of the textbook where a number of
glossary items are presented in groups of four, such as the four
rivers from Genesis 2.
Mary
Baker Eddy approached the Bible as a pioneer. She opened it with the
tool of science against the background of reason for the discovery of
fundamental principles that are verifiable by practical scientific
spiritual healing. If we look at the Bible as merely a religious book,
or as a historical account of the early Hebrew people, we loose most
of its significance, by which it becomes a closed book. One shouldn't
allow this to happen.
For
instance, open the Bible at the
Decalogue, where it says that shalt not kill, steal, lie, or
covet. Did you ever explore what active universal principles stand
behind those passive restrictive directives? Which such explorations,
for which answers are not easily found, the Bible becomes an open book.
The Principle of Universal Love
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