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Home > Books > The Spiritual Breakthrough to the Next Millennium
The Spiritual Breakthrough to the Next Millennium
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Product Code: 0-942958-12-8
Manufacturer: Kappeler Institute Publishing
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Paperback, 85 pages
Level:
SUBJECT(s):
The Bible in the Light of Christian Science
Healing and Christian Science Practice
The History and Development of the Science of Christian Science
Christian Science and World Issues
RELATED RECORDINGS:
M-15, The 1000-year Periods in Biblical History (4 hours, audio & video)
M-18, Symbol and Reality: Evolving through the 1000-year periods of the Bible (1 hour, audio)
SYNOPSIS: The future of mankind rests entirely with the development of spiritual consciousness. This timely book shows the ordered development of spiritual consciousness through the seven 1000-year periods in biblical history, which stretch from 4000 BC to 2000 AD and onwards. It also explains the important place-value of Science and Health in the light of the 1000-year periods. Each successive period in spiritual history demands a higher form of understanding and method of practice. As the great tone of the seventh 1000-year period crystallizes and takes form in consciousness, we find that a new and higher life experience is urging itself upon us during this critical period.
CONTENTS:
Preface: Our spiritual responsibility to this age: a fundamental mutation in consciousness
The spiritual challenge of today
Chapter 1: The development of human consciousness
Chapter 2: The relationship between symbol and reality in the 1000-year periods
Chapter 3: The 1000-year periods: the ordered development of spiritual consciousness
Chapter 4: The evolution of the form of understanding through the 1000-year periods
Chapter 5: Bible interpretation in the light of the 1000-year periods
Chapter 6: The interpretation of the Textbook in the light of the 1000-year periods
Chapter 7: Methods of practice in the light of the 1000-year periods
Chapter 8: Crisis is man's opportunity
EXCERPT:
From Max Kappeler, The Spiritual Breakthrough to the Next Millennium, pp. 5–7.
Our spiritual responsibility to this age: a fundamental mutation in consciousness
Awakening to our individual spiritual responsibility. Those of you who have followed my work over the last few years know that one of my leading concerns is the present world situation and how we as Christian Scientists can fulfill our mission during this critical period in history. Christian Science teaches us not to ignore world problems—not to dismiss the changes and upheavals in the world as of no concern to us. Instead, it makes us profoundly aware that each one of us shares the responsibility for this world and for the direction it takes. Those who know the divine method of solving problems have the duty to follow this method and to take part in the solution. "To whom much is given, much is required." With Science, we are given the greatest treasure the world has ever known. This gift of grace—the gift of being able to understand God through Science—brings with it the highest demands, above all, the demand to be scientific on a divine basis, which in human experience places on us the demand to be spiritually progressive and pioneering in consciousness. Far from excluding us from the problems of the world, understanding the idea of Science places on us the solemn responsibility to meet the world situation from the standpoint of spiritual consciousness. Time and again, Mary Baker Eddy stressed this point, stating that we should act as if the salvation of the world depended entirely on each one of us. Awakening to our individual spiritual responsibility is the first step, for it calls forth in us the highest motives and best energies.
The need: a fundamental change in consciousness. Over the last few years, I have felt compelled to present this subject repeatedly in books and lectures, always showing that a new era is urging itself upon us and that with this new era must come a fundamental change of consciousness—a paradigm-shift. We cannot meet the challenges of a new age with a model of consciousness adapted to the past. New demands require new methods. Accordingly, I have tried to explain that the so-called world crisis is not something outside of us but is entirely a matter of consciousness. As such, it involves for us a fundamental transformation and deep spiritual awakening. Our duty is to pioneer this consciousness-change—to tackle the world crisis and to work out individually the demands of universal salvation. However, to do this, we must once and for all shift our attention away from narrow, personal problems and address ourselves to the fundamental issues facing mankind. If only we can let go of our attachment to the gnats of mortal life and be big enough in consciousness, we can step-by-step fulfill our mission. The prophet Haggai exhorted Judah on this very point, asking them to build the house of the Lord (the temple) first, instead of giving all their energies to erecting their own cieled houses.
With this booklet, "The Spiritual Breakthrough to the Next Millennium," I want to focus once again on the need for a complete mutation in consciousness. The spiritual context governing this fundamental change is the universal law of progress represented in the Bible by the thousand-year periods—a law which impels mankind forward to new dimensions of spiritual consciousness. By following the line of spiritual reasoning that these thousand-year periods present, we find answers to some of the questions that most concern us, namely: What can we do individually to meet our spiritual responsibility to this present age? And even more essentially, is there any point in doing anything, since, as single individuals, we feel helpless and inadequate before the scope and complexity of the present world crisis?
Through Science, we can accept the change in consciousness and thus fulfill our responsibility. I have written this booklet from the conviction that the world is already awakening to the spiritual demands of the age and that more and more individuals see that they can no longer evade the full extent of their spiritual responsibility. Because we have been born into a time of great upheaval, the lot has fallen on us to take up the challenge and to master it. True, the task is great, but it is by grace that we are given this opportunity, and therefore also by grace that we are given the means to grow spiritually, which alone brings the solution. However difficult it may seem—however much, from the world's point of view, a real, spiritual solution seems irrelevant, ineffective, or impossible … the fact is that the same divine law which has unveiled the problem gives us the strength and understanding to achieve the solution.
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