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Home > Books > Christian Government—Its Scientific Evolution
Christian Government—Its Scientific Evolution
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Product Code: 0-85241-070-0
Manufacturer: Kappeler Institute Publishing
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Paperback, 106 pages
Level:
SUBJECT(s):
Christian Science—Government and Ethics
RELATED RECORDINGS: none
SYNOPSIS: Law constitutes government—a correct understanding of divine law is necessary in order to demonstrate true government. Divine law is not created by people, but God; the divine Principle of being is the lawmaker and lawgiver. For Christian Scientists, this book has turned them toward a spiritually scientific study of the Manual of the Mother Church. Such a study reveals that the Manual contains deep laws that stand behind the self-evolution of scientific spiritual understanding. The first edition of this book was published in 1946, and was the "spring board" for Kappeler's life work on the structure of Being/being and its laws.
CONTENTS:
Foreword
Introductory Remarks
Chapter 1: The Science of Government
Chapter 2: The Church of Christ, Scientist
Chapter 3: The Mother Church, the First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
Chapter 4: The Continuity of the Church of Christ, Scientist
Appendix
EXCERPT:
From Max Kappeler, Christian Government—Its Scientific Evolution, pp. 5–7. I. The Science of Government
1. The Law of God
"Law constitutes government," writes Mary Baker Eddy in the Manual of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts (Art. I, Sect. 9). Since cause determines effect, a correct appreciation of law is necessary in order to demonstrate a true government. But "law" in Christian Science is quite distinct from laws adopted for the regulation of civil, political, social, economic, and religious affairs—distinct from their nature and essence, as well as from their origin and motivation. Consequently, it is important to get a correct understanding of the basis and origin of fundamental law and its inherent nature.
Modern democracies have abolished, to some extent, those laws that allow men to act arbitrarily. They have adopted a higher sense of law—law that does not require the subject to obey the will of a single individual. Even the king is under God and the law. But who created such law? Who conceived it? Although this law has come about through the developed thinking of leadership, and has been kept abreast of the times by outstanding men and women, the fact remains that such a standard of law has been instituted by human beings and adopted by the majority of the community. And what of the minority? Is it not an impairment of individual rights that the minority must support the will of the majority? Is the majority always right? The antinomy between liberal idealism and democracy, and the frictions arising from it, are well known, and point to an unquestionable fact—that the harmonious and fundamental law of government has not yet been established. The world of today clamors for a solution.
Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered the Science of all sciences, has given an answer regarding these leading questions in her explanation of the Science of divine and Christian government. She has established the fact that law is not created by a single man, ruler, king, or despot, nor by a majority of people; but is eternally vested in God, divine Principle, alone. God is the lawmaker and lawgiver; God is law unto itself. This lawgiver is described as divine Mind, the omnipotent, infinite All. God is Spirit, and God's laws are purely spiritual. God is the "law-creating, law-disciplining, law-abiding Principle" (Mis. 206:18–19), which needs no help from persons in order to demonstrate itself, and is free from the beliefs and prejudices of human beings, societies, "-isms" and "-ologies." Nowhere in her writings does Mary Baker Eddy indicate that man could create real laws, or enforce and develop them. Besides God, there is no true lawmaker, and the realization of this truth establishes one universal law, bringing freedom, harmony, perfection, and eternity, and never causing division, friction, discord, and decay (see Mis. 259:14–18; Mis. 208:6–10; No. 10:27–11:3). Moreover, God's laws apply to all equally and are forever universal.
Any attempt to enforce other laws and statutes than the spiritual laws of God must sooner or later lead to discord and so hinder progress. "Human law is right only as it patterns the divine" (My. 283:26).
2. The Government of God
Government is the execution of law. The differing forms of government may be classified according to the nature of the laws on which they are based. Anarchy implies an absence of law. Autocracy may be defined as absolute authority exercised by one person, or by a small group of persons. Democracy is described as sovereign power exercised directly or indirectly by the majority of the people. Theocracy is government under the immediate direction of the will of God. When law is vested in God, divine Principle, then God, not man, governs. In such government, there is no ruling of man over man as in an autocracy, or even in a democracy, for all men owe allegiance to God alone.
Divine Science reveals that God, the infinite All-in-all, is not only the universal legislator, but also the sole executive power, the Supreme Ruler, governing man in perfect harmony. St. Paul spoke of "one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all" (Eph. 4:6). As there is but one lawgiver, the divine Mind, and but one governor, the divine Principle, man and the universe are governed harmoniously and intelligently. All action, volition, functions, relations, plans—all that is real and true from the infinitesimal to infinity—are embraced in God's government.
Perfect government will not become apparent until Christ, God's ideal, is understood spiritually and scientifically. Of this Christ it is written, "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder" (Isa. 9:6), and Mary Baker Eddy prophesied: "Christ, God's idea, will eventually rule all nations and peoples—imperatively, absolutely, finally—with divine Science" (S&H 565:16–18).
That the understanding of true government must be based on Science becomes even more certain as we apprehend the close relation forever existing between Science and government. Mrs. Eddy writes: "The term Science, properly understood, refers only to the laws of God and to His government of the universe, inclusive of man" (S&H 128:4–6). Just as every other subject must be learned scientifically, so man must gain a spiritual and scientific understanding of the divine Principle of the universe and of its absolute government. In the measure that he realizes this fact will ideal government appear.
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