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The Christ-idea
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Product Code: 0-85241-079-4
Manufacturer: Kappeler Institute Publishing
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Paperback, 31 pages
Level:
SUBJECT(s):
The Christ-idea
RELATED RECORDINGS:
M-40, The Christ-idea vs. Human Thinking (1.5 hours, audio)
M-25, The Implication of the Two Translations (1 hour, audio)
SYNOPSIS: Kappeler discusses how Mrs. Eddy depicts the Christ-idea—the self-operating, divine laws of Life, Truth, and Love—in the "Scientific Translation of Immortal Mind" (S&H 115:12–18) and the "Scientific Translation of Mortal Mind" (S&H 115:19–116:3). It is not we who must, or can, bring the right idea into expression—the Christ-idea works for us. Instead of personally trying to put the universe right, we look away from any human conception toward the immensity of the divine Mind, and accept that its omnipotence is working out everything for us and for the universe according to its divine plan. This will bring to light, even in human experience, the maximum of spiritual good.
CONTENTS:
Terminology
Chapter 1: God, Divine Being, and its Christ-idea
Chapter 2: The Relationship Between the Christ-idea and Material Existence
Chapter 3: Man as the Christ-idea
Chapter 4: The Christ-idea as True Science
EXCERPT:
From Max Kappeler, The Christ-idea, pp. 1-3
Terminology
What does "Christ-idea" mean? In order to define this term we must clarify the meaning of the two words "Christ" and "idea." While the term "Christ" is predominantly a biblical one, the word "idea" has its root in classical Greek (Plato) so that the combined expression "Christ-idea" unites the religious with the philosophically scientific.
Christ. The two terms "Christ" and "Jesus" are usually, and mistakenly, used interchangeably so that instead of Jesus, the term Christ is used and vice versa; but "Jesus" and "Christ" are by no means identical. Jesus was a corporeal, historical man born of a woman and, like all other men, had a corporeal human body. Many Jewish boys were named Jesus (= Joshua) which means in Hebrew "Jehovah saves" or "Jehovah is salvation." On the other hand, Christ is not a personal name. "Christ" comes from the Greek word "christos" (the Hebrew term is "Messiah") and means "anointed"; it does not involve anything human but signifies God, divine Being's, ability to express itself and to impart its power. God is not only self-existent Being or divine Principle, it is also self-expressed Being. Without an expression of itself, God would be without a creation, without operation; it would be a nonentity. Christ is the ever-operative power of manifestation resident in God by which the eternal newness of creation is continually expressed.
Jesus never identified himself with his corporeal origin and nature but with the Christ, with God's power of self-expression. God was his Father, and God's own power to express itself was for him the Son of God. Therefore, Jesus never regarded himself as the son of Mary or of Joseph but as the Son of God, as the Christ.
Whereas Jesus was temporal, Christ expresses the eternal nature of God existing independent of time and space. This Christ, as God's own power to express itself, is eternally at work. Long before Jesus appeared on the scene, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and the Prophets had grasped a measure of the nature of the Christ. Therefore, Jesus could say when referring to his Christ-selfhood: "Before Abraham was, I am" (John 8:58).
Idea. Here the term "idea" does not mean "an image in thought" but is analogous to Plato's use of this word as a "spiritual image." Idea is not an image formed in human thinking but an image that God, divine Mind, conceives. Webster defined idea as "an image in Mind." Only God, the divine Mind, has an idea. Idea is the image that God has of itself; it is the great plan or design which God holds in view, and also the determining power to express this plan, to execute, and to fulfill it. In other words, the idea of God is God's universal intention and purpose, including the will to do, and the doing of that which God has set out to accomplish.
In the reality of divine Being, all that is ever going on is fundamentally only God and its infinite idea; therefore, nothing is actually true and real but God and its idea. God never manifests itself in any way other than through its idea and as its idea. The material universe is not this idea; it only hints at this perfect spiritual image in a more or less imperfect way—only as a deflection.
The Christ-idea. Christ, God's self-expression, always works according to plan and is always directed toward one aim—complete salvation. Therefore, Christ is that true idea of God which intends to establish divine perfection in every way, without restriction. Thus, the Christ-idea is the law of God working out the divine ideal through ordered unfoldment, executing the plan of God, and fulfilling it irresistibly.
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