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Home > Books > The Law of the Self-evolution of Scientific Spiritual Understanding
The Law of the Self-evolution of Scientific Spiritual Understanding
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Product Code: 0-942958-19-5
Manufacturer: Kappeler Institute Publishing
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Paperback, 104 pages
Level:
SUBJECT(s):
The Laws of Being
RELATED RECORDINGS:
G-7, The Law of the Self-evolution of Understanding Through the Idea of Christian Science (27 hours, audio and video)
SYNOPSIS: How do we, as individuals, progress from belief, to faith, to scientific understanding in our study of the Science of God? This book uncovers the divine law of self-evolution behind our step-by-step individual journey toward spiritual understanding. It shows how our understanding and demonstration of true man evolves spiritually and scientifically through the order of the 7 synonyms for God and the structure of Science and Health to achieve an insight into the universal laws of Being.
CONTENTS:
Foreword
Chapter 1: The Law of the Self-evolution of Scientific Spiritual Understanding
Chapter 2: The Self-evolution of Scientific Spiritual Understanding in Science and Health
Chapter 3: The Word-chapters (Ch. I–IV)
Chapter 4: The Christ-chapters (Ch. V–VIII)
Chapter 5: Christianity-chapters (Ch. IX–XII)
Chapter 6: Science-chapters (Ch. XIII–XVI)
Chapter 7: Survey of the Whole Textbook (Matrix)
Chapter 8: Breaking the Resistance Against Scientific Progress
Chapter 9: The Turning Point: 1940s
EXCERPT:
From Max Kappeler, The Law of the Self-evolution of Scientific Spiritual Understanding, pp. 5–10.
The self-evolution of scientific spiritual understanding. Once we have seen that the way in Christian Science leads from belief to faith and from faith to understanding, we carry within ourselves the yearning for more understanding. The great question is: How can we reach a higher understanding? This is the central point of the book. A scientifically reasoned answer was unknown in Mrs. Eddy's time. Each one had, in their own way, tried to find an answer. But an answer must be principled, or else it is not a right scientific answer. Some have opened the Bible and the Textbook at random with great inner devotion in the faith that the opened page will contain the answer. Others investigate all sorts of Christian Science literature. Some devote themselves to a deeper study of the Church's weekly lesson-sermons, and others search for articles and books of the famous thinkers from the early days of Christian Science. Many work with the Concordance for Mrs. Eddy's writings in order to gain a deeper insight of important concepts. The methods are manifold. Generally, the aim of all these pursuits is to acquire more single truths, so as to accumulate, through accretion, more knowledge. This is the atomistic method. All these endeavors are fact-finding methods that are atomistically additive and lead to an ever growing heap of knowledge. Knowledge, in small or large amounts, is not yet understanding. The scientific method is not only a fact-finding activity, but also a fact-ordering activity….
Scientific understanding is not primarily based on a fact-finding activity, therefore it is not based on heaps of atomistic knowledge that requires a great human intellectual capacity or even a photographic memory. Understanding is based on quite a different method. It is the ability to see the facts in their meaningful relationship so that all the facts are related in a closed whole—then these form a system. A collection of facts does not constitute a science, just as a heap of bricks does not make a house. But the same bricks, when brought into an intelligent relationship, can form a house. In its deepest meaning, the purpose of a science is not so much to find new facts, but to ultimately lead to an ever higher understanding—conducive to our evolution of understanding, which means a change of paradigm. For the study of a science, we need the ability to order the single facts into categories and to understand the relationship between the categories. Only through this scientific method can we reach understanding. In like manner, the facts of Christian Science must be understood in their respective categories….
Mrs. Eddy makes the important statement, "Divine metaphysics is now reduced to a system, to a form comprehensible by and adapted to the thought of the age in which we live" (146:37). We need to be able to explain what this system is and to understand it through its inner categories. Expansion of knowledge is not the way to a deeper understanding. Understanding is achieved by reducing the Textbook to its essence: that of a simple system. This is the way to a deeper spiritual understanding. Without a system there is no science.
Without the order inherent in a system there can be no resultant understanding. Understanding is not a fixed form with unchanging content. If our understanding claims to be scientific it must also conform with the definition of science. We must understand the facts in their relationships and categories that lead to new truths. In the deeper sense of science, we are interested in finding higher levels of understanding, mainly through a paradigm-shift. This becomes apparent as an evolution of understanding.
Christian Scientists were impressed by miraculous, spontaneous healings, as has been well documented, and this was especially true when Mrs. Eddy was here. It is, therefore, understandable that students today, are interested in looking back to those times, hoping to get an understanding of the healing work. However, science does not look back, but forward, to the promise of spiritual progress. We should look to "trustworthy methods" for the discovery of "new truths within science's own domain." This is so in all sciences. Who wants to solve the problems of today with the methods of yesterday? The sciences certainly do not.
This brings up the issue of the future form of scientific spiritual understanding. The understanding of today will be transformed so that it is open to change in the future. Some fundamental questions arise: How can we know what form our understanding will take? Our form of human understanding today cannot predict the source or form of scientific, spiritual understanding in the future. But this is not an excuse to stand still and be self-satisfied with the present form of understanding. Standing still is regression.
Mrs. Eddy, with a concept of science that was centuries ahead, could see the self-evolution of understanding in the future. She saw that Science has its own life, it evolves by itself, it evolves out of itself, and therefore, governs its own law of order of development. The question is, consequently, not how we can develop a Christianly scientific understanding, but how Principle, God, governs its own law of self-evolution of understanding. Since the "big bang," there was evolution long before there was human thinking on earth. A law higher than human progressive thinking has been at work. This higher law is the Christ-idea forcing human thought to accept ever higher levels of consciousness. The Christ-law translates itself to human consciousness in such a way that it leads to higher understanding. Today, science calls such a change of consciousness a paradigm-shift. In short, man is not a thinker about God, but is the thought-of-God.
In order to successfully accept the paradigm-shift toward the law of the self-evolution of Christian, scientific understanding, it is helpful for us to first refer to the writings of Mrs. Eddy and investigate what she expected to be the changes in the future—in contrast with today.
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