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Truth and Scientific Truth
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Product Code: TruthSciB
Manufacturer: Kappeler Institute Publishing
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Booklet, 21 pages
Level:
SUBJECT(s):
The 4-fold Operation of Being
Matrices
Healing and Christian Science Practice
RELATED RECORDINGS: none
SYNOPSIS: Mankind is always searching for Truth, but we must understand the difference between a "truth" and a "scientific truth." A scientific truth requires an understanding of its context within the whole, whereas a truth is considered only as an isolated fact (not in the context of the whole field of knowledge). For example: a truth stated in Science and Health has no spiritual impact on our lives unless it is seen in the context of the entire structure of the Textbook's 16 chapters.
CONTENTS:
Introduction
First example: Mind heals
I. Mind, God (Word)
II. The Christ-mind (Christ)
III. The Christianity-mind
IV. Science of Mind
Second example: The ascending and descending way
Truth can only be demonstrated when understood
Appendix: Faith-cure (Ret. pp. 54–55)
EXCERPT:
From Max Kappeler, Truth and Scientific Truth, pp. 19–20.
Truth can only be demonstrated when understood
What can and must we learn from the foregoing statements? We have a Textbook that contains the entire teaching of Christian Science. This Textbook is not a collection of isolated truths, but presents Christian Science as a finely woven structure of divine ideas. We do not succeed in mastering the teaching if we try to understand the book through an atomistic approach to the many statements of truth. The reading of numerous isolated passages, taken out of context, confuses rather than clarifies our thinking. Similarly, a simple line by line reading, sentence by sentence, does not achieve the aim. Only a structured knowledge of the Textbook leads us away from the many atomistic truths to the scientific Truth.
Thus, an understanding of the spiritual categories of the Bible and Textbook structure as a whole, helps us to interpret correctly all the subordinate single statements. We saw this in the second example above. A statement of truth cannot be taken only as it is written; the context in which it appears must first be recognized. Only when we know this context can the single statement of truth be rightly interpreted through the categories on which it is based; and every subordinate category always reflects the main theme. The question, for example, as to whether the ascending or descending way must be taken first, is answered correctly only when we are certain whether the statements are made from the standpoint of the Word or the Christ. The right answer comes from within the context as a whole, for example: "you must work from the bottom upwards" or "you must work from the top downwards." We see that first the one or then the other statement can be correct. But we no longer feel that the two differing statements of truth contradict each other.
The lesson we learn from the first example, "Mind heals," is of quite a different category. There it is a general remark, reduced to the simplest form. In this passage, a great truth is declared. If we take it word by word and regard it as just a couple of words, then for us it may be as easily trivial as profound. When we understand what Mind means, when examined from all the divine categories; when we no longer have a human concept of healing, but understand the divine intent, then the brief statement, "Mind heals," has deep meaning. We must see the whole mechanism—how Mind and healing are linked and interwoven. It is not enough to understand the meaning of Mind and its comprehensive definition through ideas. This is indeed a prerequisite for understanding the fact that Mind heals, but that alone is insufficient because that only describes the Word-standpoint. More is needed. Mind must be understood in all its offices. We get, therefore, through 4 x 4, sixteen aspects through which the healing mechanism is shown, as in a slow-motion picture. Through this method, the statement, "Mind heals," becomes meaningful for us and therefore more demonstrable. But it is only demonstrable in so far as we understand its category-content.
The whole Textbook is written in this way, and must be read, understood, and interpreted accordingly. If we were looking for a suitable abbreviation for the Textbook, it would have to contain no other sentence than the answer to the question "What is God?", which reads: "God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love" (S&H 465:9–10). This abbreviation cannot intelligently be further abbreviated. When it is understood, however, the whole of the Textbook can and must be derived from it; and only then can it also be demonstrated. Thus we can see that every sentence in the Textbook gives its true meaning only when it is understood in the light of the whole Textbook—that is, from the standpoint of all three fundamental ontological categories on which the Textbook rests.
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