Practice
Overview
The men and women who advertise in the directories of the Christian Science Journal and Herald represent that they are devoted full-time to helping others through the prayer-based system explained in the book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, experienced in the healing ministry of Christian Science, and available to give treatment through prayer for life challenges.
Additional services may include office visits, in-home or care facility visits, and answers to questions about Christian Science by phone, email, or written correspondence. The services offered by practitioners are available to the public. Those who contact a practitioner listed in this directory do not have to be Christian Scientists or attend church.
Practitioners (CS) and teachers (CSB) are self-employed. Fees and payment are determined by the individual practitioner and should be discussed prior to engaging their services.
Class Instruction from a Christian Science Teacher (CSB)
Those interested in learning an in-depth and systematic approach to practicing the method of healing explained in Science and Health may want to take a course of instruction from a practitioner who is also an authorized Christian Science teacher.
Application requirements, as well as when and where instruction is given, the format of the class sessions, and costs should be directly discussed with the teacher.
Practitioners (CS) and Teachers (CSB)
in Switzerland | in Germany | in Austria | in France | in Italy
Electronic directory
The following electronic directory on
Christian Science Journal | Directories
includes all entries made in the mentioned directories of the periodicals. These cover the entire world. You can search by name, location (spelled in English), postal code or select a country (spelled in English).
To look up entries in Switzerland, enter into the field "Find" the name of the country "Switzerland". For other coutries use their english names, for example "Austria", "France", "Germany", "Italy" etc.
When you enter the name of a country, the database will return all entries available:
- Practitioners
- Churches and Societies
- Reading Rooms
- Christian Science Nursing Facilities
- Christian Science Nurses
- Christian Science Committees on Publication
The directory of listed practitioners and teachers uses the following abbreviations:
CS Practitioner
CSB Practitioner who has completed a Normal class of the Christian Science Board of Education.
Teacher CSB currently available to teach Primary class instruction in Christian Science once a year. The teachers organize an association of their pupils once a year.
The entries give an indication about the available languages to ensure communication.
Science
Christian Science is, as the name suggests, a science. Here you will find contributions that illustrate the Christian Scientists' approach to life in their respective ways.
Does evil exist?
Did GOD create everything that exists - did He also create evil? Professor Hermann Minkowski lectured in Königsberg in 1894 and in Zurich in 1896. The professor wanted to put his students to the test with a question: "Did GOD create everything. that exists?" One student dutifully answered the question in the affirmative. "So GOD created everything?" - "Yes, of course," the student replied. The professor now elaborated, "If GOD created everything, then GOD also created evil and from the existence of evil and from the principle that our deeds show who we are, we can conclude that GOD is evil."
The student now said no more and the professor was taken with his own hypothetical definition because he could be proud of having proved religious belief to be a myth. Then another student came forward and said, "May I ask you something, Professor?" "Of course," said the professor. The student stood up, "Professor, does coldness exist?" "Why do you ask that? Of course it exists; have you never been cold?" While the other students chuckled at the question, the young man replied, "In fact, cold does not exist. What we consider cold, according to the laws of physics, is the absence of heat. We can measure the energy of anything and everything that is radiated and heat is the energy state of bodies 'Absolute zero' is the complete absence of heat. All matter then becomes motionless and cannot react at that temperature. Cold does not exist. We created this word to describe how we feel when we feel no heat."
The student further asked, "Does darkness exist?" Again, the professor answered in the affirmative. But the student replied, "Here you are wrong again, darkness does not exist either. Darkness is actually the absence of light. We can study light, but not darkness. We can use the Newtonian prism to separate white light into its coloured components with different wavelengths. We cannot measure darkness. A simple beam of light can penetrate a world full of darkness and illuminate it. So we can't tell how dark a certain space is, we only measure the amount of light that is there. That's the way it is, isn't it? Darkness is a term we use to describe the absence of light."
Finally, the student asked, "Does evil exist, Professor?" Now the professor was unsure, but emphasised again- "Of course evil exists. We see it every day. There are always examples of man's inhumanity. Crime and violence exist everywhere in the world and this is nothing but evil."
Here the disciple countered, "Evil does not exist, or at least not of itself. Evil is only the absence of GOD, the Good. It behaves like darkness and coldness. It is a word that man has chosen to describe the absence of GOD. GOD did not create evil. Evil is the result when man does not carry GOD's love in his heart. "There is no GOD present" - war, disease, hatred. It is like the cold that comes when there is no warmth, or like the darkness that comes when there is no light."
Then the professor sat down and was silent. The name of this student was Albert Einstein. Later, Professor Minkowski stated that in Einstein's theory of relativity there is only one plane of existence. The distance between two events, no matter how far they seem to be from each other in the usual time-space thinking, is always zero. This means that past, future and present are only separated and distant from each other in our limited perception.
From the magazine Galileo No. 1, April 2007
The video below summarises the dialogue.
More authors
LEO TOLSTOI: "I have spoken to you about the teachings of Christian Science.... This body of thought has many important statements which I had not expected at first to be found in it." (Tolstoy, Socialism and Christianity, Tolstoy-Birioukof correspondence, Grasset Publishing House, 1957, Chapter VI)
JEAN COCTEAU: "I have a great esteem for Christian Science, and it is sad that every day our society is moving further and further away from this school of wisdom." (Saint Jean Cap Ferrat, letter of 18 June 1953)
ALBERT EINSTEIN: To a church member at the end of a Wednesday testimony meeting he attended at the 5th Church in New York: "Are its members aware of the treasure they possess?" (Note by George Nay, dated 20 October 1970, Mary Baker Eddy Library, Boston USA).
A letter from ALBERT EINSTEIN to his daughter Lieserl
«Dear Lieserl
After I published the theory of relativity, almost no one wanted to understand me. What I am now revealing to humanity is again encountering a world full of incomprehension and prejudice. Therefore, please withhold this letter until people have evolved to the point where everyone understands what I am talking about.
There are many forces acting on anything but there is also an incredibly strong force for which science has not yet found an explanation. This force influences everything else, it is above all phenomena in the universe and yet we have not yet understood it.
This force is LOVE.
Scientists have forgotten this most powerful, invisible force. LOVE is the light that illuminates those who give and receive it.
LOVE is almost like gravity, for it makes people feel attracted to each other, like two magnets.
LOVE is the strongest force of all, for it is this that prevents humanity from perishing in its blind selfishness.
It is for LOVE that we live and die.
LOVE is our God and GOD is our LOVE.
This power explains everything and gives meaning to our lives. It is an inconspicuous force that we have ignored for far too long. Perhaps because we are afraid of it, as it is the only force in the universe that cannot be controlled scientifically.
Humanity will always fail when it comes to exploring, harnessing and controlling the forces of the universe. That is why it is so important that we nourish ourselves with a different energy and do not forget love alongside science!
If we want humanity to continue to survive, if we want to find meaning in life, if we want to save the world and everything that lives in it, then love is the only right answer!
Perhaps, even after this publication, we are still not strong enough to destroy all the hatred, selfishness and greed that are poisoning our planet piece by piece.
If we learn to give and also accept this universal energy, in the form of LOVE, my dear Lieserl, we will find that LOVE can overcome everything, because LOVE is the true essence of life .
Please forgive me for never being able to show my love directly. Perhaps it is too late to apologise, but as time is relative, I can still tell you now that I love you. Thanks to you, I have found the final answer, the answer of life!
With love, your father Albert Einstein»
Hamburger Abendblatt, 8.01.2000
Corona Virus
Contagion
Nothing is as contagious as news of a contagion. The reach of the coronavirus within China and beyond pales beside the proliferation of newspaper, audio, television and social media reports about it that have reached billions of people around the world. While some reports tend to stoke fears, others aim more to prevent panic.
Few, however, dig beneath the surface of what is happening to weigh the mental elements at play from a spiritual perspective. But that is exactly what a timeless article by Mary Baker Eddy does (see Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896, pp. 228-229). Though written in 1883, it still offers a concise yet thorough analysis of what goes on in times of contagion and how we can help stem the spread of the "general consent" that, as it is called, «makes disease contagious».
We invite you to reflect on this article with us.
From the Christian Science Sentinel March 9, 2020:: Contagion By Mary Baker Eddy From the March 9, 2020 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel
Whatever man sees, feels, or in any way takes cognizance of, must be caught through mind; inasmuch as perception, sensation, and consciousness belong to mind and not to matter. Floating with the popular current of mortal thought without questioning the reliability of its conclusions, we do what others do, believe what others believe, and say what others say. Common consent is contagious, and it makes disease catching.
People believe in infectious and contagious diseases, and that any one is liable to have them under certain predisposing or exciting causes. This mental state prepares one to have any disease whenever there appear the circumstances which he believes produce it. If he believed as sincerely that health is catching when exposed to contact with healthy people, he would catch their state of feeling quite as surely and with better effect than he does the sick man’s.
If only the people would believe that good is more contagious than evil, since God is omnipresence, how much more certain would be the doctor’s success, and the clergyman’s conversion of sinners. And if only the pulpit would encourage faith in God in this direction, and faith in Mind over all other influences governing the receptivity of the body, theology would teach man as David taught: “Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.”
The confidence of mankind in contagious disease would thus become beautifully less; and in the same proportion would faith in the power of God to heal and to save mankind increase, until the whole human race would become healthier, holier, happier, and longer lived. A calm, Christian state of mind is a better preventive of contagion than a drug, or than any other possible sanative method; and the “perfect Love” that “casteth out fear” is a sure defense.
Mary Baker Eddy