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Tag Archives: Christian Science

Island of Peace in an Ocean of Unrest: The Letters of Dorothy von Moltke

07 Thursday Aug 2014

Posted by Sara M. Barnacle in Christian Science history, European history, Memoir/Letters

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Christian Science, Germany, Naziism, World War I, World War II

The sub/subtitle here is: An Extraordinary Woman’s Letters Witness Germany’s Descent into Chaos. And by the time one reads through all the book titles, the contents has already been made clear.  The author of the book is Catherine R. Hammond. Publisher: Nebbadoon Press, 2013.

Dorothy Rose Inness was a young South African woman, born into a highly placed English-speaking family. After meeting and marrying a young German count, she kept up a steady correspondence with her parents as she learned to negotiate the mores of east German gentry, circa 1905. As hard-working mistress of a large, agricultural estate and devoted wife of an aristocrat, she had daily contact with all levels of German society. She learned to love her new life, which eventually included five children, and so does the reader, though both come to see and deprecate the cultural characteristics and political mistakes that made Germany vulnerable to Nazism and Hitler’s rough-shod rise to power.

At the same time, this is the story of the rise of Christian Science in Germany, told from an outside/insider’s point of view. This book contrasts the viewpoint of the the well-known Christian Science in Germany by Frances Thurber Seale, the Christian Science practitioner sent by the church to Germany to introduce that movement.

Count von Moltke, after witnessing an attention-getting healing or two, became a student, took class instruction, and became a busy, full-time practitioner in Berlin. He soon was made the first Christian Science Committee on Publication in Germany, charged with correcting misinformation — rumors and half-truths rampant around the new faith and way of life — that would create impositions on the German public. Dorothy early on saw the value of Christian Science and became an earnest student, too. They both worked on the first translation of Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, into German.

The book consists of letters from Dorothy to her parents in South Africa, woven together almost “as-was” by Catherine R. Hammond. For all the World War I and II films I’ve seen, history lectures attended, etc., this offers the best insight into that period’s sad descent from beauty and purpose into national degradation.  For instance, I had been taught to deprecate Lord Astor’s sympathy with the post-WWI rise of new nationalism in Germany. In Britain, and consequently in America, such Brits were seen as 5th columnists. However, Dorothy saw how Astor’s respectful communication with the new German government helped exempt the burgeoning Christian Science church from the persecution with which the Nazis attempted to flatten other “foreign” churches. By the time Hitler’s radar swept over the Christian Science church, its adherents had been able to grow a much firmer and long-lasting grip on the faith. Astor’s buffer allowed the Christian Science movement in Germany to develop deep enough roots to survive the Holocaust and emerge with strength into modern Germany.

Idioms of the Bible Explained and A Key to the Original Gospels

07 Thursday Aug 2014

Posted by Sara M. Barnacle in Bible Study

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Aramaic, Bible, Christian Science, Lamsa, Mary Baker Eddy, translation

The original copyright on this book was 1931 (latest 1985), so I’m not reviewing a resource hot off the press. My copy, purchased in the bookstore of Principia Upper School in St. Louis, MO, is a paperback printed by HarperCollinsSanFrancisco,  ISBN 0-06-064927-5. It’s turning yellow around the edges, being cheaply produced. But oh, is it valuable.

The author, due to his unlikely combination of birth (Assyrian country boy), education (credentialed scholar), and faith (Christian), was uniquely prepared to contribute this work to the wide world of Bible scholarship, translation, and Christian worship. The sad thing is, that his work has not had more impact. The key to his importance is that he grew up a master of the same Aramaic idioms and colloquialisms that were au courant to the writers of the Bible — and to Jesus.

The Middle Eastern languages are noted for swarms of colorful — often flamboyant — idioms.   Here’s a quote from the back cover blurb:  “[Bible writers] wrote for their own people in the plain language of their times, so that even the unlearned might understand God’s Word. Over the centuries, inaccurate translations and misunderstanding of customs and concepts have led to difficulties in bringing the biblical message to contemporary English-speaking readers.”

Some Aramaic idioms we understand readily:  “A pearl of great price”? That’s easy: a great truth. (Matt. 13: 46)  But: “If thy hand or foot offend thee, cut them off”? (Matt. 18: 8) How gruesome! No, not to the original hearers. It was typically-extreme imagery employed to make ones’ point securely:  Stop stealing, Stop trespassing. Just STOP.

The Jews seem to have had a unified sense of life and Life. Heaven and hell were primarily present tense experiences. “Kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 13: 24) would refer to “A universal state; a reign of peace and harmony.” Hell as a location of sorts (when translating the word “Sheol”) was simply a resting place for the departed. We have later Christian doctrine to thank for the concepts of devils as beings, hell as a site of burning damnation, heaven as a place of future reward, etc. Milton, too, is largely responsible for making this imagery concrete to the Western mind and for overlaying that imagery onto the Bible.   [This could lead to a discussion of sharia law. Is it really the ancient thoughts and practices brought forward, or a literal interpretation or misunderstanding of metaphorically-stated, ancient truths?]

When “hell” translates “Gehenna”, I believe it does refer to the burning dump outside the walls of Jerusalem. The Aramaic speakers would have been using the term metaphorically, as disposing of worthless ideas, cultural trash. Lamsa writes that “gates of hell” (Matt. 16: 18) would refer to “evil forces; opposition”.

The Dark Ages were a time when connection with the past was broken. The Renaissance only partially succeeded in reestablishing continuity. The Enlightenment actually created other barriers to the past.  No wonder Mary Baker Eddy wrote what she did in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 24: 4. “Acquaintance with the original texts, and willingness to give up human beliefs (established by hierarchies, and instigated sometimes by the worst passions of men), open the way for Christian Science to be understood, and make the Bible the chart of life, where the buoys and healing currents of Truth are pointed out.”

Just a few more samples. The familiar “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven” is a literal translation of “It is easier to thread a rope through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter heaven.”  We kinda get the meaning of the first, despite its exaggerated imagery. But the second is so reasonable:  The rich man must lose something twined closely about him now, before he is fit for heaven.

“Take the little book and eat it”  = Remember it by heart; make it part of you. (Rev. 10)

“Sweet in my mouth like honey” = I was overcome by the secret the book contained.

“It made my belly bitter.” = I could not impart the secret.

And so it goes.

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