Reviews for A New Appraisal of Christian Science (1906)

The average rating for A New Appraisal of Christian Science (1906) based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-09-22 00:00:00 Tamara Guentz I had to read this for my class. It was filled with lots of history. It's a great resource.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-02-16 00:00:00 Alphonso Lyles Jr. I read this one during my missionary prep days back in 1975. I was so enamored with it I thought I would use it to teach the kids in my Sunday School class. I was only a few years older than them. They scoffed and made it clear they wee very uncomfortable with both the ideas found in the book as well as the intensity of my feelings for the book. I was saddened. It had been such a spiritual eye-opener for me. Parley P Pratt was a theologian and deep thinker. I guess the 19th century wording and 16-year-olds just did not mix well. I was only 18 myself. Oh well, It still holds a dear place in my heart. If you want to know how an apostle felt about Mormonism and how the spirit blessed his life and that of his family, take the time to read this book. It is available in many editions. If you want some depth about how the spirit world operates, read chapter XII - Angels and Spirits. It is mostly about the ministry of angels but includes what happens when you encounter one who has an evil spirit - either one that has never been embodied or one that has once roamed the earth and now is unhappy with his lot. This apostle clearly teaches us about "unclean" and "foul" spirits. "A person, on looking another in the eye who is possessed of an evil spirit, will feel a shock - a nervous feeling, which will, as it were, make his hair stand on end; in short, a shock resembling that produced in the nervous system by the sight of a serpent." There were many such spirits manifest in the early days of the church and Parley was witness to this. He recorded, "They will sometimes enter human bodies and will distract them, throw them into fits, cast them into the water, into the fire, etc. They will trouble them with dreams, nightmares, hysterics, fevers, etc. "They will also deform them in body and in features by convulsions, cramps, contortions, etc and will compel them to utter blasphemies, horrible curses, and even words of other languages. If permitted, they will often cause death. Some of these spirits are adulterous, and suggest to the mind all manner of lasciviousness, all kinds of evil thoughts and temptations." Try teaching that to a class of sixteen-year-olds who don't even know if they believe in a God or a devil, let alone any kind of spirits, evil or otherwise. This chapter is just an example of the depth of this book and the understanding of this great theologian who was taken from earth too soon at age fifty. It also contains one of the most oft-quoted passages in our modern church curriculum about how the gift of the Holy Ghost works upon us: "It quickens all the intellectual faculties, increases, enlarges, expands and purifies all the natural passions and affections, and adapts them, by the gift of wisdom to their lawful use. It inspires, develops, cultivates and matures all the fine toned sympathies, joys, tastes, kindred feelings and affections of our nature. "It inspires virtue, kindness, goodness, tenderness, gentleness and charity. It develops beauty of person, form and features. It tends to health, vigor, animation and social feeling. It develops and invigorates all the faculties of the physical and intellectual man. It strengthens, invigorates and gives tone to the nerves. In short, it is, as it were marrow to the bone, joy to the heart, light to the eyes, music to the ears, and life to the whole being." Just wanted to make sure you knew that Parley understood and acknowledged how the Holy Ghost blessed his life. I feel the same way.