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Science and Christian Healing.
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59
He was right about something. The very terminology "city foursquare" invites the perception of something that is four measures square, such as a four by four matrix. It is a mathematical fact that a four by four matrix has sixteen elements. It was further recognized through his efforts that Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures contains exactly sixteen chapters, not counting the Preface, Glossary, and the compilation of testimonials called Fruitage that are found in the back of the book, which are not chapters in a true sense. It was also recognized in Doorly's time that the sixteen chapters of the textbook have a direct relationship to the sixteen element matrix developed from the city foursquare as Mary Baker Eddy had defined it.
As it was, a number of books were written on the subject during this time, exploring this specific interrelationships, but nothing more was done, unfortunately so. John Doorly had discovered the tip of an 'iceberg,' not realizing how much of it lay still below the surface deeply out of sight. Still, his work set off a significant stirrup. A discovery of that nature cannot help but set the stage for a deeper understanding of the Science that Mary Baker Eddy had worked with. Strong opposition arose from the central 'establishment' which had vested interests in preserving the status quo. John Doorly was stopped.
As it was, the early discoveries were so hopelessly separated from the whole of what Mary Baker Eddy had presented, that they stood in isolation from the very context which is fundamental to their significance. By this, the discoveries were actually quite limited in their usefulness and might not have sustained the momentum of continued discovery. The little that was discovered soon reseeded back into obscurity after John Doorly was excommunicated from the church for his audacious daring to engage in advanced thinking. After this brief episode, the door to Mary Baker Eddy's outlined structure became closed again for yet another forty years.
In real terms, John Doorly's, significance lies not in what he had discovered, but in the fact that he had challenged all who would rather regard Christian Science as a doctrinal formula instead of as a foundation for a higher understanding of Truth, designed to embrace the infinite nature of God, good, in practical, scientific terms, as its name implies, and what it holds in store for man.
The later discoveries.
The next major breakthrough, as already indicated, was made in the early 1980s. This final breakthrough resulted from extensive research work that was going on through the 1970s. The breakthrough discovery came in the form of the simple realization that the Glossary of Mary Baker Eddy's textbook was designed to be a major contributor to the structure that John Doorly had touched upon earlier. Once this recognition was made, a whole range of more interrelationships came to light to the basic matrix that was developed out of the city foursquare by John Doorly.
The greatest contribution in the chain of discovery of Mary Baker Eddy's outlined structure is undoubtedly the recognition that the Glossary of the Christian Science textbook, itself, is deeply interlocked with the structure that has come to light, that it is in fact the most profound aspect of it and the richest source for its symbolism and the most advanced statements of its Science, comprising 144 definitions of terms, the exact number required to provide nine definitions for each of the sixteen elements of the matrix. The work that is presented here is a rudimental exploration, designed to open the door continued individual discovery.
The authority for the 4x4x9 dimension of the matrix, which comprises 144 building blocks (provided in the Glossary) is found in the symbolism of the last painting in Christ and Christmas by Mary Baker Eddy, which is recognized to be a part of the outline as will be covered in detail, later. The goal in this book series is to explore the fundamental discoveries, which themselves are monumental in scope.
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