Original content on Christian Science written for this column by one of our readers.

Right at the beginning of Mary Baker Eddy’s companion book to the Bible, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” she presents to readers this encouraging observation: “The time for thinkers has come” (p. vii).

In light of how so many people, governments, religions, and organizations may dictate to mankind what specifically to think, that statement sure is a breath of fresh air. It’s not that all of what we’re told is wrong or that thinking for oneself means to disregard a country’s laws and rules. It’s about stepping back and recognizing how regimented our thoughts may become under a persistent stream of dictates, along with the cultural pressure to conform to the mass of mankind’s thoughts as a whole.

Christ Jesus lived under a multiplicity of authorities, and he often challenged his followers to think independently. He asked things like, “How think ye?” (Matthew 18:12). And the Apostle Paul counseled that we “be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:2).

It is heartening to note that the perfect will of God includes comprehensive goodness for everyone, without exception. Unlike human will, which can be self-serving, dominating, unjustly conditional, or confusingly unfair, God’s will is wise, loving, free, impartial, and infinitely insightful. Truly, to “be not conformed to this world” is to think and reason from what God so wisely presents to us in prayer. This is the pinnacle of liberty.

What might be a good step toward praying and thinking independently? “Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth,” says the Bible (Psalms 46:10). It’s first to become more still and peaceful inside, and then to listen for God’s tender yet authoritative voice. The voice of God is the Christ and it’s what Jesus constantly turned to in order to help so many people.

Here is a practical example of thinking from this perspective: The world would tell us that stress, along with the exhaustion associated with it, is, for everyone, normal and expected. But we can challenge that assumption. When I once had a monumental series of projects to complete, I prayed and realized that I had a choice. I could march mentally along with the world’s expectations about inevitable fatigue or I could listen for the voice of God, the Christ, for inspiration about who I am and about the nature of my responsibilities.

I felt such quiet confidence well up in me as I heard God’s guidance that I didn’t need to toil frantically but instead could allow myself to enjoy being His self-expression. This meant that I could humbly allow God’s strength, intelligence, and persistence to fuel my work. The result was that all of the projects were completed smoothly and early, leaving me feeling renewed and ready to take on more.

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It is a joy to explore what it means to think and pray by turning to God and responding thoughtfully to His guidance instead of conforming to the jumbled static of a mass mentality. Yes, truly, the time for thinkers has come!

Going forward, these weekday articles offering a Christian Science perspective on our lives and the world are being published without a byline and read for audio by volunteers. Each Saturday this column will feature a poem with the byline and recorded for audio by the author. In both cases, the goal is the same, to bring a touch of God’s healing light into the lives of our readers through the shared thoughts and healing demonstrations of fellow readers. If you want to know more about contributing, please email JSHWrite@csps.com.

Original content on Christian Science written for this column by one of our readers.

A while ago, I happened on to a researcher’s online presentation just as he was saying to his audience, “You cannot not think about something.” He gave an example of what he meant: “You cannot not think about the elephant that is not in the room.”

After a long pause, the audience began to laugh. Then he smiled and said, in essence, “You’re thinking about that phantom elephant, aren’t you?”

To not think about something, he explained, you must erase that thought and substitute another one. How we regard the impressions related to everyday experience that are coming to consciousness – whether positive or negative – determines the quality of our day and our life. He suggested that diverting thought to more accurate or positive considerations overturns unreliable or unwanted thoughts. He basically presented a plan for managing the human mind – that is, for managing the belief that consciousness resides in a personal brain.

The phantom elephant example hints at what Christian Science teaches – that it matters what we accept as both our own thoughts and the source of them. Recognizing that God, infinite Mind, is the actual source of our thoughts and that they must therefore be true, reliable, and health-giving lifts consciousness far above the human model to inspiration, clarity, direction, and healing. The pure intuitions of the divine Mind are our real consciousness, and they are always good.

In answer to the question “What is the distinction between mortal mind and immortal Mind?” Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer of Christian Science, points out that thoughts based on material constructs do not express God, Spirit, who creates all that truly exists. She explains, “Immortal Mind is God; and this Mind is made manifest in all thoughts and desires that draw mankind toward purity, health, holiness, and the spiritual facts of being” (“Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896,” pp. 36-37).

If infinite Mind is the one source of real, good-producing thinking, the necessary corollary is that the destructive, matter-based thoughts that humanity wrestles with are unnatural and foreign to true consciousness. We must identify and challenge such thoughts on this basis.

Christ Jesus established this spiritual reasoning when he taught that “the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). As we lean into our spiritual nature as God’s likeness, we bring to light this kingdom within as thoughts that reflect God’s qualities, and this naturally leads to better outcomes.

Such conscious spiritual leaning on divine Mind and listening for God’s thoughts, in contrast to simply substituting a positive human thought for one that is threatening or demoralizing, will challenge suggestions that good is not knowable and cannot be experienced and expressed now. And what God knows is not something we “get,” something that we don’t have but need to obtain. It is the spiritual understanding that is innate in each of us. It is already our reality.

Quoting Jesus’ words, “The kingdom of God is within you,” Mrs. Eddy has written of Jesus’ teachings and their effect if lived, “Know, then, that you possess sovereign power to think and act rightly, and that nothing can dispossess you of this heritage and trespass on Love” (“Pulpit and Press,” p. 3).

Everyone has the capacity to assess the thoughts coming to their own consciousness. Ungodlike thoughts and their outcomes are not negated just by trying not to think about evil, mistakes, disease, hatred, lack, sorrow, etc. But recognizing such thinking as an imposition and persistently acknowledging instead what we understand Mind to be knowing and saying brings solutions to all sorts of difficulties. Step by step, we can claim the “sovereign power” we have been given to become more consistently conscious of God’s thoughts.

Christian Science explores how good God is and how we can experience that good by practicing – thinking and therefore acting – more consistently in the way Jesus taught his followers to do. Jesus’ teachings and healing works confirm that negative suggestions can be corrected, not by trying not to think about them, but by turning our attention to and replacing them with God’s thoughts. Jesus showed that physical problems, troubled relationships, financial needs, and even personal wilderness experiences can be resolved by holding thought to Mind’s all-powerful, entirely good reality.

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Mrs. Eddy wrote from her own experience, “He advances most in divine Science who meditates most on infinite spiritual substance and intelligence” (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 309). So what we think matters. As we acknowledge the always-present power and activity of divine intelligence and practice the goodness Jesus taught, we will express that divine intelligence in our lives. We will be thinking God’s thoughts and thus will become more conscious of the kingdom of God already within us and all.

Going forward, these weekday articles offering a Christian Science perspective on our lives and the world are being published without a byline and read for audio by volunteers. Each Saturday this column will feature a poem with the byline and recorded for audio by the author. In both cases, the goal is the same, to bring a touch of God's healing light into the lives of our readers through the shared thoughts and healing demonstrations of fellow readers. If you want to know more about contributing, please email  JSHWrite@csps.com.

As a child, Weam Namou was captivated by all 1,037 pages of Margaret Mitchell’s “Gone With the Wind.” She read it just a few years after her family had emigrated from Iraq to Detroit. Ms. Namou says the book allowed her to enter other people’s lives. It helped her understand the United States more deeply than history classes at school.

Now, she’s a storyteller herself. Ms. Namou hopes that her recently directed movie “Pomegranate,” based on a novel she wrote, will offer viewers an insight into a slice of America that many don’t get to see up close.

The often-humorous movie follows Niran (Sam Rahmani), a young Muslim woman whose Iraqi family moves to a predominantly Chaldean Christian community in Michigan. Chaldean Christians are members of the Chaldean Catholic Church, which has its roots in present-day Iraq and the broader Mesopotamian region.

Why We Wrote This

Weam Namou wrote a story about a young Muslim woman who moves to a Chaldean Christian neighborhood in Detroit. The film reflects political and social tensions within that community, but also showcases its humor and grace.

Niran pushes against her mother’s expectations. Determined to live on her own terms, Niran asserts her independence by getting her driver’s license and dating anyone she chooses. Niran also clashes with Mary (Natally Boutros), the daughter of a neighboring Chaldean Christian family, because of their different political views during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

“I would love for everybody to connect to these stories and learn or receive something from it, regardless of their background,” says Ms. Namou, who has also written 27 books.

“Pomegranate” has won over 50 international film festival awards. But it was rejected by some Arab film festivals. The film’s core message, about women making their own choices, was controversial within the director’s own community. Ms. Namou, a Chaldean Christian, says she’s committed to honest depictions of her characters and that she’s motivated by love.

The Monitor talked with Ms. Namou about the movie, which is now available to view on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, and YouTube. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Why is telling stories about people from the Middle East important to you?

A lot of Middle Easterners, they feel frustrated that our stories are not heard because you have a pocket of people that are louder and have certain agendas and mentalities. And what ends up happening is that it ends up looking like we all have the same beliefs. … This story for me was an opportunity to show us in a more authentic way, and to have the story be led by women.

“Pomegranate” grazes touchy subjects, like Niran wrestling with traditional Islamic practices. Some parts of the Arab world had negative reactions to the book and script. How did you navigate these reactions?

Before [the film’s release], I think I still had these fears of like, “How do I navigate this?” Here I am, I’m making this film, for the love of this community. … Then I realized, well, I can still navigate it by being honest and coming from a place of love. I can do both.

Why did you stick to honest portrayals despite early backlash?

The idea that we can showcase our viewpoint, whether through books or whether through films, or what have you, opens a door for discussion … meaning that we can say, “Hey, is this true? Can women really make that choice? Why should it be so difficult? What’s the pressure behind it?” When you close that door, right there you’re saying, “Well, no, they don’t really [have a choice].”

Why did you decide to set the film during the 2016 U.S. presidential election?

I was saddened seeing people really going at each other … on the verge of hating each other over their differences and political views. I hated seeing that because I came from a region where you get punished for having different political views, and I never want to see that in the U.S. ...

When we would say, “quiet on the set” and everybody would listen to the lines that were being shared … we were actually listening. We were actually having the opportunity to listen to somebody that could be a parent that has different political views, or a sibling, a boyfriend, girlfriend, a spouse, and that’s OK. Like, yes, go ahead and argue about it. Be sassy like these two girls [in the film]. Do whatever you need to do. That’s all OK. But hating each other over that, or getting to the point where you’re disconnecting the conversation, that’s very dangerous.

Even with some of the harder-to-talk-about subjects, humor is present throughout the film. Why?

It takes you coming into our homes and experiencing who we really are to see that side of us, the love. The humor that does exist. And I love our community for that. I went to Iraq in 2000 during the sanctions and people were in such a dire situation, but I would go into homes and find so much laughter.

And how can I let such material go? I love this. I love my people. I can’t even catch up with the interesting stories that they have. … I think if you take yourself too seriously and analyze everything … that makes you forget that world.

Has the movie resonated with Arab audiences, and if so, what was that like to see that impact?

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The first time I did an Arabic interview, she emailed me after and said things to me that brought me to tears. And I’ve had a lot of these kinds of interactions one-on-one where, especially women, will tell me how much it meant what they saw and how they felt and how they appreciated even the comedy, but especially the idea that … they feel they can have a choice.

I’m cheering them on, whatever decision. The mom, you want to stay in a hijab, I am cheering you on. The daughter, you want to take it off, I’m cheering you on. I’m just a cheerleader for people who are wanting to find their voices and their independence in this country and their freedom. And to do it without hurting anybody. And that’s exactly what [Niran’s] family did. They didn’t hurt each other. They were able to walk away, make their decisions out of courage and love.

In her deeply moving new novel, “Fairfield County,” celebrated poet and author DéLana R.A. Dameron weaves an unexpected story involving the South (in this case, rural South Carolina), horses, and cowboys – specifically, Black cowboys. In her deft narrative, she completely overturns popular, even mythic, notions of all three.

The Bolton family has lived on the same plot of land for generations – first as enslaved people and then as sharecroppers. But the end of World War I provided space for change “long enough for folks like Moses Bolton to see a few feet into tomorrow’s horizon and think there might still be a future for Fairfield County.”

Moses, the patriarch of the Bolton clan, is able to secure a homestead cheaply because, in 1937, the land was thought to be used up – overworked from growing cotton. The white owners sold it for pennies on the acre, determining that more money could be made in developing nearby granite quarries. Black people like Moses were offered the opportunity to buy this “useless, terrorized, plundered” land. And they took it.

Why We Wrote This

On a South Carolina farm, a withdrawn girl finds her place as an equestrian in DéLana R.A. Dameron’s last novel, “Fairfield County.” But this is no up-by-her-bootstraps story, says our reviewer. The South itself is too nuanced and multilayered for that.

With ownership came other opportunities. Moses always had a way with horses. He had been a handler and a wrangler. Sometimes, even a trainer. But now, in possession of his own land, he found that he could use his talent to further his own interests and those of his family. He could start breeding horses.

Moses liked to say he had been born just a “few steps outside of a life of bondage.” This explains his determination to create a “self-governed life” in which he would “marry publicly, and in a church. Have children and get to keep them. Buy a house ... – things his grandfather could only imagine.”

Moses’ ability to bond with and understand horses makes him a legend in Fairfield County and beyond. And he is able to pass this skill to his descendants. Each has a horse story to tell: Moses has Pal O Mine. His son, Lloyd, nurtures Reddmare, and Lloyd’s son, Dwayne, rides Reddmare’s colt, O’Boy. Eventually, Moses’ great-granddaughter, Nikki, will choose Easy, Pal O Mine’s direct descendant, as her legacy mount.

In many ways, Nikki Bolton is the beating heart of the novel, and she appears to be a stand-in for Dameron, who did not start riding until midlife.

Nikki’s relationship with her mother is fraught, and when Nikki is physically attacked in school by a police officer, she turns into a shy, withdrawn girl. That is, until she visits Fairfield County to see her father and his buddy from the Iraq War, “Uncle” Sonny. The two men introduce her to horses and the equestrian life, and she thrives.

But this is no up-by-their-bootstraps story. The South itself is too nuanced and multilayered for that. There are tragedies, including a neighbor lynched because he would not give up the rights to his land. Fires engulf characters we have come to love. Beloved animals must be put down. This is rural life as it’s lived. One of the beauties of this novel is how these experiences are used as framework, never distracting from the portrait of the Boltons that emerges.

The story itself is beautifully elliptical. It reminded me of Edward P. Jones’ “The Known World.” We are given a glimpse of events and then drawn into a deeper understanding of them as the story progresses.

The only minor nit I would pick with this lovely novel is the fact that Nikki, even though she spent time with her father in Fairfield County, had never heard about her family’s connection to horses.

I live in the South and know it to be a very chatty place. Folks down here know not only their family history but they know that of their neighbors as well. And they are quite willing, even eager, to share their information. As the school bus driver, Mrs. Esther, says, “We take care of we.” But this is only the smallest of quibbles.

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Sadly, “Fairfield County” is Dameron’s final novel, as she died last year. But with this book, she has left behind a rich legacy – her own love of horses and the Black horsewomen and men in a place that she came to call home.

I loved the time I spent there – and with them.

This summer, the literary agencies Europa Content and Hodgman Literary shook the publishing world when they withdrew from sale a manuscript for the highly anticipated crime novel “Call Me, I’ll Hide the Body.” The book, written by Nigerian author Jerry Falade, had already generated plenty of online buzz. It had secured multimillion-dollar deals from major publishers in both the United States and the United Kingdom and was slated to be released in 2028.

It was also, the literary agencies said, unclear whether the book had been written by Mr. Falade or by an artificial intelligence chatbot.

The controversy is at once new and familiar, reflecting both the dramatic changes that the proliferation of AI has wrought on book publishing and echoing other skirmishes this year in which authors have been accused of using AI. This past spring, Hachette Book Group, a leading American publisher, canceled the publication of “Shy Girl,” an eagerly awaited horror novel by Mia Ballard, after rumors that Ms. Ballard had written the book using AI overtook the internet.

Why We Wrote This

Authors increasingly use AI tools to craft their work. As book publishers struggle to set guidelines for AI use, readers vent their concerns about transparency and quality. Some observers say a new social contract is needed between readers and authors to instill confidence.

Mr. Falade has publicly denied the accusations, arguing that Black authors’ work has faced more scrutiny for potential AI use than that of white authors. Ms. Ballard, who is also Black, also denied the accusations in an email to The New York Times, writing that someone she had hired to edit her novel had used AI but that she had not. But both controversies reflect a growing rupture of trust between readers, writers, and publishers, as AI use – alleged or proven – continues to rock the literary world.

“Until AI, there has been the expectation that no matter what is written in a book, It [was] authored by a person, or people,” says Vauhini Vara, a journalist and author who has written about technology for more than two decades. “There needs to be new terms in the social contract between reader and writer.”

Other AI-related controversies have consumed the literary world recently. In May, the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, a prestigious award for unpublished fiction, faced allegations that three of this year’s winning stories had been at least partially written by AI. Earlier that month, The New York Times reported that “The Future of Truth,” a nonfiction book about how AI is changing perceptions of truth, contained quotes that were misattributed or concocted by AI.

Those troubles, in an industry that is perhaps among the most vulnerable to AI’s capabilities, have raised questions not only about how many authors might now be using AI for some or all of their writing, but also about how thoroughly publishers check the books they release.

AI companies themselves may hold solutions. In 2024, The Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI created a technology – known as watermarking – that allows content generated by ChatGPT to be detected with 99.9% accuracy. The company has not released the technology because it might decrease the number of ChatGPT users, the Journal reported, and because of ongoing internal debates about how widely to issue it and its reliability.

This month, Anthropic, the maker of the chatbot Claude, said that it will add similar watermarks to all of Claude’s outputs. Users will not be able to opt out, the company said. The move follows Anthropic’s decision to sign onto the European Union’s code of practice on transparency of AI-generated content. Several other AI companies, including OpenAI and Microsoft, have also signed the agreement.

When is AI OK?

Controversies over AI use have struck the publishing industry amid ballooning work and thinning staff. The number of books released by publishing houses in the United States increased by 10% between 2022 and 2025, according to data obtained by Publishers Weekly, rising to 642,242. Yet the number of book publishing jobs fell by 28% between 1987 and 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Given those pressures, a wholesale ban on AI is unreasonable, says Kathleen Schmidt, a publishing strategist who has worked in the industry for more than 30 years. She uses AI for menial tasks, and doesn’t mind if authors do, too.

“I’m not saying that there aren’t instances where it should not be used – like, you should not use it to write an entire book,” she says. “Can you do it to brainstorm ideas? Sure.”

That seems to be the line that many readers draw, says Rebecca Joines Schinsky, chief of staff at Book Riot, an independent publication covering book publishing in North America. “I think a lot of people probably fall into a middle space of, ‘It’s cool to use it for research, but I don’t want to read any sentences in your book that were written by AI.’”

Yet for some readers, the creative process is sacred, from start to finish. In a 2025 YouGov survey that asked U.S. readers whether AI use was acceptable in five circumstances – ranging from “ideation” to “outlining” – majorities disapproved of AI use in all five scenarios. Sixty-one percent of readers said they would feel at least “somewhat” or “much” less fulfilled if they discovered a book they’d read was written by AI. Still, only 28% of readers said that AI use is unacceptable in all of the circumstances presented by the survey.

For Ms. Vara, the journalist, the problem boils down to honesty. When authors hide their AI use, the trust between readers and writers can erode, she says.

“There needs to be some kind of disclosure that makes it possible for readers and authors to have this mutual understanding,” she says. Her recent nonfiction book “Searches,” which examines AI’s impact on humanity through her own experience using it, contains several AI-generated passages – but they’re all labeled. “For me, the problem arises when AI-generated material appears in text, whether it’s a book or something else, and there’s no way for us to know.”

The promises and pitfalls of AI detectors

In both the “Shy Girl” and Commonwealth prize controversies, social media users pointed out writing habits they saw as proof of AI use – for example, an overreliance on metaphors, only some of which made sense. In “The Serpent in the Grove,” the short story that set off the Commonwealth conflagration, a line reading, “She had the kind of walking that made benches become men,” drew heavy scrutiny.

Some readers also ran the texts through online AI detectors. One such tool, Pangram, found that “The Serpent in the Grove” was 100% AI-generated. (The Monitor got the same Pangram result.)

The story’s author, Jamir Nazir, told The Observer, a British newspaper, that his writing process exclusively uses the text-to-speech function on his Android phone. The Commonwealth Foundation said in a public statement that Mr. Nazir and other accused writers denied using AI to write the story, and that the foundation had found no evidence of AI use after reviewing “working drafts, time-stamped documents and notes.”

But there’s no foolproof method of uncovering AI-generated content. Human writing may well contain errors or literary faux pas. Pangram’s creator says it has a false-positive rate – the rate at which it wrongly identifies a human text as AI – of just 0.01%. Yet a 2023 Stanford study said that Pangram was biased against non-native English speakers, who might have more limited vocabularies, and many AI researchers contend that such detectors are unreliable.

Tara Radvand, a doctoral student at the University of Michigan who has studied AI detectors, says they do work – depending on the context. They’re better at identifying AI-fabricated fiction than nonfiction, she says, and reliability improves as text length increases. Nevertheless, she points out that even a false positive rate of 1% is high for an industry like publishing, where an accusation can send a career up in smoke.

Publishers’ AI rules remain murky

Authors debate whether – and how – they should be using AI in their work. Recently, Olga Tokarczuk, a Nobel Prize-winning Polish author, generated an uproar when she said she uses AI in her work. (She later added that she uses it only “as a tool for faster preliminary research.”)

Anthony Horowitz, an English author, made headlines this spring when he said he used the technology “all the time,” though he nevertheless stressed the need to “judge what you’re being told, and also look for a second source.” Coral Hart told The New York Times that last year she had published some 200 romance novels using Claude, an AI chatbot created by Anthropic.

In a 2025 poll of more than 1,200 authors by BookBub, a book discovery service, 45% of respondents said that they currently use generative AI to “assist with their work,” compared with 48% who said they do not use it and don’t plan to. Of those who do use AI, more than half said they use it to assist with writing.

Some publishers have sought to establish rules around the technology’s use, but few, if any, prohibit it outright. Hachette, for example, lists “use cases not requiring disclosure,” including “researching elements of a book,” but says that authors must attest that their work is their own. Penguin Random House recently made waves when it prohibited AI companies from using authors’ copyrighted work to train AI models without permission.

Still, publishers’ rules around AI use remain murky in many cases, says Ms. Schinsky, from Book Riot. Few publishing houses have made their screening methods public, she says.

For those readers who want a decidedly human experience, many authors remain happy to oblige.

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Nick Harkaway, a British sci-fi author who describes himself as a lover of technology, nevertheless remains skeptical of the cognitive costs associated with using a machine to assist in thinking, and with the environmental impact of AI systems. “Ultimately, it doesn’t appeal to me because I love what I do,” he says, of using AI to write books. “I don’t want a computer to do my job.

“If I didn’t want to write, I’d do something else,” he says.

Soul is a synonym for God, or Spirit, and expresses the vast and eternal beauty of holiness, reflected in man and the universe. This week’s Bible lesson on the subject “Soul” in the Christian Science Quarterly shows us how yielding to Soul’s grace helps us glimpse our own divine nature and dignity and that of all humanity.

I had a clear demonstration of how Soul unfolds harmony and healing. I was visiting my sister and her family in New Zealand over the holidays last year, and during breakfast I swallowed an inch-long piece of lemon grass, an herb that is rather stiff and coarse. It lodged in my throat in an odd way such that I couldn’t remove or swallow it. I wasn’t in pain, but it was very uncomfortable.

As a Christian Scientist, I knew that discord could not interrupt harmony, including precious time with family I hadn’t seen for almost seven years.

Christian Scientists prayerfully feed themselves with daily inspiration from the Bible and “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” by Mary Baker Eddy. That morning my thought was filled with the vastness of God and His infinite manifestation – a clear and joyful understanding that I am the expression of my Maker, of the eternal All-in-all, God, good. Mrs. Eddy puts it this way: “God is infinite, the only Life, substance, Spirit, or Soul, the only intelligence of the universe, including man” (Science and Health, p. 330).

There were house guests staying over, and out of genuine concern, they suggested several ways to help resolve the problem. I participated joyfully in the activity around me, but then I had a strong nudge to find a quiet place and pray.

Science and Health says: “Spirit, God, is heard when the senses are silent” (p. 89). I slipped away into our bedroom, shut the door, and with a deep desire to yield to God, felt an urge to listen to the audio recording of that week’s Christian Science Bible lesson, which I had read and studied that morning. What came to me was a simple but valuable intuition that healing is not about attaining the grace of God, but about the loving freedom that comes from reflecting God!

This thought strengthened me with such a holy joy that it’s beyond words to describe. A false burden fell away. I was not afraid. I lay down on the carpet drinking in the tender love coming from the spiritual ideas I was hearing.

A familiar Bible story about Christ Jesus healing ten lepers highlighted the importance of gratitude to God for healing (see Luke 17:11-19). My heart opened up, giving gratitude for God’s grace surrounding me. That very moment I coughed, there was an adjustment in my throat, and the piece of lemon grass dislodged. With utter humility I continued to acknowledge and love the healing truth I was hearing.

Mrs. Eddy writes, “Spirit is God, Soul; therefore Soul is not in matter” (Science and Health, p. 300). As the expression of Soul, you and I are spiritual and reflect God’s divine nature. We have the capacity to express this more fully from day to day. Jesus urged, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength” (Mark 12:30). When, in meekness, we wait on God to glimpse who we truly are, we see God’s calm supremacy in action. Our Soul-filled consciousness purifies, heals, and saves, radiating outward, blessing not only those around us, but all whom our thoughts embrace in the reverent love and peace of God.

If you’re new to the weekly Bible Lessons from the Christian Science Quarterly, you can view a free sample of a previous week’s Bible lesson here. Subscribers to the weekly Lesson can log in here.

La armonía del Alma produce la curación

Dilshad Khambatta Eames

Alma es sinónimo de Dios, o Espíritu, y expresa la vasta y eterna belleza de la santidad, reflejada en el hombre y el universo. La Lección Bíblica de esta semana sobre el tema “Alma” en el Cuaderno Trimestral de la Ciencia Cristiana nos muestra que ceder a la gracia del Alma nos ayuda a vislumbrar nuestra propia naturaleza y dignidad divinas y la de toda la humanidad.

Tuve una demostración clara de cómo el Alma despliega la armonía y la curación. El año pasado visité a mi hermana y a su familia en Nueva Zelanda para las fiestas, y durante el desayuno me tragué un trozo de limoncillo de dos centímetros y medio de largo; es una hierba bastante dura y áspera. Se me quedó atascada en la garganta de una forma extraña que no podía quitarla ni tragarla. No tenía dolor, pero era muy incómodo.

Como Científica Cristiana, sabía que la discordia no podía interrumpir la armonía, incluyendo el tiempo valioso con la familia que no había visto en casi siete años.

Los Científicos Cristianos se alimentan orando con la diaria inspiración de la Biblia y de “Ciencia y Salud con la Llave de las Escrituras,” escrito por Mary Baker Eddy. Esa mañana mi pensamiento estaba lleno de la vastedad de Dios y de Su infinita manifestación —una comprensión clara y alegre de que soy la expresión de mi Creador, del eterno Todo-en-todo, Dios, el bien—. La Sra. Eddy lo expresa así: “Dios es infinito, la única Vida, sustancia, Espíritu o Alma, la única inteligencia del universo, incluyendo el hombre” (Ciencia y Salud, pág. 330).

Había huéspedes quedándose en la casa y, con genuina preocupación, sugirieron varias formas de ayudar a resolver el problema. Participé con alegría en la actividad a mi alrededor, pero luego sentí el fuerte impulso de encontrar un lugar tranquilo y orar.

Ciencia y Salud dice: “El Espíritu, Dios, se oye cuando los sentidos están en silencio” (pág. 89). Me escabullí hacia nuestro dormitorio, cerré la puerta y, con el profundo deseo de ceder a Dios, sentí la necesidad de escuchar la grabación de audio de la Lección Bíblica de la Ciencia Cristiana de esa semana, que había leído y estudiado esa mañana. Lo que me vino fue la intuición simple pero valiosa de que la curación no consiste en alcanzar la gracia de Dios, sino en la amorosa libertad que surge al reflejar a Dios.

Este pensamiento me fortaleció con una alegría tan sagrada que es imposible de describir con palabras. Una falsa carga desapareció. No tenía miedo. Me tumbé en la alfombra, bebiendo el tierno amor que emanaba de las ideas espirituales que estaba escuchando.

Una conocida historia de la Biblia de cuando Cristo Jesús sana a los diez leprosos destacó la importancia de la gratitud a Dios por la curación (véase Lucas 17:11-19). Mi corazón se abrió, lleno de gratitud por la gracia de Dios que me rodeaba. En ese mismo momento tosí, sentí un ajuste en la garganta y el trozo de limoncillo se desprendió. Con absoluta humildad seguí reconociendo y amando la verdad sanadora que estaba escuchando.

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La Sra. Eddy escribe: “El Espíritu es Dios, el Alma; por lo tanto, el Alma no está en la materia” (Ciencia y Salud, pág. 300). Como expresión del Alma, tú y yo somos espirituales y reflejamos la naturaleza divina de Dios. Tenemos la capacidad de expresar esto de forma más completa día a día. Jesús nos instó: “Amarás al Señor tu Dios con todo tu corazón, y con toda tu alma, y con toda tu mente y con todas tus fuerzas” (Marcos 12:30). Cuando, con mansedumbre, esperamos en Dios para vislumbrar quiénes somos realmente, vemos la tranquila supremacía de Dios en acción. Nuestra conciencia llena del Alma purifica, sana y salva, irradiando hacia afuera, bendiciendo no solo a quienes nos rodean, sino a todos aquellos a quienes nuestros pensamientos abrazan en el reverente amor y la paz de Dios.

Si eres nuevo en las Lecciones Bíblicas semanales del Cuaderno Trimestral de la Ciencia Cristiana, puedes aprender más sobre ellas aquí: https://biblelesson.christianscience.com/es

It’s that time of year when the glossy catalogs showcasing my community’s continuing education offerings have begun landing in mailboxes. With them usually comes a message about the lifelong opportunity to expand our horizons by learning new things.

How true that is – not just in subjects like music and languages, but also in our spiritual progress. In fact, my practice of Christian Science has shown me that the truly horizon-expanding education isn’t just in studying religion like an academic subject. It’s in more deeply knowing and understanding God.

Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of this publication, was an ardent student of the Bible and found it indispensable to her spiritual search and eventual discovery of the Science of being, which she called Christian Science. But it was more than just the words of a spiritual text that impelled this paradigm-shifting sense of God to dawn for her. As she explained it, “The Scriptures had to me a new meaning, a new tongue. Their spiritual signification appeared; and I apprehended for the first time, in their spiritual meaning, Jesus’ teaching and demonstration, and the Principle and rule of spiritual Science and metaphysical healing” (“Retrospection and Introspection,” p. 25).

It was something beyond mere human insight or understanding that opened these vistas for Mrs. Eddy. It was a palpable, practical, alive sense of what God is and all that means for us as His children, not created materially, but spiritually. She experienced something of the living presence of God and that changed her – healed her. She then spent the rest of her life working to demonstrate, articulate, and teach this profound discovery so that the rest of us could likewise experience more of God, good, and the spiritual laws that undergird and govern our lives.

To those who asked how they could progress most rapidly in their own understanding, she left, in part, these instructions: “Study thoroughly the letter and imbibe the spirit” (“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” p. 495). In my life, I’ve come to see that as getting beyond the head to the heart. Not just learning and thinking about God, but reaching for more of an experience of God: to feel the love of God as Love, the life-sustaining power of God as Life, the harmonizing of God as Soul. To listen to, trust, and follow God because God is infinite intelligence, Mind.

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Oftentimes, concepts that start out as interesting ideas that I’ve gleaned from my study of the Bible and Science and Health take root and blossom as I ask God for help in getting a less academic, and more spiritual, sense of what they mean. For example, I spent a full year praying about what it means that God is Life. As I did, that idea went from feeling like notes on a page in a musical score to becoming like the music behind those notes – shimmering and singing to me in the most wonderful ways. At the end of that year, I even discovered that I didn’t need to wear glasses anymore, just because I’d been perceiving more clearly that God is Life itself.

The continuing education that opens up new views of God to us has no season or registration deadline. It’s there to be experienced daily, as we open our hearts and let God show us who we and He truly are.

Who among us hasn’t at one time or another wondered about – or wrestled with – those age-old questions, “Why do I exist?” and “What is my purpose?” I certainly have. But the more I study Christian Science, the more I realize that we all have the same lifelong purpose – to glorify God.

“Glorify God” sounds great! But what does that mean? And how do we do it?

Forms of the word “glory” appear over four hundred times in Scripture, so they must be important. Merriam-webster.com defines “glorify” this way: “To make glorious by bestowing honor, praise, or admiration” and “to elevate to celestial glory.”

The Bible’s book of Isaiah highlights this significance, conveying God’s charge that His people glorify Him: “This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise” (43:21). And the first chapter of Genesis makes plain that God made man in His own image. So we’re His very expression. We show forth God’s glory when we apply spiritual qualities such as attentiveness, dedication, thoroughness, joy, and love to everyday activities – even the most mundane.

In the movie “Chariots of Fire,” Eric Liddell, the Scottish Olympic runner, ran with joy and dominion, precision and perfection, care and compassion – definitely glorifying God. He later became a Christian missionary to China, demonstrating these God-qualities as well through helping others.

To explain our natural expression of God, Mary Baker Eddy notes in the Christian Science textbook, “Like a ray of light which comes from the sun, man, the outcome of God, reflects God” (“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” p. 250). I love that simple analogy. Think about it – just as a ray of light is the sun’s shining, we are God’s shining. A ray of light can’t not shine, can it! And just as it is impossible to have a ray of light without the sun, so the sun can’t be without its rays. To me, this means we are as vital to God as He is to us. God and His expression, man, are inseparable, one.

God provides His children with divine direction from the get-go. God is responsible for His children, and His children are responsive to Him. Our purpose in glorifying Him – our responsiveness to Him – is as God-impelled and empowered as is His responsibility to us.

As I began to understand this, I gained a sincere consistency in my early exploration of Christian Science. I was a mother of two toddlers, and it seemed that my sole purpose was to change hats all day long – from handling household tasks, to playing with my kiddies on the floor, to being a professional at a business session, to meeting my husband for a romantic dinner, to sitting quietly in a church pew.

I remember speaking directly to God while repeatedly cleaning up after our eighteen-month-old daughter: “God, I’m expressing You here – in thoughtfulness, cleanliness, caring, dedication, intelligence – as surely as when I’m in a business meeting or church pew.” I was the same me, no matter where I was or what I was doing. Recognizing that I was actively expressing Him elevated every task for me. The more important God became to me and the more I strove daily to fulfill His calling, the more ways to do so kept opening up.

I was growing spiritually, though at times it seemed I’d never feel entirely Christlike – never feel that I was living up to the example explicitly set for us by Christ Jesus. But that sense, I realized, was seeing my purpose all wrong. Then I came upon these words: “As one grows into the manhood or womanhood of Christianity, one finds so much lacking, and so very much requisite to become wholly Christlike, that one saith: The Principle of Christianity is infinite: it is indeed God; and this infinite Principle hath infinite claims on man, and these claims are divine, not human; and man’s ability to meet them is from God; for, being His likeness and image, man must reflect the full dominion of Spirit – even its supremacy over sin, sickness, and death” (Mary Baker Eddy, “Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896,” p. 16).

Right then, I accepted God’s claims as my daily guide. I took an intensive two-week course in Christian Science known as Primary class instruction. I returned assured of my purpose.

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Since that time, God has continued to show me new channels for glorifying (expressing) Him. I didn’t think them up. He made them plain, and His love shines through each one. He’ll do the same for you, too. Just let Him show you.

Adapted from an article published in the Aug. 10, 2026, issue of the Christian Science Sentinel.

Our reviewers sampled an array of nonfiction books focused on artificial intelligence:

Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks From the Stone Age to AI, by Yuval Noah Harari (Random House)

An uncorrected mistake in the Stone Age could destroy at most a city; in the Silicon Age, it could destroy civilization, argues Israeli historian and philosopher Yuval Harari in this sweeping survey. Starting with the simplest type of “information network,” the story, Harari develops the thesis that information networks are not necessarily about communicating truth but connecting humans based on shared mythologies. AI is a new kind of information network that is more powerful than anything humanity has seen before, he argues. The solution to AI’s risks is not technological but societal and political: Humans must unite to build strong self-correcting mechanisms. To do that, they’ll need to agree on key priorities and trust each other more. – Christa Case Bryant

Why We Wrote This

Everyone from tech entrepreneurs to philosophers to novelists is grappling with the implications of artificial intelligence. Monitor reviewers gathered 11 important AI-related books to help you understand what’s going on.

The Age of AI: And Our Human Future, by Henry A. Kissinger, Eric Schmidt, and Daniel Huttenlocher (Back Bay Books)

As a primer on artificial intelligence, this book delivers philosophical and practical insights that are approachable and helpful. Humans prize their own abilities to observe, analyze, and arrive at a definition of reality. What if, the authors argue, AI uncovers layers of reality that exist outside of human knowledge? “In many cases, AI will suggest new solutions or directions that will bear the stamp of another, nonhuman, form of learning and logical evaluation,” they write. The implications are far-reaching. In the past, humans developed technologies to serve as tools; increasingly, humans are partnering with AI. And beyond that, governments and industries are creating more autonomous AI systems, whose learning speeds outpace the time needed by humans to evaluate the potential risks. The global security ramifications are discussed in detail. – April Austin

I Am Not a Robot: My Year Using AI to Do (Almost) Everything, by Joanna Stern (Harper)

Somewhere between the claim that AI will usher in a beautiful new era of humanity and the prediction that it will destroy the world sits Joanna Stern, evaluating whether an AI robot can actually fold her laundry. Ms. Stern, a former tech writer for The Wall Street Journal, wrote “I Am Not a Robot” as a guide to the future for ordinary people. She decides that over the course of one year, she will use AI in all ways possible, letting the technology drive her cars, write her emails, and act as her therapist. In chapters both conversational and clear-sighted, she shares what worked, what went terribly wrong, and what she learned about a future that is much closer than many people realize. “I Am Not a Robot” is not the deepest, most philosophical book about AI out there. But that is the point – and part of its appeal. Instead, it is a primer on what the technology is and what it can do, in everything from education to music to romance. That doesn’t mean Ms. Stern doesn’t ponder the big questions. She does, but in a way that is accessible and useful. – Stephanie Hanes

AI Snake Oil: What Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What It Can’t, and How To Tell the Difference, by Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor (Princeton University Press)

“AI Snake Oil” offers a clear-eyed parsing of the myths and realities of AI. The authors provide a refreshingly jargon-free explanation of how generative AI works, and how to distinguish between the distinct types and applications of AI. They take a pin to the balloon of AI hype, arguing that inflated perceptions of AI as an existential threat cloud the less dramatic – but very real – dangers the technology poses. The authors seek to empower readers to make their own informed judgments, arguing: “Describing AI as unknowable reduces our agency by positioning AI as something that we can never understand and therefore never challenge.” – Caitlin Babcock

The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI: How To Think About Artificial Intelligence – Before It’s Too Late, by Cory Doctorow (MCD)

Training his critical eye on artificial intelligence, the longtime science fiction author and activist Cory Doctorow lays out the case for maintaining a society of “centaurs,” or humans aided by machines, as opposed to “reverse centaurs” – people “conscripted into acting as an assistant” to those very machines. Choice is key. Doctorow busts some myths, advocates for creators, considers the potential “residue” of a popped AI bubble, and describes ways AI does – and can – benefit our world. From his opinionated, passionate, and substantiated take, readers can form, centaur-like, their own AI perspectives. – Erin Douglass

The Infinity Machine: Demis Hassabis, DeepMind, and the Quest for Superintelligence, by Sebastian Mallaby (Penguin Press)

Google DeepMind co-founder and CEO Demis Hassabis is many things: a Nobel laureate, a chess prodigy, the son of impoverished immigrant parents in North London. Some of his rivals in the AI industry – like Elon Musk – regard him as an “evil genius.” But who is the man who promised “to build a Manhattan Project for AI,” really? Journalist Sebastian Mallaby spent three years chronicling Hassabis and DeepMind, logging about 30 hours with the man himself and interviewing those in his orbit – including his detractors. What results is a breathless biography of one man’s quest for scientific enlightenment in the age of AI. – Mackenzie Farkus

The Optimist: Sam Altman, OpenAI, and the Race to Invent the Future, by Keach Hagey (W.W. Norton & Company)

Wall Street Journal reporter Keach Hagey traces Sam Altman’s path from his childhood in Missouri, through “the blip” of his 2023 firing and rehiring, to his ascent to the pinnacle of power in the AI revolution. “The person who emerged is a brilliant dealmaker with a need for speed and a love of risk,” Hagey writes. She focuses on the forces that have shaped Altman, such as his tutelage under Paul Graham, the founder of Silicon Valley’s startup incubator Y Combinator, which Altman ran before he co-founded OpenAI. The biography, drawn from interviews with Altman as well as with more than 250 of his friends, family, and associates, casts a balanced portrait of a figure who is by turns self-effacing and cognizant of his unique place in history. – Chelsea Sheasley

Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI, by Karen Hao (Penguin Press)

In this deeply sourced book, readers get a behind-the-scenes look into the beginnings of OpenAI as a small nonprofit research lab in pursuit of AI for the public good to the now-billion-dollar company behind ChatGPT. Tech journalist Karen Hao raises questions about OpenAI’s secretive and competitive nature in spite of its early emphasis, with a focus not only on internal turmoil but the negative impacts of AI, from the massive amounts of energy needed to power data centers to low wages for data work in the Global South. – Mackenzie Farkus

Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age, by Vauhini Vara (Pantheon)

In “Searches,” Vara traces her experiences with AI from adolescence to adulthood, in what is just as much personal memoir as biting social critique. While her initial dependence on technology remains on the periphery, she is soon pushing AI on its potential. How well can it translate her wobbly Spanish into readable English text? Can it untwist the complicated emotions surrounding her sister’s death and turn them into poignant prose? By revealing her own inner turmoil regarding her use of AI and other technologies, Vara touches on broader public sentiment: While ethically or morally she (and we) may not want to use Google or ChatGPT, she does (and we do) anyway because it’s cheaper, easier, and more convenient. In Vara’s telling, readers must decide for themselves. – Colette Davidson

Our reviewers also covered two works of fiction focused on AI:

Culpability, by Bruce Holsinger (Spiegel & Grau)

Noah’s wife, Lorelei, is a professor of AI ethics. Can we train machines to be good, she wonders, in the same way we train ourselves to be virtuous? That question becomes more than just academic. When their family’s self-driving minivan causes a fatal collision, a hunt begins for who’s to blame: the vehicle’s autonomous programming or the 17-year-old at the wheel. Come for the family drama, stay for the big ideas. “Culpability” examines the consequences of ceding control of everything from AC units to drone warfare to AI. Lorelei observes that “a strict division between human and machine culpability is quickly becoming untenable, creating a landscape where ethical norms strain under unfamiliar weights.” With riveting storytelling, the novel could never have been authored by AI. – Stephen Humphries

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Valet, by J.P. Lacrampe (Saga Press)

Fiction, dwelling outside the constraints of nonfiction, offers a different prism for considering the what ifs of disruptors and inventions. Here, author J.P. Lacrampe imagines: What could a world shot-through with AI look like? Let Cy, the delightful narrator paint the picture; he’s a Verified Artificial-Learning-Enhanced Techbot, or VALET, with the good manners, wry asides, and sizable skills of a butler of yore, if he needed recharging. Set in a future San Francisco of whizzing drones and autonomous transportation, the story follows Grayson, the slacker son of a wealthy tech entrepreneur; his type A sister who now runs the family business; and the various parties who’d like nothing more than to whisk that business away. It’s ultimately a tale of evolution for both man and machine. – Erin Douglass

From a couple of blocks away in Boston’s linear park along Commonwealth Avenue, the scene evokes a safari in India: Beneath the trees, elephants gather, with calves standing among towering adults.

But get closer, and it’s clear that each elephant is actually a sculpture, carefully woven from plant stems by artists who want people to be moved by what they can see and touch.

“I think art just cuts through,” says Ruth Ganesh, co-founder of The Great Elephant Migration. “You can just look at them and smile and then gradually learn more about the story and the reason for the exhibition.”

Why We Wrote This

Cellphone screens encourage rapid scrolling, and images can barely register. A traveling exhibit of life-size elephant sculptures invites people to slow down and experience the impact of art, which can move people in very different ways.

Each sculpture captures the shape and features of a real animal from a herd in southern India. They are part of a traveling public art exhibition that has brought 100 life-size sculptures to the Commonwealth Avenue Mall for the next month. Organizers say the art display is meant to promote human-wildlife coexistence while raising money for conservation efforts around the world.

In a world in which people spend so much time looking at their screens, sometimes even remarkable images can appear mundane, easy to scroll past. For the organizers, offering depictions of the animals they are trying to save brings people into contact with tactile sculptures that can have a greater impact by putting viewers into the same environment alongside these creatures.

“Oftentimes, when people make art, they use it as a method for understanding and engaging with the world in a way that’s meaningful to them,” says Dane Carlson, an associate professor of visual art and sustainability at Principia College in Elsah, Illinois. “It forces you to see the world around you in a way that you wouldn’t have seen it otherwise.”

The exhibition, which has traveled to U.S. cities in past years, will be in Boston from Aug. 8 through Sept. 13. It’s free, although the organizers do hope to raise money: Each elephant is available for sale, with proceeds from each purchase and public donations supporting conservation projects.

Where the exhibit started

The herd’s journey to Boston began more than 8,000 miles away in southern India.

Having worked with elephants for 20 years, Ms. Ganesh says she discovered a community in the Nilgiri Biosphere in India that was living with elephants. She describes it as the densest overlap of humans and elephants anywhere in the world.

To her, it was “the most remarkable story,” and she wanted to share it.

Ms. Ganesh, in collaboration with The Real Elephant Collective – a group of Indigenous artisans from the region – says they decided to turn Lantana camara, an invasive shrub that spreads rapidly, into elephant sculptures.

Rather than the artists creating generic representations, she says it was a “really obvious thing for that community” to model each sculpture after a real elephant because they were surrounded by the animals.

Why art?

The sculptures were meant to do more than just resemble elephants. They became a way to introduce their story to people who might know little about them.

In the exhibit, people can meet the matriarch of the herd, the bulls, cows, and several calves.

Ms. Ganesh believes art plays an important part in reaching people on an emotional level, which she says is more powerful than an intellectual level.

But catching someone’s attention is different from changing the way they think or act.

For Mr. Carlson, art can encourage people to see the world differently. But its impact, he says, ultimately depends on “whether the person seeing it is open to and interested in being transformed.”

Different responses were evident Thursday at the press preview hosted by the organizers. Some visitors spent time walking through the herd, moving from one elephant to another. Others stopped just long enough to take photographs before continuing on their way.

Why Boston?

Giving people that opportunity to encounter the herd freely, or even by chance, was part of the thinking behind the location on the Commonwealth Avenue Mall.

Before the exhibition arrived, organizers considered several locations. Ryan Woods, director of strategic initiatives at Meet Boston, says the public park space is large enough to keep the 100 elephants together while still allowing visitors to move among them.

“Not everybody always feels welcome into a building,” he says. “There may be costs that would obstruct people, and they wouldn’t be able to afford it to get in.”

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Without those barriers, visitors such as Stephanie Farr, a resident of the city, say the elephants “speak volumes” to Boston’s community. To others, including John Stanton, who was visiting from Maine, the craftsmanship is “just gorgeous.”

For Ms. Farr, the display elevates the space. “It brings people together,” she says.

Happiness is often believed to be conditional – dependent on stable finances, good health, or a clear sense of direction. Yet there are moments when things seem uncertain, and the familiar assurances of well-being feel distant. At such moments, a deeper question naturally arises: What is the true source of our supply, our stability, our peace?

Not long ago, I found myself facing that question directly. Financial concerns felt relentless, my health began to suffer, and the weight of uncertainty made it difficult to rest – mentally or physically. I slept poorly and woke each morning with stiffness and pain throughout my body. My thinking felt just as constrained.

God’s care felt distant – not because divine Love was absent, but because fear had become loud. I realized I needed to stop mentally rehearsing everything that was wrong and return, humbly, to prayer.

In a quiet moment, I felt a gentle nudge to turn to the Bible, including Jesus’ teachings. I was drawn to the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount (see Matthew 5:3-12). These brief but profound statements spoke directly to the condition of my thought. Jesus wasn’t describing future rewards for a select few; he was revealing the spiritual basis of blessedness that is available to all – a happiness grounded in God, not circumstance.

The first Beatitude is “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” I had always understood this as a call to humility, but now it felt like reassurance. Even when I felt depleted or uncertain, “poor in spirit,” I was not separated from God’s kingdom – from divine care and supply.

Another Beatitude met my need just as clearly: “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.” In a way, I had been grieving a sense of security I thought I had lost. But Christ’s promise of comfort was immediate and tangible. It gently redirected my thought toward spiritual truth.

Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered Christian Science, writes, “Soul is the infinite source of bliss” (“Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896,” p. 287). That statement reframed everything for me. If blessedness, or bliss – true happiness and well-being – flows from Soul, God, then it cannot be dependent on fluctuating material conditions. It must be spiritual, stable, and ever present.

As I prayed with these ideas, something shifted. Fear no longer dominated my thinking. “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” by Mrs. Eddy says, “Denial of the claims of matter is a great step towards the joys of Spirit, towards human freedom and the final triumph over the body” (p. 242). I began denying – not ignoring, but refusing to accept – the assumption that lack or illness had authority over me.

This clearer understanding of God’s care brought both physical relief and practical direction. As fear loosened its grip, so did the physical and emotional strain that had accompanied it. I began sleeping more soundly; the tension and pain left; and strength returned. In prayer, I also found guidance on how to deal with my financial concerns. Instead of rehearsing worst-case scenarios, I felt led to take thoughtful, steady steps, trusting that supply is not fragile or uncertain, but governed by divine Love.

The Beatitudes continued to unfold in fresh ways. Hungering and thirsting for righteousness, mentioned in the fourth Beatitude, felt like trusting that right ideas are always supplied. The third revealed meekness as spiritual strength – the willingness to let God lead thought and action. Purity of heart, from the sixth Beatitude, became clearer as a commitment to seeing myself as God sees me.

Mrs. Eddy affirms, “Man is the expression of God’s being” (Science and Health, p. 470). That understanding corrected the belief that I was a struggling mortal, responsible for securing enough through my own limited means. Instead, I began to see myself, God’s child, as the expression of infinite Love – already included in God’s care. Supply was no longer something I anxiously awaited; it was something I learned to trust as constant and divinely maintained.

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Whenever we’re feeling overwhelmed or uncertain, we’re actually being invited to yield fear-based thinking and accept the spiritual facts of being. And the Beatitudes are not just inspirational poetry but a guide for life, revealing the nature of God’s care here and now and reminding us that blessedness is not postponed; it is present.

As the final verse of the Beatitudes assures us, whatever you might be facing, “[blissful] are ye” – not because circumstances are perfect, but because divine Love is infinite, and its supply never fails.

As gasoline prices soar and inflation nips at vacation budgets, many travelers may have rethought the prospect of the Great American Road Trip. But in “The Hardest, Longest Race,” a charming account of a topsy-turvy automotive contest that captured the national imagination, author Eric Moskowitz reminds readers that getting behind the wheel in 1909 had its challenges, too.

That’s the year when millionaire M. Robert Guggenheim staged a contest to see which motorists could travel most quickly between New York City and Seattle, which seemed an ideal finish point because it was hosting a world’s fair. The course zigzagged more than 4,100 miles across the continent – a formidable journey, though one that many cars today could handle without a hiccup. But autos were precarious contraptions at the start of the 20th century, and America’s national system of roads was little more than a faint scribble on the map. When Guggenheim summoned contestants to the starting line on the first day of June outside City Hall in Manhattan, only four car companies – Acme, Ford, Shawmut, and Itala – dared to show up. Henry Ford hedged his bets by entering two of his Model Ts in the race.

Though Ford remains a global brand, few readers will recall Shawmut or Acme, and their brief moment is also part of Moskowitz’s story. As he explains, America had 253 automakers in 1909. It was a precursor of sorts to today’s Silicon Valley startup culture, in which a million entrepreneurial flowers bloom, with many quickly withering on the vine. Interestingly, Moskowitz learned the scale of the automotive sector all those decades ago by consulting a period survey meant to drum up congressional support for tariffs.

Why We Wrote This

“The Hardest, Longest Race” takes readers on a wild jaunt across the country, on roads that could hardly live up to the name. With its hairpin turns and madcap improvisations, the odyssey at the book’s center can seem, says our reviewer, like something sketched out by Jules Verne.

That tidbit seems like something pulled from this morning’s headlines, but in many other ways, “The Hardest, Longest Race” reveals a time sharply different from our own. Race contestants could buy gas at a now-enviable 15 cents a gallon, but filling stations were a rarity. Some motorists replenished their tanks at hardware stores, where gas was often ladled from a barrel. 

Speed limits of the day seemed similarly improvised. In Ohio, drivers could go no more than “eight miles per hour in densely settled districts, fifteen in outlying areas, and twenty in the country, with an added requirement to slow near any horse and to stop fully if the person with the horse signaled you to do so.”

American transportation was still largely equestrian. When President William Howard Taft asked Congress to fund the first White House limousines, one member of Congress dismissed automobiles as “a genuine all-around nuisance” and advised the president to get some mules instead.

Mules still seemed better suited to much of the era’s transportation grid. When local journalists in Ohio tagged along for part of the 1909 race after a spell of rain, “the Maumee Pike macadam was a mess,” Moskowitz tells readers. “The newspapermen clung to their seats ‘over roads flooded and over bumps that threatened a hundred times to hurl the drivers into the ditches.’”

Moskowitz often quotes from community newspapers along the race route – many no longer around, though their lively legacy happily endures in digital archives. Their content is a reminder that scribes more than a century ago often had a flair for colorful language. It’s a sense of whimsy that Moskowitz, a former Boston Globe reporter, embraces in his own prose. Here’s how he playfully describes the race’s sponsor: “An Edwardian dandy of gleaming stickpins and crisp club collars, Guggenheim sported a dusting of beard, a straw boater, and a lapel carnation as big as a saucer.”

This is a fun and fizzy book. The quixotic odyssey at its center, with its hairpin turns and madcap improvisations, can seem like something sketched out by Jules Verne.

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The subtitle of “The Hardest, Longest Race” bills it as “the cross-country contest that changed America.” The premise sounds oversold, especially since the end of the race was something of a fizzle. One of Ford’s Model T’s initially landed in first place, but the victors were later disqualified because Ford’s team hadn’t followed the rules.

Moskowitz’s book is a timely reminder that though some of the American romance with cars might be fading, we’re in what could be the golden age of automotive history books. Witold Rybczynski’s “The Driving Machine” and Brian C. Black’s “Ike’s Road Trip” count as memorable recent examples, and “The Hardest, Longest Race” is a worthy addition to the mix.