International Journal of Cultic Studies ■ Vol. 3, 2012 75
There, surgeons find widespread colon cancer.
A young doctor lashes out at Lucia asking how
she could have let her mother get into such bad
shape. Lucia’s uncle obtains the medical
records and tells Lucia that her mother has been
bedridden for months and could not possibly
have danced at the sanatorium. He is furious
with her father.
Many features of this narrative will be familiar
to ICSA readers: the appeal to the supersensory,
denial of reality, guilt, secrecy, impossible
demands. The radical nihilism of Christian
Science theology with its basic creed that the
material body and world are unreal can be used
to cruel effect both by charlatans and the sincere
faithful.
There, surgeons find widespread colon cancer.
A young doctor lashes out at Lucia asking how
she could have let her mother get into such bad
shape. Lucia’s uncle obtains the medical
records and tells Lucia that her mother has been
bedridden for months and could not possibly
have danced at the sanatorium. He is furious
with her father.
Many features of this narrative will be familiar
to ICSA readers: the appeal to the supersensory,
denial of reality, guilt, secrecy, impossible
demands. The radical nihilism of Christian
Science theology with its basic creed that the
material body and world are unreal can be used
to cruel effect both by charlatans and the sincere
faithful.
