The Bible of Unity

"Lessons in Truth" is a book first published in 1903, based on articles written some years earlier by Harriet Emilie Cady, a prominent member of the religious movement known as New Thought. The book exists in several different versions. This is a review of the "Unity Classic Library" edition from 1999. (Amazon may have placed this review on the product pages of some other editions as well.) Cady originally wrote "Lessons in Truth" for the New Thought group known as Unity School of Christianity. However, I'm not sure whether she was formally affiliated with that particular denomination. Be that as it may, Cady's book can be read both as a general introduction to New Thought, and as a doctrinal statement of Unity.

New Thought is nominally Christian, but its ideas are far removed from those of "traditional" Christianity. In many ways, New Thought resembles what we would today call New Age. Many New Age believers would probably agree with all or most of the contents of Cady's book. There are also similarities with the monist Hindu philosophy Advaita Vedanta, at least its modernized version as preached by Swami Vivekananda and the Ramakrishna Mission. At least one New Thought group during the 19th century seems to have collaborated with Vivekananda himself. Gnosticism could be considered a more ancient counterpart. Finally, there are obvious similarities with Christian Science, presumably because that group is simply a more sectarian version of New Thought!

Using a strongly allegorical method of Bible interpretation, Cady reaches conclusions about God basically identical to the Hindu doctrines of Brahman and atman, although her terminology is different. She discusses meditation, mentions various mistakes made by seekers in their spiritual quest, and has a surprisingly critical attitude to some tenets of the New Thought movement itself. One of her main lessons is that spiritual enlightenment cannot be reached by overly intellectual means, which to Cady includes both books and reliance on self-proclaimed teachers. Rather, each seeker must use his or her personal intuition and strive for an individual mystical experience, which will prove once and for all that God is All.

More problematic are those tenets of New Thought which resemble the prosperity gospel. Indeed, some Christian writers suspect that the Faith movement actually got their prosperity gospel from New Thought, through the indirect transmission of one E.W. Kenyon (the new agey metaphysics were dumped along the way). A more direct descendant of New Thought prosperity thinking is the self-help book and project "The Secret". "Lessons in Truth" contain sections on affirmations, the power of positive thinking, and healing. In effect, this is a kind of white magic that will make the believer happy, prosperous and healthy. There is an unresolved tension in the book between the idea that God can give you the material goods you desire, and the very opposite idea that man doesn't really need material things, only spiritual things. In one lesson, Cady says that we should desire the spiritual things, and then the material things will be given us as well! I don't think she ever solves this contradiction between, so to speak, Advaita Vedanta and a suburban shopping spree.

Still, I found "Lessons in Truth" to be interesting. The book only skims the surface, and some readers might be disappointed by Cady not saying more about, say, meditation. More traditional Christians might find the book offensive, due to its heavy allegorizing of Bible passages. Hard-line sceptics will probably consider it extremely boring! However, as a basic introduction to New Thought or Unity teachings, I think it fills its function relatively well.