The degree of C.S., which isn't a degree,
but may be more than that.

The foundational level of teaching is carried out in the field of Christian Science for the purpose of healing. The teaching at this level is usually in the form of self-teaching. If this is carried out honestly and efficiently by individuals to the extend that an individual member of the Mother Church of Christ Scientists eventually enters the public practice of Christian Science healing. If this goal is achieved, the so educated practitioner is entitled to add the initials C.S. to his or her name. This designation is not a degree, but is merely a public self-acknowledgment by the practitioner that the rudimental aspects have been explored and are understood. The efficiency in the healing practice is sufficient proof that the individual had done the work that is necessary for the public practice of Christian healing, and is qualified for it on a scientific basis.

This means that the practitioner must be familiar with the fundamental architecture of Mary Baker Eddy's structure for scientific and spiritual development. A practitioner of Christian Science must understand the four cardinal points and their Glossary correlative which the four rows of the matrix foursquare represent. (see figure 1 and figure 2 with the correlatives added) A Christian Science practitioner must understand these cardinal points in the manner Mary Baker Eddy has defined them in the textbook on Christian Science, in the last chapter called The Apocalypse. A practitioner of Christian Science must understand the nature of these cardinal points, because these four cardinal points relate to four levels of perception, the lowest of which is defined as Christian Science. A practitioner of Christian Science must understand why Mary Baker Eddy has created this wide separation between Christian Science on the fourth row, and the absolute domain of reality, the word of Life, Truth, and Love, on the first row. (see figure 3)

A practitioner of Christian Science must understand that prayer in Christian Science is not a petition for the healing of the sick, but begins with the understanding that God, infinite Mind is incapable of failures, or of recognizing failures such as sickness, or of perceiving errors that are reflected in chaos and disease, but is conscious only of the perfection of infinite Principle. A practitioner of Christian Science must understand that there is a science required in the world at the grass roots level of human living, that deals with all the errors and failures in the human domain that God can have no knowledge of. The practitioner of Christian Science healing must understand that the ills and failures of humanity are essentially aspects of a material mythology and have nothing in common with the truth of being. The task of the scientific healer, therefore, is to get the sufferer out of the mythological hell into which he and humanity has drifted. The task of the Christian Science healer is to uplift consciousness to what is true, to what God perceives as the forever reality of all being ,reflecting divine Principle and Life, and Love.