Can understanding stunt spiritual growth?

Your understanding can stunt spiritual growth. Having learned a lot through experience and study, your vessel is full, and there is no room for fresh inspiration. So often a fresh, mind-expanding thought is presented to an "experienced" student, and it is immediately entered into the student's existing library of thought, catalogued and neutralized. This is why Jesus valued the childlike thought: "Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven." (Matt.) Having no bloated database of knowledge, he is receptive to the new idea.

The Discoverer of Christian Science was very cognizant of this human tendency, and warned: "Christian Science presents unfoldment, not accretion;" (S&H) If you do not approach it this way, your understanding quickly becomes stultified, and your much studying turns into a kind of intoxication - provides an emotional, pseudo-intellectual high, but does nothing for spiritual growth.

So how can we be receptive to unfoldment and avoid accretion? When approaching the Bible or Science and Health, be prepared to receive what divine Intelligence, Love has for you now, this moment. This is in line with the theme of this website: "Truth comes when it is needed, and not be­cause of a personal demand." (from 1st Edition of Science and Health) From this mode of operation, divine guidance will become a living, palpitating necessity in our lives, and we will be walking in the Way as per Jesus' example.