In Christian metaphysics all is divine Mind and its manifestation. Male and female are God-created, therefore they are ideas in divine Mind, the seed within itself, made manifest as man and the universe. The plural words "us" and "our" used in the creative command of Elohim, God, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness," are true to the etymology of the word Elohim, which combines "Eloh," a feminine plural, with a termination which is used in connection with masculine words, thus conveying a fundamental meaning of Father-Mother Deity which is fully realized in the understanding of the essential nature of Mind's trinity in unity—Life, Truth, and Love.
Christian Science accepts the first chapter of Genesis and the first three verses of the second chapter as an authoritative and scientific account of creation, and on this basis posits that man, the image or idea, being male and female,—"male and female created he them,"—the creating Mind includes and spiritual individual man expresses and individualizes the male and female Father-Mother qualities, faculties, and attributes of the Godhead, Life, Truth, and Love. Hence the true individual is complete in Mind and body in the individuality of the Father-Mother God, in the oneness of Mind and its idea. On page 48 of her book "Unity of Good'' Mrs. Eddy writes of God: "He sustains my individuality. Nay, more —He is my individuality and my Life," and the apostle Paul wrote: "For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him."
With God's spiritual creation established and everything that was made pronounced "very good," let us look in on Adam and Eve as they dwell in the garden "eastward in Eden." Of course the story of the garden of Eden is an allegory, but where in all literature can be found a tale so fraught with inherent possibilities to rend asunder the bonds of human enslavement by bringing the mortal face to face with the lie of his own mortality and thus to unmask the subtle wiles of a mythical talking serpent or carnal mind? When this allegory, instead of being believed literally, is understood metaphysically, man will no longer appear to be material in the likeness of Adam and Eve, for he will be seen spiritually as the image of God.
