Spiritual unfoldment is effect, not cause. It is manifested humanly as a deep desire to know God and man in His image and likeness. Christian Science teaches that God is Spirit, Life, Truth, Love. That man and the universe are spiritual is in agreement with the Bible accounts in the first chapter of Genesis and in the Gospels, in particular in the beginning of the Gospel of John. Perfect, spiritual creation, including man, is the infinite, changeless, eternal expression of God.
To convey to mankind the understanding of the true status of God and man, however, involves the orderly unfoldment of spiritual ideas to human consciousness. Mary Baker Eddy founded the Church of Christ, Scientist, for this purpose. Union with this church provides the student of Christian Science with the opportunity to have a part in the presentation of this subject to mankind wherever he may be, and particularly in the community served by the branch church or society of which he is a member.
Mrs. Eddy's two-part definition of "Church" in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" reads (p. 583):
