Catherine Albanese, a leading scholar of metaphysical religion and author of A Republic of Mind & Spirit: A Cultural History of American Metaphysical Religion, has written that the complex nature of American religion can't be adequately explained until metaphysical religion, which includes Unity, is "lifted from fringe to center" and recognized as one of two forces — evangelicalism and metaphysical religion — that has shaped American religion. Albanese declares that church historians have over-emphasized the impact of evangelicalism on the American religious narrative and she concludes that "metaphysical religion ... is at least as important as evangelicalism in fathoming the shape and scope of American religious history."

Put simply, the major denominations in American religious history — Congregational, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist and Roman Catholic — have certainly been influenced by evangelical religious forces. However metaphysical religious forces have had an equally important impact on the spirituality of these same denominations, only in a more subtle and unrecognized way.

The existing state of mainline and evangelical Christianity is much better than it might have been without the influence of Unity teaching and practices, such as affirmative prayer, prosperity teaching, spiritual healing, metaphysical Bible interpretation and the influence of the Unity organization, which include Silent Unity and Daily Word. We are a healthier nation, a healthier "Republic of Mind and Spirit" — and we are a healthier people, in Spirit, soul and body — than we might have been without the movement launched by Charles and Myrtle 125 years ago.