Claim. The Book14 curriculum is a fixed four-stage progression — filial child → loyal patriot → saint → holy/divine son — built as nested concentric circles around a single vertical center.
Elaboration. SMM lays out the structure explicitly: “In the lives of people centering on love, the devoted child forms the innermost circle, the loyal patriot is the next bigger circle, and the circles get bigger and bigger… The circle of the saint is larger and the circle of the holy child is even bigger than that. That is why the central point of the circle is the devoted child” (CSG 14.1 §2, 197-44, 1990.01.07). “They constitute a total of four stages. The center of these four is the vertical.” Each higher stage entails the lower: “people who are not filial toward their parents cannot become loyal patriots.” The structural pattern parallels four-position-foundation logic but on a developmental axis — moral expansion outward from family to cosmos, with the inner stages remaining load-bearing for the outer ones.
See also. csg-stepwise-sacrifice-builds-the-divine-child · csg-true-love-anchors-the-four-stage-curriculum