A Course in Miracles, Combined Volume, Third Edition as published by the Foundation for Inner Peace. | |
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Editor | Helen Schucman, Bill Thetford, Kenneth Wapnick |
Author | There is no author attributed to ACIM, although it was "scribed" by Helen Schucman |
Country | United States |
Subject | Spiritual transformation |
Helen Cohn Schucman | |
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Died | February 9, 1981 (aged 71) New York City |
Nationality | American |
Occupation | Professor of medical psychology, Columbia University |
Known for | A Course In Miracles (ACIM) |
Listening Length | 49 hours and 33 minutes |
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Narrator | Martin G. Weber-Caspers |
Whispersync for Voice | Ready |
Audible.com Release Date | May 22, 2018 |
Publisher | Course in Miracles Society |
If Jesus of Nazareth dictated the actual words of the Course, it takes on a very powerful authority. If instead we think the Course was distilled by Helen’s mind from some formless inspiration, it will carry less weight. The reason is simple: We as a race do not trust Helen Schucman as much as we trust Jesus Christ.
For many students, a personal relationship with Jesus is a central aspect of the Course. And the Course itself values this relationship, saying at one point that accepting him into our lives will allow him to help us more (C-5.6:6-7). Now, this relationship can occur whether or not Jesus wrote the Course.
How we view the authorship of the Course makes broader statements about life in this world. If Jesus can author the exact words of the Course, this implies that spirit can reach all the way down to our level, helping us very actively, specifically and personally.
I would like to contribute something on this question of authorship. In my opinion, an ideal starting place in approaching it is finding out what the Course itself says. If we are wondering where those words came from, perhaps we should first find out where they claim they come from.
(1) The words Helen heard in some sense come from the individual known as Jesus of Nazareth. (2) Jesus, though awakened, has remained with us in a personal way and thus is able to do things within time and space, such as author a book. (3) He has remained with us as some kind of distinct identity, who is one with all other (physical and non-physical) saviors, yet is still in some way distinct from them and is their leader. (4) He carefully chose the specific English words of the Course, which is reflected in the acute awareness of words that he displays in the Course. (5) In the case of the puns he makes, the specific content expressed depends on the multiple meanings of particular English words, suggesting that he formulated both the content and the words together.
Jesus said that Helen was his “scribe,” which implied that she was copying down his words. 7. Scribal errors. In the early months of the Course’s dictation Jesus frequently corrected what Helen had written down, saying that she had not heard him correctly.
As we saw in Part I, the Course’s author called Helen (as well as Bill–we will return to him later) his “scribe.” As we also saw, this word refers to someone who is copying down words. It comes from the Middle English word, scribere, which means “to write.” Even the more exalted sense of the word employed by Jesus, “one of a group of Palestinian scholars and teachers of Jewish law and tradition” (Webster’s Dictionary), includes this idea of copying words, since this group “transcribed…the Bible.”
A Course in Miracles – often abbreviated ACIM or simply called the Course – is a complete self-study spiritual thought system. As a three-volume curriculum consisting of a Text, Workbook for Students, and Manual for Teachers, it teaches that the way to universal love and peace—or remembering God—is by undoing guilt through forgiving others. The Course thus focuses on the healing of relationships and making them holy. A Course in Miracles also emphasizes that it is but one version of the universal curriculum, of which there are “many thousands.” Consequently, even though the language of the Course is that of traditional Christianity, it expresses a non-sectarian, non-denominational spirituality. A Course in Miracles, therefore, is a universal spiritual teaching, not a religion.
The miracle is defined as the shift in perception from fear to love. The Workbook for Students consists of 365 lessons, an exercise for each day of the year. This one-year training program begins the process of changing the student’s mind and perception, though it is not intended to bring one’s learning to completion.
A Course in Miracles. A Course in Miracles – often abbreviated ACIM or simply called the Course – is a complete self-study spiritual thought system. As a three-volume curriculum consisting of a Text, Workbook for Students, and Manual for Teachers, it teaches that the way to universal love and peace—or remembering God—is by ...
A Course in Miracles was channeled (spiritistically delivered) through an atheistic psychologist named Helen Schucman. Dr. Schucman, who had an early background in New Thought metaphysics and the occult, 7 would not permit public knowledge of her role as the medium and eight-year channel for the Course until after her death. She died in 1981.
His Center for Attitudinal Healing was founded in 1975 under the direction of an “inner voice,” which instructed him to establish a center where the principles of the Course could be taught and demonstrated. A Course in Miracles has influenced the Christian church as well.
Influential psychiatrist Gerald Jampolsky also extols Course virtues throughout the country in his lectures and books. He has appeared on the Phil Donahue Show, Today, and 60 Minutes. Robert Schuller has hosted Jampolsky at his famous Crystal Cathedral. Jampolsky’s bestselling books, There Is a Rainbow Behind Every Cloud, Goodbye to Guilt, ...
For example, “atonement” no longer refers to Jesus Christ’s substitutionary death on the cross for sin. In biblical teaching, the Atonement is based on the fact that man’s sinfulness separates him from God. Before man can be reconciled to God, there must be a divine judgment of sin.
According to the Bible, God freely pardons, or forgives, a believer’s sins on the basis of Jesus Christ’s atonement. “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
This is what Christians mean by the word “atonement,” or the atoning sacrifice of Christ (John 3:16, 18).
Answer. “A Course in Miracles” is a self-study curriculum written by a woman named Helen Schucman (1909—1981), a research psychologist raised by Jewish but non-religious parents. From 1958 through 1976, she was a professor of medical psychology at Columbia University in New York.
It is claimed that A Course in Miracles was “scribed” by Schucman between 1965 and 1972 through a process of inner dictation.
The fundamental teaching of A Course in Miracles is the “atonement principle,” which states that separation from God through sin did not happen . The course further teaches that sin is the absence of love and nothing more. It denies that sin is an act against God. The principal purpose of A Course in Miracles is to “restore to one’s awareness ...
Too much of the Course contradicts what God has already revealed in Scripture, and we know that God does not contradict Himself. Jesus Christ is God incarnate, “the same yesterday, today and forever” ( Hebrews 13:8 ), and He would never contradict the Truth revealed in the pages of Scripture.
Jesus Christ is God incarnate, “the same yesterday, today and forever” ( Hebrews 13:8 ), and He would never contradict the Truth revealed in the pages of Scripture. The Bible tells us that sin did indeed occur and that it is the source of our separation from God.
The only power in the life of a Christian is the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, of which we are not ashamed ( Romans 1:16 ). The heart and mind of the unregenerate man has no power to choose anything but death. “The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace” ( Romans 8:6 ).
The Bible tells us that sin did indeed occur and that it is the source of our separation from God. Sin is described in the Bible, not as the absence of love as the Course states, but as transgression of the law of God ( 1 John 3:4) and rebellion against God ( Deuteronomy 9:7; Joshua 1:18 ).
Since it went on sale in 1976, the text has been translated into 27 languages. The book is distributed globally, spawning a range of organized groups.
Wapnick said that "if the Bible were considered literally true, then (from a Biblical literalist's viewpoint) the Course would have to be viewed as demonically inspired". He also declared "I often taught in the context of the Bible, even though it is obvious to serious students of A Course in Mi…
A Course in Miracles was written as a collaborative venture between Schucman and William ("Bill") Thetford. In 1958, Schucman began her professional career at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Centerin New York City as Thetford's research associate. In 1965, at a time when their weekly office meetings had become so contentious that they both dreaded them, Thetford suggested to Schucman that "[t]here must be another way". Schucman believed that this interaction acted as …
Two works have been described as extensions of A Course in Miracles, Gary Renard's 2003 The Disappearance of the Universe and Marianne Williamson's A Return to Love published in 1992. The Disappearance of the Universe, published in 2003 by Fearless Books, was republished by Hay House in 2004. Publishers Weekly reported that Renard's examination of A Course in Miracles influenced his book.
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