The roots of A Course in Wonders can be followed back again to the effort between two people, Helen Schucman and William Thetford, equally of whom were prominent psychologists and researchers. The course's inception occurred in the early 1960s when Schucman, who had been a clinical and research psychiatrist at Columbia University'sread a course in miracles online College of Physicians and Surgeons, started to see a series of inner dictations. She identified these dictations as coming from an inner voice that recognized itself as Jesus Christ. Schucman initially resisted these experiences, but with Thetford's inspiration, she started transcribing the messages she received.

Around an amount of seven decades, Schucman transcribed what would become A Class in Miracles, amounting to three volumes: the Text, the Workbook for Students, and the Guide for Teachers. The Text lies out the theoretical basis of the course, elaborating on the key ideas and principles. The Workbook for Pupils includes 365 instructions, one for every single time of the year, designed to guide the reader through a day-to-day exercise of using the course's teachings. The Handbook for Teachers offers further advice on how best to understand and show the principles of A Program in Miracles to others.

Among the central subjects of A Course in Miracles is the notion of forgiveness. The class shows that true forgiveness is the key to internal peace and awareness to one's divine nature. Based on their teachings, forgiveness is not simply a ethical or honest training but a elementary shift in perception. It involves making move of judgments, issues, and the understanding of failure, and instead, viewing the entire world and oneself through the contact of love and acceptance. A Program in Miracles stresses that true forgiveness results in the acceptance that individuals are all interconnected and that divorce from one another can be an illusion.