The sources of A Class in Wonders can be tracked back to the cooperation between two individuals, Helen Schucman and William Thetford, equally of whom were distinguished psychologists and researchers. The course's inception happened in the first 1960s when Schucman, who had been a clinical and research psychiatrist at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons, started to see a series of internal dictations. She identified these dictations as via an inner style that identified itself as Jesus Christ. Schucman originally resisted these activities, but with Thetford's encouragement, she began transcribing the messages she received.

Around a period of eight years, Schucman transcribed what can become A Program in Miracles, amounting to three volumes: the Text, the Workbook for Pupils, and the Guide for Teachers. The Text sits out the theoretical foundation  a course in miracles of the class, elaborating on the key ideas and principles. The Book for Pupils includes 365 instructions, one for every single time of the year, made to guide the reader through a daily exercise of applying the course's teachings. The Handbook for Educators offers further advice on how best to understand and train the principles of A Course in Wonders to others.

One of many main styles of A Program in Miracles is the notion of forgiveness. The program shows that correct forgiveness is the important thing to inner peace and awareness to one's divine nature. According to their teachings, forgiveness is not simply a moral or honest exercise but a elementary change in perception. It requires letting get of judgments, issues, and the notion of sin, and alternatively, seeing the world and oneself through the lens of love and acceptance. A Course in Wonders stresses that correct forgiveness results in the acceptance that we are all interconnected and that separation from one another can be an illusion.

Another substantial part of A Course in Wonders is its metaphysical foundation. The program presents a dualistic see of reality, unique between the vanity, which presents separation, fear, and illusions, and the Holy Heart, which symbolizes enjoy, truth, and spiritual guidance. It implies that the ego is the source of enduring and struggle, while the Holy Nature offers a pathway to therapeutic and awakening. The target of the course is to help individuals transcend the ego's limited perception and align with the Holy Spirit's guidance.