The beginnings of A Program in Wonders may be followed back to the relationship between two persons, Helen Schucman and William Thetford, both of whom were distinguished psychologists and researchers. The course's inception occurred in the early 1960s when Schucman, who was a clinical and study psychiatrist at Columbia University's University of Physicians and Surgeons, began to have some inner dictations. She identified these dictations as originating from an internal voice that recognized it self as Jesus Christ. Schucman originally resisted these activities, but with Thetford's inspiration, she started transcribing the messages she received.

Over an amount of seven years, Schucman transcribed what can become A Course in Wonders, amounting to three volumes: the Text, the Workbook for Students, and the Guide for Teachers. The Text lays out the theoretical acim foundation of the program, elaborating on the core concepts and principles. The Book for Pupils includes 365 lessons, one for each time of the season, made to steer the reader via a day-to-day practice of applying the course's teachings. The Handbook for Teachers offers more advice on how best to realize and train the concepts of A Course in Miracles to others.

One of the central subjects of A Course in Miracles is the idea of forgiveness. The class shows that correct forgiveness is the important thing to inner peace and awakening to one's heavenly nature. According to their teachings, forgiveness is not simply a moral or honest practice but a simple shift in perception. It requires letting move of judgments, issues, and the perception of failure, and as an alternative, viewing the entire world and oneself through the lens of enjoy and acceptance. A Program in Wonders stresses that correct forgiveness results in the acceptance that individuals are typical interconnected and that separation from one another can be an illusion.

Still another substantial part of A Course in Wonders is its metaphysical foundation. The class gifts a dualistic view of fact, distinguishing between the ego, which presents separation, anxiety, and illusions, and the Sacred Soul, which symbolizes enjoy, reality, and spiritual guidance. It shows that the vanity is the source of enduring and conflict, while the Sacred Nature offers a pathway to therapeutic and awakening. The target of the course is to simply help individuals surpass the ego's confined perception and align with the Sacred Spirit's guidance.