Prophecy and Promise: Jung, Saint Paul, and the Christian Heritage of A Course in Miracles
A Course in Miracles has become one of the most influential spiritual texts of the past fifty years, yet few readers recognise how much it challenges two thousand years of Christian thought.
Prophecy and Promise traces the Course’s Christian heritage — the symbols and themes from ancient times that are given new meaning in its teachings. It begins with the emergence of Judaism and shows how Saint Paul transformed a small Jewish sect into a worldwide faith centred on sin and personal redemption — a framework that still shapes how we think about ourselves today. It turns next to Carl Jung, whose psychological reading of Christian symbols revealed them as expressions of the soul’s own drive toward wholeness. And it arrives, finally, at A Course in Miracles, which addresses the spiritual tradition that has been foundational to the development of the West, offering a new interpretation of key events from Jesus’ life and teachings, and a curriculum for healing our identification with sin, guilt, and shame — the unworthiness trio at the heart of inner conflict.
Drawing on biblical scholarship, Jungian psychology, and the Course’s own teachings, this book offers a heritage tour for anyone seeking to understand the history behind the Course’s language and symbolism, and how substantially it departs from what came before.
Above the Battleground: The Courageous Path to Emotional Autonomy and Inner Peace.
Above the Battleground consists of three parts. Part One, “A.M”, focuses on life’s morning and the challenges of childhood. It defines and explores shame and guilt — two powerful self-conscious emotions at the heart of self-doubt and feelings of unworthiness, yet whose many manifestations go unknown to us. As A Course in Miracles says, “Of one thing you were sure: Of all the many causes you perceived as bringing pain and suffering to you, your guilt was not among them.”
Part Two, “P.M”, introduces the work of Carl Jung and his ideas around the midlife crisis; life’s evening. This section provides a segway between psychology and spirituality, leading into Part Three, “Healing”, which introduces and explores A Course in Miracles.
The aim of Above the Battleground is twofold. It provides an introduction to A Course in Miracles for people unfamiliar with its metaphysics but with an openness towards spiritual inquiry. It is also designed for long-term Course students looking for tangible examples of how shame and guilt play out in their lives.
The following books contain collections of essays which look at principles of A Course in Miracles in light of various philosophies, psychological theories, and the lives and works of artists.
Reflections on ‘A Course in Miracles’: Volumes One to Three
The first three volumes of essays, Reflections on ‘A Course in Miracles’, can be purchased individually, or in a combined volume. The topics are wide-ranging, as are their influences: Nietzsche, The Simpsons, Krishnamurti, Freud, Jung, mindsets and mindfulness, porcupines…
Books of essays following this collection have different titles reflecting an overall theme that was of interest at the time of their compilation.
Alchemists of Surburbia: A Course in Miracles, Psychology and the Art of Integration
This volume includes several essays on prominent psychoanalysts and how their early life is reflected in their theories, which in turn are related to principles from A Course in Miracles. In particular, differences between Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung are explored in “The Split: Freud, Jung, and the Oceanic Feeling”.
The title for this collection was inspired by David Bowie’s LP, “The Buddha of Suburbia”, and the alchemical focus of several essays.
The Farthest Reaches of Inner Space: A Course in Miracles and the Postmodern World
Have you ever wondered why A Course in Miracles came into the world when it did? This book begins with an historical look at Western cultural development and the emergeance of personal authenticity as a prominent value. Does A Course in Miracles have a place to play in such a movement?
Jung and A Course in Miracles
This volume includes a selection of essays from previous volumes, which have a Jungian bent. It also includes new material. Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy provides the backdrop for a discussion of special love in ‘Francesca and Paolo’, and John Milton’s fallen angel from Paradise Lost is the epitome of the disgruntled sibling in ‘The Favourite’.
The Bridge of Return: A Course in Miracles as a Western Yoga
This title was inspired by the following quote from Jung: “In the course of the centuries the West will produce its own yoga, and it will be on the basis laid down by Christianity.” I think Jung would find his “Christian-based yoga” in A Course in Miracles — its curriculum providing a “bridge of return” within our mind to our Reality, using Christian symbols to reflect both the non-dual nature of this Reality and the psychological processes leading to an experience of it.
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