A Course in Miracles and Christianity: A Dialogue (Paperback)

by Kenneth Wapnick (Author), W. Norris Clarke (Author) "CLARKE: I would like to begin this conversation with expressing my appreciation of Dr. Wapnick's-I am going to call him Kenneth from now on-willingness to..." (more)
Key Phrases: awaken from the dream, blissful union, thought system, Holy Spirit, Son of God, God's Love (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Reflecting the view of "A Course in Miracles" that "a universal theology is impossible, but a universal experience [love] is not only possible but necessary," this dialogue was held in the loving spirit of friends respecting their differences and agreeing to disagree. Dr. Wapnick and Rev. Clarke define the differences clearly, showing unequivocally that "A Course in Miracles" and the Bible are mutually exclusive theologies that can never be integrated into one coherent spirituality. Themes include the origin of the world, Jesus, the Eucharist, and daily life.

About the Author
Kenneth Wapnick has a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and has been working with "A Course in Miracles" since 1973, when he joined Helen Schucman, scribe of the Course, and William Thetford at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York. In addition, he worked closely with Helen preparing the final manuscript of the Course. Since that time he has lectured widely on "A Course in Miracles", as well as conducted a practice in psychotherapy. He has written many books on the Course and he has also produced numerous tape sets explaining and discussing the principles of the Course. He is President and co-founder with his wife Gloria of the Foundation for "A Course in Miracles" in Roscoe, New York, which is the copyright holder of the Course, as well as being its teaching center. Together they have travelled nationally and internationally giving workshops on the Course.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 108 pages
• Publisher: Foundation for a Course in Miracles (May 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0933291183
• ISBN-13: 978-0933291188
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #682,391 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A helpful contrast of two spiritual paths, November 28, 2002

By	Andrew Olivo Parodi (Oregon, United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

A COURSE IN MIRACLES AND CHRISTIANITY: A DIALOGUE is a conversation between Kenneth Wapnick, Ph.D., and W. Norris Clarke, S.J., Ph.D. on the differences between A COURSE IN MIRACLES (a self-study book about spiritual psychotherapy) and Christianity. Such a dialogue is appropriate since A COURSE IN MIRACLES claims Jesus as its author. As the two men make quickly apparent, however, the "Course" and Christianity are mutually exclusive paths.

I found A COURSE IN MIRACLES AND CHRISTIANITY: A DIALOGUE very helpful because I come from a Catholic background, but left Catholicism for the Course. It is interesting that comparing and contrasting these two paths makes their respective positions even more clear and understandable. I learned things in this book about Catholicism that I had not known (it's interesting to note that Mr. Wapnick had, at one time, studied to become a Catholic priest). Another interesting thing is that it is thanks to W. Norris Clarke that Mr. Wapnick no longer describes A COURSE IN MIRACLES as being a "correction" of Catholicism; as Norris notes, in order for the Course to be a correction of Catholicism and Christianity, the Course would have to retain the same basic framework. A COURSE IN MIRACLES contradicts Christianity on almost every count: the Bible says God created the world; A COURSE IN MIRACLES says the world was made by the ego as an attack *on* God (and that God doesn't even know about the world because for God to know about the physical world would be to make it real). The Jesus of A COURSE IN MIRACLES teaches that death, the body, and suffering have no meaning, that there is no sin, and that his name and very identity is ultimately just symbolic (as is everyone else's); the Jesus of the Bible is a very real individual personal identity who teaches that pain is very real and that he suffered and died for our sins.

The extraordinary thing about A COURSE IN MIRACLES AND CHRISTIANITY: A DIALOGUE is that these two men are able to openly state that their paths are mutually exclusive and disagree on about every issue, and yet they never get hostile toward one another. They even come across as friends. The book buyer may be interested to know that A COURSE IN MIRACLES AND CHRISTIANITY: A DIALOGUE is a transcript of a conversation between the two authors (it had originally been intended to be an audio program). The conversation format provides this book with an accessibility that it may not have had otherwise, due to the fact that the theological points tackled are very, very "heady" at times.

5.0 out of 5 stars explains differences well, February 25, 2009

By	Martin T. Chretien "mtc" (Sarasota) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The book is an intelligent discourse between two religious experts. Ken and the priest debate politely on the differences between Catholicism and A Course In Miracles and boy what a difference. Nevertheless they emerge with respect and new found knowledge. Catholicism teaches exclusivity and specialness as well as an angry God.The course teaches that we are all Sons of God and that God is Unconditional love and ultimately there has never been a separation from God. The book is well worth reading.

Martin Chretien
[...]

14 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Wapnick's theology and Christianity might be a better title., June 23, 2002

By	Gene W. Smith (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

There are some fine things in this book, but also some serious problems. Most of the latter stem from the fact that Clarke seems to have taken what he knows of the Course from Wapnick, in the form of a six-hour workshop. The result is that at times they discuss not so much the differences between Christianity and the Course as between Christianity and the idiosyncratic interpretations which Dr. Wapnick brings to the Course. This tends to make the teachings of the Course and of Christianity seem to differ more than they actually do. Since this suits both of them down to the ground, they are happy with the result, but it needs to be taken with a degree of skepticism.

For instance, they discuss the difference between what the Course says about the origin of the material world and what Christianity says, without acknowledgment that in the so-called Urtext we find a flat-footed statement that the material world was created by God as a means of undoing the separation. The whole question of what the Course actually teaches on this issue is a very difficult one, and hardly something we can oppose to traditional Christian thought quite so readily. Certainly, however, you will not find a collective ego as the creator of the world, since the Course knows nothing of that concept. It does not state that our various selves were created by a process like cellular mitosis, as the supposed "one false self" divided over and over. Rather, the Course teaches that each of us individually is a soul, spirit, or thought directly created by God.

The Course also does not teach that Jesus does not concern himself with our bodies or our behavior, and again, the original dictation proves the opposite to be the case. This supposed difference between Christianity and the Course is simply an aspect of Wapnick's theology, arrived at by a process of reasoning which he gives in this book, and not a teaching of the Course. The Course likewise does not teach that the disciples projected their inner experience of Jesus and thus hallucinated a bodily resurrection-and Dr. Wapnick really ought to know better than this, since he was there when Helen heard her Voice explain that Jesus did appear to them in a body as real as any body ever is.