This is the fifth post in my series, āGrace Between the Linesāāa journey through the beautifully strange overlap between Lutheran theology, mystical spirituality, and the books and ideas that have shaped me along the way. Whether you're deeply churched, gently deconstructing, or just spiritually nosy (my people), Iām so glad youāre here.
In the last post, we talked about mystical experiences, inner voices, and whether Paul may have had more in common with modern-day āchannelersā than weād like to admit. This week, weāre stepping directly into the theological tension.
Because sooner or later, if you start talking about A Course in Miracles, someoneās going to ask:
āWaitā¦ isnāt that heretical?ā
Short answer: Yes.
Also: No.
Welcome to theology.
In case you missed the previous posts in the seriesā¦
Intro - āØ This Time, Itās Not a Comeback ā Itās a Reconciliation
Post #1 - š Did You Hear the One Where the Lutheran Pastor Walks Into the Metaphysics Aisle?
Post #2 - šŗ How a PBS Mystic Became My Spiritual Gateway Drug
Post #3 - š When I Drifted
Post #4 - āØ If Channeling Freaks You Out, Letās Talk About Paul
š Heresy Is a Moving Target
Hereās the thing about heresy: it depends on where youāre standing.
To many conservative evangelicals, my Lutheran theology of baptismal regeneration would be heretical. To many progressive Christians, belief in any kind of divine revelation might be heretical. To the 16th-century Roman Catholic Church, Lutherās theology was definitely heretical. To the religious gatekeepers of Jesusā own time, his teachings were downright dangerous. (I mean, they didnāt nail him to a cross because he fit neatly into their doctrinal statements.)
So when we call something heresy, weāre not just describing the content, weāre revealing our frame.
Which brings me to A Course in Miracles.
š The Big Blue Problem
If youāre new here: A Course in Miracles (ACIM) is a channeled spiritual text said to be dictated by Jesus to a woman named Helen Schucman, a clinical psychologist at Colombia University in the 1960s.
Itās thick. Itās mystical. It reframes sin, guilt, and even reality itself. And itās been incredibly influential in New Thought and spiritual-but-not-religious circles.
It is definitely not orthodox Christianity.
But it also isnāt trying to be.
ACIM isnāt interested in creeds, denominations, or institutional belonging. Itās not focused on sin management or atonement theory. Itās doing something else entirely.
Which is why evaluating it on traditional doctrinal terms will always feel a little off.
Because A Course in Miracles isnāt trying to systematize belief. Itās trying to retrain perception. Itās a psychological-spiritual manual for shifting your mind from fear to love, from separation to unity, from ego to grace.
It fuses traditional Christian language with the language of depth psychology. It doesn't obsess over behavior or external metrics of holiness. It cares about thought patterns, perception, and inner orientation.
At its heart, itās Jesus taking us by the hand and walking us out of the fog of our fear-based illusions and into the sunlight of divine connectedness. With God. With ourselves. With each other.
Itās weird. Itās wordy. Itās slow. But itās also, for some of us, holy ground disguised as a workbook.
š§ Where It Diverges (Clearly)
Letās be honest about the dissonance:
The Christ of ACIM isnāt quite the Christ of the creeds. In the Course, salvation doesnāt come through blood sacrifice but through inner awakening. Jesus isnāt so much the sinless substitute absorbing divine wrath as he is a luminous older brother extending a hand from the far shore, reminding us the whole ocean was love all along.
The incarnation, cross, and resurrection are held differently. In ACIM, these arenāt events to be defended with apologetics but symbols meant to awaken us to eternal truth. Less timeline, more inner transformation.
It redefines sin as a perceptual error, not a moral failing. Thatās a big shift.
It emphasizes waking up from illusion rather than being saved from judgment.
If you're grading this by Nicene standards, it's gonna get flagged. (Maybe even red-flagged, circled, and returned with āSee me after class.ā)
So yes, thereās plenty here that would make a Lutheran priest (like me) shift a little in their collar, glance longingly at the Book of Concord, and wonder quietly whether they should mention this in spiritual direction... or just nod and smile.
But hereās the twist:
š©µ The Heart of It Sounds Like Grace
For all its doctrinal weirdness, what A Course in Miracles actually says -beneath the metaphysics and occasionally frustrating language - often lands like grace.
It says:
āSpirit is in a state of grace forever. Your reality is only spirit. Therefore you are in a state of grace forever.ā
āYou are a child of God, a priceless part of His Kingdom, which He created as part of Him. Nothing else exists and only this is real.ā
It doesnāt punish. It doesnāt shame. It doesnāt separate.
In that sense, it echoes what I love most about the gospel. The sense that God has already bridged the gap. That the work is done. That love gets the last word.
You donāt have to agree with its metaphysics to recognize the grace beneath the strangeness.
And if youāve ever felt crushed by the version of Jesus you were handed, this Jesus might sound like water in a desert.
But make no mistake. A Course in Miracles isnāt spiritual cotton candy. Itās not some floaty affirmation parade where everyone gets a trophy for manifesting. Itās tough. Itās relentless. In its own gentle yet unnervingly precise way, it holds up a mirror to how deeply weāve bought into the illusion of separation from God, others, and ourselves.
In the Courseās view, our problem isnāt just that weāve made a few moral missteps. Itās that weāve wandered into a full-blown authorship crisis. Weāve forgotten that we didnāt create ourselves. Weāve tried to take over the role of God, placing ourselves at the center of meaning, love, and identity. And the kicker? Itās impossible. That roleās already filled. But the attempt at believing in a self-made identity creates a whole ecosystem of fear, control, scarcity, and suffering.
This isnāt a gentle rebuke. Itās Jesus, lovingly but firmly, calling us back from the edge of our ego cliff and saying, āYouāve forgotten who you are. Letās go home.ā
š¤·āāļø So Is It Heretical?
If by heresy you mean ādifferent from orthodox Christianity,ā then yes. No question.
But if by heresy you mean ādangerous, delusional, or spiritually toxic,ā then no. At least not in my experience.
Iāve known plenty of heresy that wounds. And Iāve known plenty of orthodoxy that wounds, too. Anything can be weaponized if you're fueled by fear. But Iāve found it much easier to hurt people with Bible verses than with ACIM passages.
That doesnāt make one true and the other false. But it does remind me that just because something doesn't pass a theological stress test doesn't mean it isnāt still breathing the Spirit in some hidden way.
š” A Lutheran Both/And
Martin Luther once said, āWhatever preaches Christ is the true Word of God.ā And then probably said something else five minutes later that would make a synod council do a spit take.
He also said a lot of other things, many of which I would not post on this blog.
But this has stayed with me.
I donāt think A Course in Miracles is divinely infallible. I donāt think itās scripture. I donāt think it replaces the gospel.
But I do think itās whispering a lot of the same tune, just in a different register. One I wasnāt listening for. One I didnāt even know I needed.
And I do think it helped me hear Christ again after a long silence.
And thatās not nothing.
In fact, I think that's graceās signature move: showing up in places we werenāt trained to expect it. Itās how resurrection works. Quiet. Surprising. Unofficial. But somehow, still unmistakably real.
Next up in this series: weāll shift from the blue book to a Finnish theologian in a wool sweater. Tuomo Mannermaa may not have written mystical poetry, but his work on union with Christ helped me find theological grounding for the mystical hunger that never left. In fact, Mannermaaās theology of theosis - our real, participatory union with the risen Christ - felt surprisingly at home next to the voice I heard in ACIM. You might say he gave language and legitimacy to the kind of mystical Christianity that ACIM pointed toward, but with deep Lutheran roots. He made space within Lutheranism for my mystical side to breathe.
Still Along the Way,
Jonas
P.S. Iād love to hear from you! Whatās your experience with heresy, orthodoxy, or spiritual ideas that others side-eye but feel like grace to you?
(Paid subscribers can jump into the comments and join the fun. The conversation is half the joy.)
P.P.S. You can access the entire Course and workbook online for free as well as additional materials here if youāre interested.