The very last part of the originally published A Course in Miracles (ACIM) is called the “Clarification of Terms.” This is a short addendum expanding on certain key terms that are discussed throughout the entire Course, terms such as the miracle, the ego, perception and Knowledge. An in-depth clarification of terms and of core principles and premises that comprise the worldview / thought system of the Course, some of which are touched on in the preceding website section, “A Summary of the Course,” is presented in the preface of A Renewed Course in Miracles in place of a clarification of terms section at the end of the Renewed Course, and through the Contents links below.
The Course in any of its versions can be read fruitfully without knowing or accepting its worldview or any of its core principles or premises, and indeed is done so by any number of its readers. All of the Course’s core principles and premises are revealed in the body of the complete Course, and its worldview or thought system is the totality of these principles and premises, so the reader will eventually be exposed to them in any case, though their significance may not be immediately understood when first coming across them. For this reason it may be helpful for some readers to inform themselves of the Course’s key terms and its core principles and premises through having a reference to these, such as in “A Summary of the Course” and “The Worldview of the Course.” Knowing and understanding these may also enrich one’s experience of the Course, and even one’s mastery of the material for those engaging it with that end in mind.
Contents of The Worldview of the Course
1. The Great Awakening and the Celestial Speedup
2. Creation as It Is in Reality
3. The Divine Laws, Conditions, and Attributes
4. Free Will and the Sanctity of Our Creative Activity
5. The World We Look Upon Does Not Exist
6. The Separation and Its Purpose
7. The Effects of the Detour into Fear
8. A World of Vengeance Forgiven
9. Undoing and Awakening
10. The Layers of Entanglement and Steps of Undoing
11. Refining Perspective and Perception
12. The Three Worlds
13. Levels of Consciousness and Awareness
14. Key Dysfunctional Dynamics of the Unconscious
15. Mindedness and Readiness
16. Level Confusion and the Clarity of Sorting Out
17. The Two Uses of Time and Memory
18. The Plan of Atonement Set into Motion in Time
19. Miracles and the Leader of the Atonement
20. Learning to Hear and Recognize the Voice
21. The Plan of the Teachers
22. The Special and the Holy Relationship
23. Fear’s Cause and Dissolution
24. The Fear of Loss and the Insanity of the Idea of Sacrifice
25. Bringing Darkness to Light and Illusions to Truth
26. Separation and “Sin” as Merely a Mistake
27. Sickness, Healing and Prayer
28. Magic as Enchantment and Darkness as Merely the Absence of Light
29. Judgment, Accountability and Justice
30. Responsibility for a Wounded World
31. How Attunement and Atonement Work in the Moment