A Return to Love

1992 book by Marianne Williamson

A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles (1992) is the first book by Marianne Williamson, and concerns the 1976 book A Course in Miracles by Helen Schucman. A Return to Love was a New York Times Best seller.

The book contains Williamson's reflections on the book A Course in Miracles and her thoughts on finding inner peace through love. Amazon. com describes its theme as "how we each can become a miracle worker by accepting God and by the expression of love in our daily lives." The book is divided into two main parts, Principles and Practice. The Principles section has chapters entitled "Hell", "God", "You", "Surrender" and "Miracles". The Practice section has chapters "Relationships", "Body", "Work" and "Heaven". and was number one on the Publishers Weekly non fiction best sellers list for 11 weeks. It was credited as having been written by one of the two authors that helped bring New Age perspectives to the American mainstream, the other being Thomas Moore. Williamson promoted the book as well as A Course in Miracles when she appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show, an episode that received more pro viewer mail than any other show for 1992. She also spoke of the book, and The Course, when she was interviewed by Barbara Walters on the ABC television show 20/20. In July 2012, twenty years after the book was published, Williamson was interviewed by Oprah Winfrey on a Super Soul Sunday (OWN TV) episode titled, "20 Years After A Return to Love".

Bob Carroll, of The Skeptic's Dictionary, wrote: "Williamson might be called Oprah's patron saint. She's all about love and healing, yin and yang, being wounded, and using love and prayer to heal all wounds." Writing in Commentary magazine, John Podhoretz described Return to Love as "almost unspeakably tasteless" in its blithe misappropriation of concepts central to the world's major religions [it is] a work of surpassing vulgarity in a surpassingly vulgar field [that, nevertheless] offers both sound and surprisingly moving advice." Readers are advised to seek meaning in something larger than themselves, to get over the issues of their past, and, "to act on wisdom from your grandmother, expressed in sugarcoated cliches: Always look on the bright side. If God gives you lemons, make lemonade."