The
Oxford Group is not the only source of
A.A.’s principles, practices, and language.
The Bible is the major source. Quiet Time,
the teachings of Reverend Sam Shoemaker,
the materials in Anne Smith’s Journal,
and the Christian literature A.A. pioneers
read are all of major significance. And
we have written at length on them elsewhere
in books, articles, and seminars. Moreover,
one needs to note the difference between
A.A.’s Akron root (where A.A. was born)
and A.A.’s New York origins (where Bill
Wilson received many specific Oxford Group
ideas). Both Akron and New York alcoholics
were conversant with the Oxford Group,
but not all looked at it in the same way.
Dr. Bob saw it as a source of ideas. Bill
Wilson tended to see it as a program that
led to a relationship with God. The real
picture, the real connection, and the
real facts lie in between.
A.A.
is not the Oxford Group. And, most assuredly,
the Oxford Group is not A.A. In fact,
the development of the Oxford Group since
publication of the Big Book has taken
Oxford Group activities to a totally different
place than it took A.A. in the period
about 1938, just before the Big Book was
written.
How,
then, can you describe the real Oxford
Group Connection of A.A. Unfortunately,
it has been expunged in part by the editorial
work of Father John C. Ford and Father
Ed Dowling on A.A. Comes of Age
and in Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions.
It has been clouded by ever-recurring
and erroneous statements linking the Oxford
Group to the Nazi Party in Germany. It
has been lost through Bill Wilson’s insistent
accreditation of Rev. Sam Shoemaker with
the mantle of "American Leader of
the Oxford" and the "well-spring"
of A.A.’s ideas and steps. Almost no one
quotes an early, leading, Oxford Group
leader and writer’s statement: "The
principles of the Oxford Group are the
principles of the Bible" (Day, The
Principles of the Group, p.
1). Finally, the real Oxford Group connection
has been virtually discarded in A.A. literature
and meetings, along with the Bible, Quiet
Time, Sam Shoemaker, Anne Smith’s Journal,
and the literature early AAs read.
Fortunately,
the last 11 years of research and the
accumulation of some 23,900 historical
items including hundreds of Oxford Group
and Shoemaker books in our resource center
in Maui has made microscopic looks at
Oxford Group ideas and Alcoholics Anonymous
codifications of those ideas a reality–just
simply unknown to most today.
We’ve
covered most specific details in our titles
The Oxford Group and Alcoholics Anonymous:
A Design for Living That Works (http://www.dickb.com/Oxford.shtml),
New Light on Alcoholism: God, Sam Shoemaker,
and A.A. (http://www.dickb.com/newlight.shtml),
and Turning Point: A History of the
Spiritual Roots of Alcoholics Anonymous
(http://www.dickb.com/Turning.shtml),
and in other works (http://www.dickb.com/titles.shtml).
The
Important Oxford Group In-put Time Line
There
was no "Oxford Group" prior
to 1919. There was no "Oxford Group"
prior to the time the press gave a tiny
group of travelers in Africa the Oxford
"group" name in 1928. And basically,
there was no "Oxford Group"
in America, at least, after 1938 when
the idea and name "Moral Re-Armament"
were embraced by Oxford Group founder
Dr. Frank N.D. Buchman, just prior to
the beginning of World War II. Finally,
the name in America has now been changed
to "Initiatives for Change."
And you will look long and hard to find
any resemblance between today’s activities
(which often involve a Roman Catholic
Cardinal, the Jewish Rabbi of London,
the Dalai Lama, and a supportive Japanese
business executive, who has no connection
with Christianity whatever). Many of the
ideas which formed the heart of the Oxford
Group’s life-changing program came from
Christian evangelism, revivalism, and
writings which achieved wide-spread importance
and acceptance in the 1800's. They are
seldom mentioned among activists in today’s
Moral Re-Armament program. Perhaps the
one remnant is an occasional reference
to one or all of the "Four Absolutes"
or "Four Standards"–honesty,
purity, unselfishness, and love. These
"standards" were framed in the
late 1800's by Dr. Robert E. Speer in
his book The Principles of Jesus,
and embraced and expanded by Frank Buchman’s
major mentor, Dr. Henry Wright, in the
early 1900's in his book The Will of
God and a Man’s Life Work.
It
probably would be quite accurate to say
this of A.A.’s "Real Oxford Group
Connection." Nobody invented it.
It came through being borrowed from many
sources. It developed over a period of
some twenty years. It is embodied in a
number of titles, with different subjects,
different approaches, and different authors.
In fact, this is what Bill Wilson often
said of A.A. itself. Nobody invented it.
It was borrowed from many sources. And–what
should be said of the Oxford Group and
Alcoholics Anonymous–the basic ideas
came from the Bible. Just as Dr. Bob said
they did. A fact that Bill Wilson never
disputed or rejected.
Major
Published Oxford GroupWorks
We
have covered these before. They are listed
at great length in The Books Early AAs
Read for Spiritual Growth, 7th.
ed. (http://www.dickb.com/bks_early.shtml),
and Making Known the Biblical Roots of
Alcoholics Anonymous (http://www.dickb.com/makingknown.shtml).
We must have more than 500 important Oxford
Group titles here in Maui at our Resource
Center. But in this piece we will just
summarize those which will provide the
reader with some solid chewing, information,
and documentation! And by the way, that’s
the reason for all the footnotes, bibliographies,
and appendices in my books. So you can
look and find out for yourself.
Important
Early Sources for Principal Oxford Group
Ideas–acknowledged its Leaders
I
like Streams, which was published
by Mark O. Guldseth in 1982. The book
has a real feel for the flow of sources
from people like Horace Bushnell, Henry
Drummond, F.B. Meyer, Dwight L. Moody,
Robert E.. Speer, and Henry B. Wright
into the thinking of Frank Buchman and
the writings of Oxford Group people. To
mention just a part of their contribution,
these sources from the 1800's contributed
a widely known flow of ideas, including
(1) The Will of God. (2) The inspired
Word in the Bible. (3) The guidance of
God. (4) The principles of Jesus, as summarized
in the "Four Standards." (5)
The major importance of "sin"
as a barrier to a relationship with our
Creator. (6) The "art" of life-changing
involved in the well-known principles
of "Confidence," "Confession,"
"Conviction," "Conversion,"
and "Continuance." You can hear
these principles, in one form or another,
on any Billy Graham Crusade, in A.A.’s
last three steps, in the Books of Acts
and Romans, and in the law respecting
confidential communications, etc. (7)
Witnessing. (8) Fellowship. (9) Amends
and restitution. You can find these ideas
in the Sermon on the Mount and the Old
Testament and other teachings of Jesus.
You can find them in a court of equity.
You can find them in the criminal justice
system. (10) The Ten Commandments. (11)
The love of God and of others, including
our enemies. (12) Searching the Scriptures,
praying, meditating on the Word, and setting
aside a "Quiet Time" or "Morning
Watch." (13) Accepting Jesus Christ
as one’s Lord and Saviour–a much discarded,
but primary element in early practices
(John 3: 1-8; John 3:16; Romans 10:9).
In
sum, Frank Buchman and Sam Shoemaker and
Bill Wilson never claimed to have invented
the foregoing principles that found their
way to early A.A. As Wilson said, they
were the common property of mankind. And
they sure weren’t something that was "distorted"
or "poisoned" by the Oxford
Group. Just read the Bible. Read any of
the non-Oxford Group books Dr. Bob read
and recommended. See Dr. Bob and His
Library (http://www.dickb.com/drbob.shtml).
Read
the pamphlets published by early Akron
A.A. And read the speeches of Dr. Bob
and Bill Wilson when they were on the
same platform before Dr. Bob died..
Opponents
of this or that religion, church, religious
idea, or religious book so often try to
place their target in a box. Then they
label it. Then they condemn it. Often
just because it doesn’t fit their "box."
But they frequently have never mastered
the facts about it. Half truths, biased
summaries, and basic prejudices lead away
from God, the Bible, and the truth, rather
than toward it–when it comes to so much
"history," including that about
early A.A.’s biblical roots, and those
of the Oxford Group.
Some
Major Contributing Oxford Group Literature
in its AA Input Era (1919 to 1939)
Soul
Surgery: In my judgment,
the first "real" Oxford Group
book was Soul-Surgery, published in 1919.
It was intended to be the collaborative
work of H.A. Walter, of Buchman’s mentor
Henry B. Wright, and of Frank Buchman
himself. It set forth a life-changing
program–the so-called Five C’s–that Frank
Buchman called "God’s art" for
cutting out sin and "opening the
way" to a relationship with God.
In Confidence, Confess it, become Convicted
of it. Get rid of it by Conversion–an
experience of God. And Continue the changed
life. All of these ideas directly influenced
Bill Wilson’s Twelve Steps.
Rev.
Sam Shoemaker’s Writings: Often ignored
are the powerful, articulate, and simple
early writings of Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker,
Jr., There are many, and they are covered
in my various bibliographies. They are
virtually reviewed in my title New
Light on Alcoholism. They include
Realizing Religion, Religion
That Works, Confident Faith,
How to Find God, If I Be
Lifted Up, The Conversion of
the Church, National Awakening,
The Church Can Save the World,
and A First Century Christian Fellowship.
Those who focus too much on the "Oxford
Group" tend to ignore the immense
personal influence that Shoemaker had
as a member of the Oxford Group, as a
personal friend of Bill Wilson, and as
one that Bill called a "Co-founder"
of A.A. and actually asked (at first)
to write the Twelve Steps themselves–steps
in which Dr. Bob played no part at all
as to the writing stage.
The
Life-changing books Anne Smith and Dr.
Bob recommended: Begbie’s Twice-Born
Men and Life-Changers; Foot’s
Life Began Yesterday; Shoemaker’s
Twice-Born Ministers; and Russell’s
For Sinners Only. There were others
of less popularity: Kitchen’s I Was
a Pagan; Charles Clapp’s The Big
Bender; and Amelia Reynold’s New
Lives for Old..
"Doctrinal"
Descriptions of Various Principles:
Almond’s Foundations for Faith;
Sherwood Day’s The Principles of the
Group; Julian Thornton-Duesbury’s
Sharing; Philip Marshall Brown’s The
Venture of Belief; the anonymous What
is the Oxford Group; Harris’s The
Breeze of the Spirit; Weatherhead’s
Discipleship; Benson’s The Eight
Points of the Oxford Group;
Leon’s The Philosophy of Courage;
Phillimore’s Just for Today; and
Winslow’s Why I Believe in the Oxford
Group.
The
Bible study, Prayer, and Guidance literature:
Carruthers’s How to Find Reality in
Your Morning Devotions; Chambers’s
My Utmost for His Highest; Fosdick’s
The Meaning of Prayer;
Holm’s The Runner’s Bible; Jones’s
Victorious Living; Forde’s The
Guidance of God; H. Rose’s The Quiet Time;
Cecil Rose’s When Man Listens; Sangster’s
God Does Guide Us; Streeter’s
The God Who Speaks; The Upper Room;
Hadden’s Christ’s Program for World-Reconstruction:
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount;
Harris’s An Outline of the Life of
Christ; Hicks’s How to Read the
Bible; Viney’s How Do I Begin?;
and Winslow’s Vital Touch with God
and When I Awake; Tileston’s
Daily Strength for Daily Needs
Biographical:
Austin’s Frank Buchman as I Knew Him;
Buchman’s Remaking the World;
Howard’s Frank Buchman’s Secret
and That Man Frank Buchman; Hunter’s
World Changing through Life-changing;
Lean’s On the Tail of a Comet;
Spoerri’s Dynamic out of Silence;
Thornhill’s The Significance of the
Life of Frank Buchman.
Recent
accounts by oldtimers: Belden’s Beyond
the Satellites: Is God Speaking–Are we
Listening; Blake’s Way to Go;
Harriman’s Matched Pair; Lean’s
Cast out your Nets; Martin’s Always
a Little Further; Mowat’s Modern
Prophetic Voices; and Twitchell’s
Frank Buchman: Twentieth Century
Catalyst;
Some
criticisms: Brown’s The Oxford
Movement: Is it of God or of Satan;
Dinger’s Moral Re-Armament: A Study
of Its Technical and Religious Nature
in the Light of Catholic Teaching;
Hensley’s The Oxford Groups; Niebuhr’s
Christianity and Power Politics;
Van Baalen’s The Chaos of Cults;
and Williamson’s Inside Buchmanism.
Conclusion
You
don’t have to like the Oxford Group to
learn about it. You don’t have to condemn
it to disagree with it. And you don’t
have to block it out of A.A.’s past to
prevent people from believing in its ideas.
But, if you want to understand A.A.’s
Big Book, Steps, Slogans, and Fellowship;
and if you don’t want to make up your
own understanding of the spiritual program
early AAs developed, you’ll want to know
the full, the fairly reported, and real
facts about A.A.’s real Oxford Group connection.
For our introduction, see
http://www.dickb.com/index.shtml.
If you are one of those, you’ll have to
do a lot of reading and learning. You
know what they say in A.A. about "opinions."
In fact, they used to say in the Oxford
Group and in early A.A.: "Give me
news, not views." And I hope I have.
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