Higher Power (Kitchen, I Was a Pagan, p. 85).

Many did hesitate to call this force the "power of God" (Kitchen, I Was a Pagan, p. 16).

dick b writes
 

Oxford Group writer Victor Kitchen told how very very simple it could be:

“Where I used to plan the day, making a list of all the jobs I thought I had to finish, all the people I thought I had to see, all ‘phone calls I thought I had to make and all the letters I thought I had to write, I now simply ask God’s guidance for the day (Victor C. Kitchen, I Was a Pagan. NY: Harper and Brothers, 1934, p. 122

from God and Alcoholism Book By Dick B

rigin Unknown. I don’t know where Bill Wilson got his "higher power." As far as I can ascertain, he never told us. He definitely dabbled in spiritualism. He definitely dabbled in "New Thought." He definitely dabbled in the writings of Williams James. There are even at least two Oxford Group writings that mention a "higher power" (though Oxford Group activist and expert Rev. T. Willard Hunter told me personally that he had never heard in the Oxford Group of any "higher power"). So, like today’s mysterious "Bin Laden," our "higher power" -- varying in location and scope and description from a chair to Santa Claus--seems to be hiding its roots. If you find those roots, please let us all know. I have a hunch you will find the "higher power" is really God in the minds of those who use the phrase. But they are scared to death to surrender and admit their need for God. Or they are scared to death of a church or their former church. Or they just plain don’t want to read the Bible, or our history, or perhaps not even the Big Book and its earlier manuscripts (Compare the facts in: Turning Point: A History of Early AA.’s Spiritual Roots and Successes. http://www.dickb.com/Turning.shtml).

Some Sources Which Were Probably Read by Some Early AAs -- Sources Which You Can Research. Some Pioneer AAs did read the following titles which mention a "higher power" of one sort or another: (1) Ralph Waldo Trine, In Tune with the Infinite: Or Fullness of Peace, Power, and Plenty (NY: Thomas H. Crowell, 1897); (2) William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience (NY: First Vintage Press/The Library of America Edition, 1990); (3) Elwood Worcester, Samuel McComb, and Isador H. Coriat, Religion and Medicine: The Moral Control of Nervous Disorders (NY: Moffat, Yard & Company, 1908); (4) Victor C. Kitchen, I Was a Pagan (NY: Harper & Brothers, 1934); (5) A. J. Russell, For Sinners Only (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1932). And are there more? I’m inclined to think there may be because of the large numbers of new thought writers of that era, the immense research and writing done by William James, the interest in "mind-cure" ideas, and the popularity of Victor Kitchen with Bill Wilson and in the New York Oxford Group circles.

I personally have no particular interest in "new thought" literature. Nor am I a fan of the religious views, whatever they may be, of William James, the psychologist. Nor has much evidence come to my attention concerning even the possible successes of McComb, et al. Nor do I find anything in Kitchen’s writing that suggests he was simply referring to some "Higher Power," with which he needed to establish a relationship, but which he came to recognize as God as a result of his Oxford Group experiences. Nor, however, have I seen much in any of the foregoing writings (other than Kitchen’s) that suggests a strong belief in the power of the Creator; or in the necessity for coming to Him through confessing Jesus as Lord and believing God raised Jesus from the dead (Romans 10:9). My particular interest, as is known by many, is in the Bible; the truth about God, His power, and His will that can be found in the Bible; the necessity for coming to Him through Jesus Christ (Romans 10:9); and the exceedingly abundant power and healing available to those of us who choose that route (see Ephesians 3:20). In fact, I have found that even Bill Wilson’s medical mentor, Dr. William Duncan Silkworth, had spoken positively about making the turn to Jesus Christ (whom Silkworth and Wilson both called the Great Physician) for the healing of alcoholism (see The Positive Power of Jesus Christ by Norman Vincent Peale).

This next part may prove helpful to you in tracking the origin and meaning of "higher power" and help you do more research on that subject if you care to. It’s sure not my area of expertise.

dickb writes in review of Kitchen book

I'm somewhat baffled by Congressional Record references. But if this is the book by Victor Kitchen written in about 1934, titled I Was a Pagan, then it has value to those who want a broad spectrum picture of Oxford Group writings. Kitchen was a friend of Bill W.'s. He was much involved in Shoemaker's Calvary Church. And, like so many other Oxford Group writings--including Shoemaker's--his book contains words and phrases that can be found in A.A.'s basic text.

On the other hand, two writers have overplayed the significance of this book in terms of its place in A.A. history. One claims that the game of "truth" underlies the Fourth Step; and it doesn't. The other feels that Kitchen had direct impact on Wilson. But similarity of language can't replace historical proof. And my title The Oxford Group and Alcoholics Anonymous, as well as my title New Light on Alcoholism: God, Sam Shoemaker, and A.A. will put the Oxford Group/Shoemaker influence on New York A.A. in proper perspective, and both discuss Kitchen's book along with many others.

The problem which historians have foisted on us is that they would have us ignore the Bible, Quiet Time, Anne Smith's Journal, the Christian literature (non-Oxford Group) that AAs read, United Christian Endeavor ideas, the contributions of Jung, James, Silkworth,Peabody, and New Thought writers. Also they would have us ignore the fact that the Akron A.A. Christian Fellowship bore little resemblance to the Oxford Group activities and certainly none to Kitchen.

I've read Kitchen's book many times and used it in my writings and research. For historical purposes, it's very important as to Oxford Group ideas. For a supposed major influence on Bill Wilson and A.A., I don't think it rates much more attention than any of the other 500 Oxford Group materials I have listed in my bibliographical title: Making Known the Biblical History and Roots of Early A.A. Dick B.

Time Magazine Spring 1934

" Next day Dr. Buchman and Team landed. With that disciplined, well-publicized precision which marks all their movements, they were photographed, interviewed, shown the Empire State Building by Citizen Smith, lunched at the Waldorf and at the Bankers' Club. They descended upon a Salvation Army centre in grubby 14th Street, held a tea to launch Grouper Victor C. Kitchen's book I Was a Pagan.* Before hastening off on a Canadian tour which is to include an Easter house party at Chateau Frontenac in Quebec, the Oxford Groups held a second public meeting at the Waldorf. As crowded as the first, with an additional overflow meeting for 1,000 at the Park Lane Hotel, this was the biggest meeting the Groups had ever held in the U. S. where they were once called "Buchmanites" and looked upon with suspicion by conservative church folk. Now they had not only socialite guests like Mrs. Stephen Baker, Miss Madeleine Satterlee and Mr. & Mrs. William Fellowes Morgan, but also that most cautious of prelates, Episcopal Bishop William Thomas Manning, who had never before lent his presence to a Group meeting. Induced by "Sam" Shoemaker to attend the first night Bishop Manning made a brief, pious address. The Team currently traveling with Leader Buchman includes a London lady, a Latvian, a French and two Dutch baronesses, a Cambridge dean, a League of Nations secretary, a big game hunter, an archdeacon, a vice admiral, an Episcopal bishop's son, an Anglican bishop's sister, numerous Oxonians and Hon. Carl Vrooman of Bloomington, 111. To newshawks last week Frank Buchman declared: "Not one of us is employed. Yet we have managed to come across. I have not received a salary since 1922, but I manage somehow to live out of my seven suitcases. ... I haven't any idea of where all the money comes from."