A Sober Faith by G Aiken Taylor Religion and Alcoholics Anonymous

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"SOBER FAITH" by G. Aiken Taylor (2nd Printing [1954]).
Subtitled "Religion and Alcoholics Anonymous". The author examines the spiritual principles of the 12 step program of AA in respect to it's religious parallels, and shows how each can benefit from the other. This book is one of the first major attempts by a non-alcoholic to study AA from the standpoint of religion. Copies of this book are EXTREMELY RARE

emai LDP eztone@hotmail.com

Dr Taylor also had 3 articles published in the AA Grapevine
Available as Digital Downloads

1.One AA's Answer to Dr. Taylor (by G. Aiken Taylor, Ph.D.)
North Carolina, Dr. Taylor is the a -- "HELL, I can't buy that!" A young and apparently successful member of AA reacted rather sharply to my question about the part God played in his recovery. "I'm not a religious man," he concluded evenly.

November

1953

2.AA Not a Religion (by J.F.H.)
California -- In the November Grapevine there appeared an article by Dr. G. Aiken Taylor, a non-alcoholic and a Presbyterian pastor greatly interested in AA. His contention that permanent success depends whether or not one "gets" the spiritual side of the program has moved several AAs to comment.

January

1954

3.On the Other Hand. . . (by Anonymous)
Ontario -- In the November Grapevine there appeared an article by Dr. G. Aiken Taylor, a non-alcoholic and a Presbyterian pastor greatly interested in AA. His contention that permanent success depends whether or not one "gets" the spiritual side of the program has moved several AAs to comment.

January

1954

G. Aiken Taylor
George Aiken Taylor






Dr. Taylor, editor of the Presbyterian Journal from 1959 until 1983, served as president of Biblical Theological Seminary in Hatfield, Pa., until his death early in 1984.

Biographical Sketch: George Aiken Taylor was born on January 22, 1920 in Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil, the son of Presbyterian missionaries George W. Taylor and Julia Pratt Taylor. When he was fifteen years old he returned to this country to complete his education, graduating from the Presbyterian College of South Carolina with the A.B. degree in 1940. He taught in the South Carolina public schools for a year, and then entered the U.S. Army in 1941. He served with the 36^th (Texas) Infantry Division and rose to the rank of Captain, commanding a heavy weapons company in the 142^nd Infantry. He participated in five major campaigns in World War II, was wounded once and decorated once. Taylor married the former Blanche Williams of Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1942. A son, George Aiken Jr., was born in 1943, Jane Bright in 1946, Hugh Pratt in 1948, and Julia Elizabeth in 1950. After the war, Taylor entered Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia, graduating with the B.D. degree, Magna Cum Laude in 1948. He was also ordained in 1948. He served as pastor of Smyrna Presbyterian Church in Smyrna, Georgia for two years and then became pastor of Northside Presbyterian Church in Burlington, North Carolina. In 1950 he then entered Duke University for graduate study. Later he was awarded the Ph.D. degree by Duke for his dissertation, John Calvin, the Teacher, a study of religious education in Calvin’s Geneva. Dr. Taylor served as pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Alexandria, Louisiana from 1954 to 1959. He became interested in the work of Alcoholics Anonymous through his own work with alcoholics, developing an appreciation for A.A.’s principles, and wrote A Sober Faith in 1953. His book St. Luke’s Life of Jesus was published in 1954. In 1959 Dr. Taylor became editor of The Presbyterian Journal, an independent weekly with an international circulation and with offices in Asheville, North Carolina. He served in this capacity for twenty-four years, and during that time was active in the conservative movement in the PCUS which eventuated in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), formed in 1973. He was a leader in the PCA and was elected moderator of the General Assembly of that denomination in 1978. In 1983, Dr. Taylor was named president of Biblical Theological Seminary in Hatfield, Pennsylvania, and was inaugurated in December of that year. However, three months later—on March 6, 1984—he died suddenly. Memorial services were held in Pennsylvania, and funeral services at Gaither Chapel in Montreat, North Carolina. Dr. Taylor was buried in nearby Swannanoa, North Carolina. C. Gregg Singer, was a close friend of Dr. Taylor’s. Dr. C. Gregg Singer is on the faculty of Greenville SC NC Presbyterian Theological Seminary, and the author of A Theological Interpretation of American History.... 33 C. Gregg Singer, 88, of Salisbury, NC, died March 22, 1999.

In the end, however, the denomination that was at the focus of the Journal's coverage was not rescued from theological liberalism. By 1973, a number of members of that church, including Journal editor G. Aiken Taylor, withdrew to form the more conservative Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). Yet ironically, that development ultimately left the Journal without a solid constituency. Circulation dropped through the rest of the 1970's from a one-time high of 44,000 to about 20,000 as the decade ended.

Christians and AA A REFORMED CRITIQUE OF ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS
R. Scott Clark, D.Phil* Assc Prof of Church History and Academic Dean Westminster Theological Seminary in California

excerpted here is his insight and review of A Sober Faith by G Aiken Taylor

Many Christians, including Evangelical and even Reformed Christians, have said that the disease model is sufficient to explain the success of AA and its offspring. Several writers have even tried to justify the synthesis of the pragmatism of AA with various Christian forms. One notable attempt was the late G. A. Taylor's A Sober Faith (1953). Taylor is remembered in Reformed and Presbyterian circles as the editor of the Presbyterian Journal

In the preface, Russell Dicks called Taylor a friend of both the Church and AA.24 This is only half true. Taylor wished to be a friend to both, but such is impossible. One cannot have two masters. He must love the one and hate the other.25 Taylor fails to make necessary and biblical distinctions between AA and Christianity. Christianity is God's covenant relation to and redemption of his people from their sins, but AA is not.

Taylor says,

In its own unique way it [AA] goes about leading men and women to God who never before gave Him much thought. I hope the more conservative of my brethren who may feel inclined to question AA's theology at this point will withhold their judgment for the moment. AA's success constitutes a powerful recommendation for its methods.26.

With all due respect, Christians cannot withhold theological or moral judgment upon a vaguely utilitarian basis. Other sects, e.g., Jehovah's Witnesses, also claim to lead one to god, but it is clearly not the God of the Bible. Isaiah complains about hand made idols, Paul complains about those whose god is their belly. If the god to whom one is brought is not the Lord Jesus Christ then it is vanity. There are no intermediate steps to God.

In fact, AA is not the worship of the true and living God but is specifically applied peer pressure to alter a particular behavior pattern, often by replacing one addiction for another, in the nature of the case, bottle support for group support.27

Taylor's claim that, at some point, every serious member of AA is confronted by necessity with Christianity is simply not true.28 In fact the leading currents of thought are moving away from the more overtly religious emphasis of years past to a more mechanistic and secular faith. The authority of Bill and the other founders of AA is also waning. After all isn't one persons experience just as normative as anyone else's? Agnosticism reigns in AA. "God as we conceive of Him" and the authority of God "as He is expressed in our group conscience", has taken its natural course. If someone became sober without any god, then god isn't strictly necessary. Of a course the god which began as a useful idea gives way to bare agnosticism.

Taylor admitted the parallels between Christianity and AA. Rather than chalking these apparent similarities up to plagiarism, Taylor says that there is just the right amount of religion in AA to make it effective without scaring this diseased person away from Christianity. After all, he says, alcoholics are notorious for their bad feelings about religion. Taylor thinks AA is a good introduction for Alcoholics to Christianity.29

Taylor's biggest error was to deny the biblical teaching regarding human responsibility for sin. By saying as he does, with AA, that alcoholism (or any other excessive behavior for that matter) is a matter of treating a disease then one has removed the problem from the proper sphere of reference (sin and redemption) and conceded that biblical revelation, the work of Christ and the means of grace (preaching of the Word and sacraments) are insufficient for redemption and the Christian life.

God's Word consistently describes our lot differently. "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3.23). All hold down the knowledge of God in unbelief (Romans 1.18). All are prone, by nature, to hate God and their neighbor. The Christian view of the matter is that the alcoholic, no matter how tragic his case, has no advantage over the average son of Adam in that respect. The answer does not lie with a synthesis of obvious Christian behaviors and doctrines (or facsimiles thereof) with modern disease models.

The answer lies in real repentance and faith in the living God, the second person of the Trinity, the Jesus who died for sinners and was raised again for our justification and who through the Holy Spirit effectively calls us to faith and who gives us new life and who makes us holy in himself.

What is the real difference between addictive sexual behavior and alcoholism? Once one becomes addicted to the sensations of orgasm he does not want to quit and will order his life around it. The question is not how much, but why, the inappropriate and damaging behavior continues? The "why" of the behavior is the same. All human beings are addicted to sin. Who of us in our old life was not? This is not to deny that alcoholism is not damaging, but to assert that all sin has its own form of fallout. The affects are different in some regard, but the progressive nature of the addiction begins with the will to sin. The effects of sin do not justify calling a sin a disease. In which case habitual drunkenness is no more a disease than habitual use of pornography. Neither sin is excusable no matter what the cause.

A 1982 book by A. C. DeJong, Help and Hope for the Alcoholic, is little improvement over Taylor. DeJong takes the middle road. DeJong's approach is very similar to Taylor's because his belief is that the Bible does not speak about the abuse of alcohol, (or that what it says is outdated), that Alcoholics Anonymous is a useful adjunct to the Church, and most importantly that alcoholism is not sin, but a disease.30