Article 21
Alcoholics Anonymous and Its Real Oxford Group Connection
20 Years of Input
By Dick B.
The Oxford Group and Our Other A.A. Sources
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. END