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A.A. and The Five C’s
A Root from Soul Surgeryby Dick B.
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What’s all this about?
I remember the first time I heard the expression soul surgery in an A.A.
meeting, I thought the gal who mentioned it was a little daft. Soul Surgery!
What in the heck was that about? Then I
saw it mentioned in DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers. Then I read the
Master’s Thesis by A.A.’s and my friend T. Willard Hunter and saw he spoke of
Frank Buchman as the old soul surgeon. Finally, as I dived into Oxford Group
research. I saw the surgery come together piece by piece: (1) Sin was the
problem. (2) Sin was anything that blocked you from God or other people. (3) To
do God’s will, you had to cut out sin. (4) The art of Soul Surgery, as Buchman
called it, was to cut sin out of your life by an incisive surgical process
that began with surrender of your life to God’s care and direction and then
utilizing the power of God to cut out sin. (5) You did that, said Buchman and
his colleagues, by the Five C’s–Confidence, Confession, Conviction, Conversion,
and Conservation [later called Continuance]. (6) The process also involved
making amends or restitution, seeking God’s guidance, continuing with a daily
surrender, passing it on, and living by the spiritual principles of the Bible.
It didn’t take me long to see that these were the heart ideas of our Twelve
Steps as Bill heard the instructions from Ebby Thacher, Rowland Hazard, Shep
Cornell, Victor Kitchen, the Twitchells, Rev. and Mrs. W. Irving Harris, Sam
Shoemaker, and Bill’s other Oxford Group friends of the mid-1930's.
Your began, of course, with the unmanageable life [Oh, God, manage me because
I cannot manage myself]. There was the willingness to believe and take action
[John 7:17–Shoemaker’s favorite verse]. Then you stood at the Turning Point [a
William James expression]. Then you commenced the real surrender and soul
surgery process that became our middle steps: (1) A decision. (2) Making
the moral test [writing down the Four Absolutes and seeing how your life
measured up]. (3) Confessing [letting God and another believer in on your
discoveries]. [4] Becoming Convicted [an expression Lois Wilson and Anne Smith
both used in their journals, and which meant being convinced that you had
screwed up in God’s eyes and were willing to hate and forsake your sins. [5]
Conversion [the process prescribed by Jung, detailed by Shoemaker, used by
Rowland Hazard and Ebby and Bill–which meant accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord
and Saviour and thereby being transformed into a new person–Therefore if any
man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all
things are become new. You will see this verse from 2 Corinthians 5:17 in
Oxford Group, Shoemaker, early A.A., Clarence Snyder, and other writings. This
was the changed life that arose from being born again of the spirit of God.
[6] Continuance [the process of surrendering your sins daily, taking a daily
inventory, making a daily confession, becoming convicted of newly arising or
returning shortcomings, relying on the power of God to change, and then getting
back into fellowship with God through Bible study, prayer, guidance, passing it
on as Buchman called it, and living by the principles of 1 Corinthians 13 and
the Four Absolutes, among others.
The Documentation
How do you verify all this? You can study Harold Begbie’s Life Changers
where Buchman is described as the soul surgeon and Begbie narrates the
origin of the Five C’s. You can read Soul Surgery, the important book
published by H. A. Walter in 1919 in collaboration with Professor Henry Wright
and Dr. Frank Buchman. There Walter explains each of the C’s in detail. You can
read about them in Sam Shoemaker’s first significant title–Realizing
Religion. And you can see that these techniques did not come out of a vacuum
cleaner. Each was based on Biblical authority. Each was carefully explained. And
each was later specifically defined by Sam Shoemaker’s learned assistant Dr.
Olive Jones in her book Inspired Children. As with the Four Absolutes, if
you want the standards for truth that Shoemaker, Buchman, Dr. Bob and Bill used
in the beginning, you turn to the Bible roots themselves. For Confidence, the
many verses on witnessing. For Confession, James 5:16. For Conviction, the
verses about iniquities prevailing against you. For Conversion, Romans
10:9–confessing Jesus as Lord and believing God raised him from the dead. For
Continuance, the host of materials on prayer, Bible study, seeking God’s
guidance, witnessing, fellowship, and living by the principles of the Sermon on
the Mount, 1 Corinthians 13, and James–as well as others including the Ten
Commandments.
The Analysis and Study
I’ve covered these Five C.’s from different viewpoints in various of my
titles. In The Akron Genesis of Alcoholics Anonymous (http://www.dickb.com/Akron.shtml),
I showed some of the uses of the C’s. In Anne Smith’s Journal (http://www.dickb.com/annesm.shtml),
I quoted from the writing of Dr. Bob’s wife where she devotes much time to
discussing the Five C’s. In The Oxford Group and Alcoholics Anonymous (http://www.dickb.com/Oxford.shtml),
I detailed the historical roots of the Five C’s. In New Light on Alcoholism (http://www.dickb.com/newlight.shtml),
I presented the Rev. Shoemaker discussions of theses ideas. In
Good Morning! (http://www.dickb.com/goodmorn.shtml),
I provided the Biblical background for Quiet Time, including
Bible study, prayer, listening, use of devotionals, journaling, etc. And I
certainly did not leave out the necessity for accepting Christ–which so many
recent writers have done in their statements about listening to God. This
surrender concept is important to those who want the accurate picture. If you
don’t read or learn about Streeter’s The God Who Speaks, Forde’s The Guidance of
God, Day’s The Principles of the Group, Shoemaker’s National Awakening and
Realizing Religion, you just won’t get it. Continuance didn’t come out of a
vacuum cleaner. Anne Smith was one who commented that turning to the group
instead of Christ is a funk hole. Good phrase–funk hole. Shoemaker would,
more delicately, have described it as using an absurd name for God, relying on
self-made religion, and adopting half-baked prayers. I’d call it trying to
listen to a message without having a receiving set. So would Oxford Group writer
Hallen Viney in his little pamphlet How to Begin. Half a loaf is not
better than none when it comes to following God’s directions in the Good Book.
Leave out the Good Book, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the teachings of
Christ about salvation and the new birth, and you might as well be reading
Grimm’s Fairy Tales. You just won’t get the picture.
Good Hunting
We have rich and easily understood treasures in our spiritual roots. Dr.
Bob’s library will tell you things about A.A. you have never heard. Anne Smith’s
Journal will explain things about A.A. you have never understood. The Oxford
Group writings will illustrate the practical program of action that Joe and
Charlie talk about in their Big Book Seminars. The Shoemaker writings will let
you see what Bill Wilson was either hearing or reading or both. The Quiet Time
books, including the Bible, will inform you of the whole process of meditation
and prayer that early AAs used–becoming God’s kids through the new birth from
above, prayer, Bible study, listening, checking, studying helpful books, and
fellowship. It’s a package, not a piecemeal offering. And a knowledge of the
diversity of books early AAs read will help you recognize the sometimes
conflicting materials AAs themselves try to merge into one–the Bible, New Age,
New Thought, Roman Catholic expressions, humanist questions and terms, and so
on. They just don’t fit together. But they are history nonetheless. Good
hunting!
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