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Souls in Action

The Crucible of New Life

Expanding the Narrative of Twice Born Men

by Harold Begbie

Hooder & Stoughton / George H. Doran Co. 1911

First edition assumed. The book is in very good condition with no writing and no torn or missing pages. The cover is clean, the binding is tight, the lettering on the spine is dulled. No dust jacket. The book is out of print.

In his book Twice Born Men Begbie gave examples of the conversion experience to illustrate the teaching's of William James's. James stated in Varieties of a Religious Experience: to bring home to men's minds this fact concerning conversion, that, whatever it may be, conversion is the only means by which a radically bad person can be changed into a radically good person.

Souls in Action differs from Twice Born Men in two ways. First, the instances of conversion are not of a sudden, violent and passionate nature. Second in Twice Born Men all the stories were men and of the humblest classes in the community, some of them the very dregs of society. In Souls in Action most of the stories are of women and in all cases the strata of society is above the depths.

The interesting fact to members of AA is the fact that the Big Book has gone slowly through this same transition over the years. The Second Edition of the Big Book raised the bottom of the alcoholic, including stories of some who had not lost everything. The Third edition included younger members. The Fourth Edition, available and to be distributed this November, will offer many more stories of women, and offer a better cross section of the current fellowship, all the while maintaining the basic text of the book.

Harold Begbie was a journalist, author and playwright. His books have included political satire, comedy, fiction, science fiction, and studies of the Christian religion. He has authored using his own name and at least three pseudonyms. In the early 1920’s, Begbie attended meetings of A First Christian Fellowship, later name the Oxford Group, upon which he began correspondence with the founder Frank Buchman. This led to Begbie and Buchman meeting 1922 to personally witness the individual work Buchman was performing with undergraduates at several Universities in England. As a result of that meeting, Begbie authored the book Life Changers. It shares the stories of the people and the tools by which they found salvation through Buchman’s teachings. In it he referred to Buchman simply as F.B. to maintain his anonymity due to the controversial nature of his work.

Twice Born Men / Broken Earthenware and Life Changers / More Twice Born Menwere recommended to and read by Oxford Group members and many early members of AA. They were known to have existed in Dr. Bob’s library and are mentioned in Anne Smith’s Spiritual Workbook. The Oxford Group is where Bill W. first found sobriety prior to meeting Dr. Bob in 1935 and the eventual founding of AA. Both Dr. Bob and Bill, as well as many early AA members attended Oxford Group meetings in the early days.

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