The Oxford Group
&
Alcoholics Anonymous
A Design for Living That Works
Dick B.
With a Foreword by T. Willard Hunter
ISBN 978-1-937520-14-4
Published by First Edition Design eBook Publishing
September 2011
www.firsteditiondesignpublishing.com
Smashwords Edition
Paradise Research Publications, Inc. Kihei, Maui, Hawaii
© 1992, 1995, 1998 by Anonymous.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Published 1992.
New, Revised Edition 1998
Printed in the United States of America
This Paradise Research Publications Edition is published by arrangement with
Good Book Publishing Company,
Box 959, Kihei, Maui, HI 96753-0959
Cover Design: Lili Crawford
We gratefully acknowledge permission granted by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., to quote from Conference Approved publications with source attributions. The publication of this volume does not imply affiliation with nor approval or endorsement from Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise—without prior written permission of the publisher.
Disclosure –
Due to the media style of this electronic book, footnotes and index have been removed. For unabridged version, with full bibliography please refer to the print version of this book. ISBN 1-885803-19-2
Contents
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgements
-1. The Roots of Early A.A.'s Success Rate
A.A.'s Successes Yesterday and Today
The Varied Sources of A.A.'s Basic Ideas
The Bible
The Reverend Samuel Moor Shoemaker, Jr
Meditation Books, Quiet Time and God's Guidance
Anne Smith's Journal: 1933-1939
Other Possible Sources
The Oxford Group Roots Confirmed
A Summary of What the Oxford Group Is
The Oxford Group, A.A., and Finding God
This Book's Oxford Group Journey and Destination
-2. Mentors Who Influenced the Oxford Group's Founder
Dr. Horace Bushnell
Evangelist Dwight L. Moody
Evangelist F. B. Meyer
Professor Henry Drummond
Dr. Robert E. Speed
Professor William James
Dr. John R. Mott
Professor Henry B. Wright
-3. Frank Buchman and His First Century
Christian Fellowship
Some Chapters in Frank Buchman's Life
The Development of the Oxford Group
Oxford Group Meetings
East Coast U.S. Meetings
Oxford Group House Parties
Oxford Group Team
Story-telling; The Sharing of Experience;
News, Not Views
Buchman's Biblical Beliefs
-4. Sam Shoemaker's Oxford Group Role
Opinions As to Sam Shoemaker's Role in the Oxford Group
Shoemaker and Buchman
Calvary House and the Oxford Group
Shoemaker and Oxford Group Activities
Shoemaker, Bill W., and the Oxford Group
Shoemaker's Oxford Group Friends and Bill W
Shoemaker, A.A., the Steps, and the Big Book
-5. The A.A. Links: Arrivals and Departures
A.A.'s Oxford Group Beginnings
The Collaboration at A.A.'s Birthplace
Departures from the Oxford Group
-6. Twenty-eight Oxford Group Principles
That Influenced A.A
In the Beginning, God
God—Biblical Descriptions of Him
God Has a Plan—His Will for Man
Man's Chief End—To Do God's Will
Belief We Start with the Belief That He IS
Sin—Estrangement from God- The Barrier of Self
Sin As a Reality
Finding or Rediscovering God
Surrender—The Turning Point
Soul-surgery—The "Art" or Way
Life-change—The Result
The Path They Followed to Establish a Relationship with God
Decision
Self-examination—A Moral Inventory
Confession Sharing with God and Another
Conviction—Readiness to Change
Conversion- The New Birth—Change
Restitution—Righting the Wrong
Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ—The Source of Power
Spiritual Growth Continuance
Conservation Continuance As an Idea
Daily surrender as a process
Guidance—The Walk by Faith
The Four Absolutes—Christ's Standards
Quiet Time
Bible Study
Prayer
Listening to God for leading Thoughts and
Writing Down Guidance Received
Checking
The Spiritual Experience or Awakening
Knowledge of God's Will
God consciousness
Fellowship with God and Believers, and
Witness by Life and Word
Fellowship
Witness by Life and Word
-7. Oxford Group Traces in A.A.'s Twelve Steps and
Big Book Language
Principal Ideas in the Twelve Steps
Powerless, the Unmanageable Life and Step One
A Power Greater Than Ourselves and Step Two
The Decision to Surrender to God As You
Understand Him and Step Three
Self-examination, the Moral Inventory and
Step Four
Confession, Sharing with Another and Step Five
Conviction, Readiness to Be Changed and Step Six
Surrender of Sins, God's Removal and Step Seven
Restitution, Amends and Steps Fight and Nine
Inventory, Daily Surrender and
Step Ten
Quiet Time, Prayer, Bible Study, Listening,
God's Will, Guidance and Step Eleven
The Spiritual Awakening, Witness,
Practice of Principles and Step Twelve
Principal Oxford Group Ideas Which Can Be
Found in A.A.'s Basic Text, the Big Book
As to God
The Barriers or Blocks to God
Elimination or Destruction of the Barriers through Self-Surrender
Daily Spiritual Growth
A Spiritual Experience or Awakening Service
The Principles of the Four Absolutes
Parallels Between Oxford Group and Big Book Language
-8. Conclusion
Bibliography
Foreword
Dick B. has pulled together a most amazing piece of research on the spiritual origins of the Twelve Step movement, particularly as found in the Oxford Group, from which it sprang.
This volume is of particular relevance in the decade of the 1990's when both Alcoholics Anonymous and Moral Re-Arrnament (the name by which the Oxford Group has been called since 1938) are in a stepped-up search for their spiritual roots and for the personal renewal that has been their historic contribution.
A.A. separated from the Oxford Group in two stages, in 1937 and in 1939. Separation is always painful, and usually regretted. But history has borne out the wisdom of Bill W. and Dr. Bob in finding their own milieu in the 1930’s, separate from the parent Oxford Group movement. They had a divine calling, and they obeyed, which after all, the Oxford Group's initiator, Frank Buchman, held as his aim for everyone. The heart of his message was: "When a person listens, God speaks; when a person obeys, God acts." God certainly acted in an extraordinary way through Bill and Bob. The miracle could probably not have happened had they stayed in the other fold.
Still, we are all in the same family and dedicated to people becoming different. We also have the wider confidence, as Lois
W. believed, that "these principles will one day save our troubled world."
Dick B. is making a most important contribution, and I am honored to have been included in a small way. The way of life he describes in The Oxford Group & Alcoholics Anonymous makes everything new for those who really try it. Let us pray that the words between these covers will reach many hearts and stir many wills to action: action that will result in new directions for people, for communities, and for our troubled world.
T. WILLARD HUNTER
Mr. Hunter is a newspaper columnist, platform orator, and ordained minister. In the 1940's and 1950's, he was a close associate of Frank Buchman, initiator of the Oxford Group and Moral Re-Armament, and has written and spoken extensively on the subject. He is author of It Started Right There: Behind the Twelve Steps and the Self-Help Movement, and is co-author of "AA's Roots in the Oxford Group," a brief account issued to inquirers by A.A. General Services in N ew York. His most recent book is The Spirit of Charles Lindbergh: Another Dimension. He and his wife Mary Louise live in Claremont, California.
Preface
This title revises the earlier study I wrote on the Oxford Group aspect of the spiritual history of early A.A. Almost eight years ago, I set out, at A.A.'s International Convention in Seattle, to learn the specific content of A.A.'s basic spiritual ideas and why they were so successful in the earliest years. In the late 1930's, these ideas produced a seventy-five percent success rate with "medically incurable" alcoholics who really tried to recover. I felt and feel the information is worth investigating in depth and passing on to others. And the quest took me to libraries; archives; A.A. points of origin such as Calvary Church, Calvary House, Hartford Seminary, Princeton University, Stepping Stones in New York, and Dr. Bob's Home in Akron; and to the families and survivors of A.A. 's founders, the Oxford Group's founders, and the many and Oxford Group oldtimers I have met.
Co-founder, Dr. Bob, was the Bible student and reader. Therefore, I started with his family and the books he owned, studied, and circulated. Hence, my first title: Dr. Bob's Library. Then, I discovered that Dr. Bob's wife, Anne, had actually recorded and shared with Bill W., Dr. Bob, the early Akron AAs, and their families the material all were studying in the Bible, Christian literature of the day, and the Oxford Group, of which was an integral part in its formative years in New York and Akron. Hence, my second title, Anne Smith's Journal. At that point, I turned my efforts to the Oxford Group itself. Hence, The Oxford Group & Alcoholics Anonymous, of which this current title is a revision.
But there was need for much more work on the Oxford Group. Many of the Oxford Group people, who were much involved with Frank Buchman, Sam Shoemaker, and Oxford Group activities in the 1930's, are still alive, but growing old. They needed to be contacted and interviewed. There were many more Oxford Group titles of the 1920's and 1930's than I first knew about; and these needed to be dug out and studied. The murky historical details about Sam Shoemaker, Bill Wilson, and early A.A. needed to be unearthed, studied, and correlated with other historical facts-and while Shoemaker's family still survived. And I did these things.
The objective was to learn where the Oxford Group came from, what it believed, the nature and extent of early A.A. 's participation in it, the influence it had on A.A. founders, and the words, phrases, and ideas that reached A.A. from the Oxford Group. And the study needed to be correlated with the material learned on the other aspects of A.A. history. A.A. needs to know where it came from and what its own expressions meant to those for whom it worked so well in the beginning.
I believe this revised title brings a major part of A.A. 's early spiritual history and successes into proper focus. The first chapter summarizes the roots of early A.A. ideas which came from sources other than Dr. Frank Buchman himself-sources such as the Bible, Sam Shoemaker, Anne Smith, the Bible devotionals AAs used, and the Christian literature of the day that they read. You will find much new material on Oxford Group mentors; much more information on the Oxford Group, Shoemaker, and Oxford Group activists; and much new information on Oxford Group meetings, houseparties, teams, and A.A. influence. Finally, we have included a completely new section on the tremendous number of Oxford Group ideas you can find in the Twelve Steps, the Big Book, and the actual language in A.A.
Acknowledgements
We here record our debt of gratitude to the many who made this work possible. We've listed most in our other titles; but our helpful resources keep growing in number.
First and foremost, there is my son, Ken, biblical scholar, computer consultant, communications specialist, editor, and patient co-worker.
Then there are the leaders in the Oxford Group who know their own history and literature and contributed immensely to the author's efforts. They are The Rev. Harry Almond; K. D. Belden; Terry Blair; The Rev. Howard Blake; Charles D. Brodhead; Sydney Cook; Charles Haines; Michael Henderson; James Houck;
T. Willard Hunter; Michael Hutchinson; Garth D. Lean; Dr. Morris Martin; Dr. R. C. Mowat; Eleanor Forde Newton; James
D. Newton; Richard Ruffin; L. Parks Shipley, Sr.; George A. Vondermuhll, Jr.; and Ted Watt.
There are those connected with my research on The Rev. Sam Shoemaker, Jr. They include Dr. Shoemaker's wife, Helen; his daughters, Nickie Shoemaker Haggart, and Sally Shoemaker Robinson; the widow of Shoemaker's former assistant minister, Mrs. W. Irving Harris (a great admirer and associate of Sam Shoemaker's); The Rev. Dr. Thomas Pike, rector at The Parish of Calvary/St. George's; The Rev. Steve Garmey, Vicar at Calvary Church in New York; Reid Carpenter of the Pittsburgh Leadership Foundation; Professor Karen Pia van at the McKeesport Campus of the Pennsylvania State University; The Reverend Dr. Norman Vincent Peale; and David Sack at the Department of Religion in
Princeton University. Also Messrs. Blake, Haines, Houck, Shipley, and Mr. and Mrs. Newton.
Special thanks to: The Reverend Richard L. McCandless, rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Akron; Martha Baker; Dr. John Campbell; Leonard Firestone; Raymond Firestone; Robert Koch; the Thomas Pike Foundation; L. Parks Shipley, Sr.; Mrs. Walter Shipley, and R Brinkley Smithers. Also to Beverly Kitchen Almond; Marjory Zoet Bankson at Faith at Work; The Rev. David Else at the Center for Spirituality in Pittsburgh; the archivist at Shoemaker's Calvary Church in Pittsburgh; Mark Duffy, the archivist at the Episcopal Church Archives in Austin, Texas; The Rev. Paul Everett at The Pittsburgh Experiment; The Rev. Tom Gray at NECAD; Mary Lean at For A Change; The Rev. VernMyersatCECAD; Sarah Mullady; Dennis Wholey, and Dr. Paul Wood at NCADD.
Next there are A.A. leaders, archivists, historians, and scholars who have worked with the author and encouraged him all the way: Nell Wing, A.A. 's first archivist; Frank M., A.A. 's current archivist at General Services in New York; Ray G., archivist at Dr. Bob's Home; Gail L., Akron Founders Day archivist; Paul L., archivist at Stepping Stones, Bill and Lois W.'s home in New York; together with other dedicated archivists, historians, and oldtimers: David A., Mel B., Lyle B., Charlie B., Paul B., Dennis C., Earl H., Mitch K., Mike K., Dr. Ernest Kurtz, Joe McQ., Merton M., Tim M., Charlie P., Bob P., Bill Pittman, Ron R, Bill R, Robert R., Dave S., Sally S., Joe S., George T., Berry W., Charles W., Danny and Denise W., Jim W., Bruce W., and Fay and Bob W.
There are the surviving families of A.A.'s founders: Dr. Bob's son, Robert R Smith, and his wife, Elizabeth, and Dr. Bob's daughter, Sue Smith Windows. Also the children of Henrietta Seiberling-former Congressman, John F. Seiberling, and his sisters, Dorothy Seiberling, and Mary Seiberling Huhn; and Mrs. Dorothy Culver, daughter of T. Henry Williams.
There have been others in A.A. and elsewhere-particularly those in my own family: My daughter-in-law, Cindy, has been of immense help. My younger son, Don, and his wife, Julia, have been very supportive. My Bible fellowship friends and sponsees on Maui have provided much help for this edition: Katy, Melinda, Mark, and Randy. Special thanks go to my sponsor, Henry B.
Many research resources have been provided by Hawaii public libraries in Honolulu, Kahului, Kihei, Makawao, and Wailuku; by the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library at Princeton University; by the public library in Princeton; by the Enoch Pratt library in Baltimore; by the archives at Hartford Seminary; by Calvary Church Archives; by the archives at A.A. General Services, Dr. Bob's Home, Founders Day, and Stepping Stones; and by the seminary libraries at The Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Golden Gate Baptist Seminary in Tiburon, and San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo, California.
For their great support of this particular edition, special thanks again to T. Willlard Hunter, James D. and Eleanor Forde Newton,
L. Parks Shipley, Sr., and L. Parks Shipley, Jr. All have sensed the importance of telling these details now and telling them correctly to the end of making life-changing through the power of God as much of a reality today as it was in the founding years of the Oxford Group and of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Chapter One - The Roots of Early A.A.'s Success Rate
As A.A. moves toward its 65th Anniversary and its International Convention at Minneapolis, in the year 2000, is there any value in looking back to the nature and origins of its spiritual roots and early successes? Can something be learned about how and why early A.A. achieved a seventy-five percent success rate among its first "medically incurable" alcoholics who really tried to recover? Can Twelve Step programs, recovery workers, therapists, public agencies, churches, and clergy work more successfully with those who want to recover today if the facts about the early spiritual sources are known? Can the principles and practices which Dr. Bob, the "Prince of Twelfth Steppers;" his wife, Anne, the "Mother of A.A.;" and the other Akron oldtimers used to help more than 5,000 alcoholics still be applied today? Or, is there a "new," "universal" recovery program that has evolved in Alcoholics Anonymous and other "self help" groups which no longer has use for information as to how A.A. began?
We'll try to provide some evidence on these subjects and let the reader decide on the answers. And, in this particular title in our series, we will focus primarily on what early A.A. took from "A First Century Christian Fellowship" (the Oxford Group )-of which
A.A. was an integral part during its formative period beginning in January, 1933, and lasting until mid-1939.
"Nobody invented Alcoholics Anonymous." "Everything in
A.A. is borrowed from somewhere else." So said Bill Wilson, the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. And he said it frequently.!
Bill believed A.A.'s Twelve Steps were a group of principles ¬spiritual in their nature-which, if practiced as a way of life, could expel the obsession to drink and enable the sufferer to become happily and usefully whole. 2 The basic principles, he said, were borrowed mainly from the fields of religion and medicine.3 He admonished that, as a society, AAs should never become so vain as to suppose they had been the authors and inventors of a new religion. Each of A.A.'s principles, he said, "every one of them, has been borrowed from ancient sources.,,4
This is a book about one of A.A.'s major sources: "A First Century Christian Fellowship," also known as the "Oxford Group," and later as "Moral Re-Armament." The Oxford Group spawned most of A.A.'s spiritual principles-a fact accepted by A.A.'s founders and its "Conference Approved" literature.
About A.A.'s Oxford Group source, Bill Wilson said, "The basic principles which the Oxford Groupers had taught were ancient and universal ones, the common property of mankind."5 And our book describes what the Oxford Group and Bill Wilson both characterized as a "design for living."6 A design for living that really works, said Bill. 7 "God's real 'design for living' ," said a popular American Oxford Group writer in the early A.A. days of the 1930's.8
Our first edition was titled The Oxford Group & Alcoholics Anonymous. We have revised that original material to include what we have learned from five years of additional research. In recent months and years, we have acquired new information and gained new insight about: (1) The Oxford Group itself; (2) The Reverend Sam Shoemaker, one of its major American leaders; (3) The reading and studies of A.A. co-founder, Dr. Bob (Robert H. Smith); (4) The writings and teachings which Dr. Bob's wife, Anne Smith, shared with early AAs and their families; and (5) The large amount of spiritual reading, practices, and activities of the early AAs in their meetings, homes, and personal lives as they developed their practical program of recovery.
A.A.'s Successes-Yesterday and Today
The importance of all early A.A. 's spiritual roots lies in the tremendous success rate the first AAs achieved as they utilized their root sources.
In the early 1930's, "real" alcoholics were often told of their general hopelessness and that they were "medically incurable."9 The noted Swiss psychiatrist, Dr. Carl G. Jung, said to one of
A.A. 's founding friends, Rowland Hazard, that he (Jung) had never seen "one single case (with the mind of a chronic alcoholic such as Hazard's) recover."10 Several early AAs were told by the staff member of a world-renowned hospital, "There is no doubt in my mind that you were 100% hopeless, apart from divine help. ,,11 Despite such imposing obstacles in those early, formative years, Alcoholics Anonymous achieved a remarkable success rate. Its Big Book said, "Of alcoholics who came to A.A. and really tried, 50% got sober at once and remained that way; 25% sobered up after some relapses, and among the remainder, those who stayed on with A.A. showed improvement. "12 In his famous March 1, 1941, Saturday Evening Post article on Alcoholics Anonymous, Jack Alexander wrote:
One-hundred-percent effectiveness with non-psychotic drinkers who sincerely want to quit is claimed by the workers of Alcoholics Anonymous .... As it is impossible to disqualify all borderline applicants, the working percentage of recovery falls below the IOO-percent mark. According to A.A. estimation, fifty percent of the alcoholics taken in hand recover almost immediately; twenty-five percent get well after suffering a relapse or two; and the rest remain doubtful. This rate of success is exceptionally high. Statistics on traditional medical and religious cures are lacking, but it has been informally estimated that they are no more than two or three percent effective on run-of-the¬mine cases
But A.A. 's early success rate was completely dependent upon the spiritual aspects of its program. This was a fact that Bill Wilson learned by comparing the results of his work in New York with the spirituality of A.A. 's program in the midwest. 14 Bill wrote:
I explain this at some length because I want you to be successful with yourself and the people with whom you work. We used to pussyfoot on this spiritual business a great deal more out here [in the New York area] and the result was bad, for our record falls quite a lot short of the performance of Akron and Cleveland, where there are now about 350 alcoholics, many of them sober 2 or 3 years, with less than 20% ever having had any relapse. Out there they have always emphasized the spiritual way of life as the core of our procedure and we have begun to follow suit in New York for the simple reason that our record was only half as good, most of the difficulties being directly attributable to temporizing over what it really takes to fix the drunks, i.e., the spiritual. 15
However, the phenomenal seventy-five or eighty percent success rate in early A.A. was not to be the success rate of A.A. 's later years and certainly not the rate that exists today's former archivist, Frank M., was recently the principal speaker at a large meeting in Marin County, California, at which the author also spoke. Frank estimated that, of those pouring into today, one-third are on their way out of A.A. within their first ninety days of participation. In 1961, ten years after his partner, Dr. Bob, had died, Bill Wilson wrote:
We can also take a fresh look at the problem of "no faith" as it exists right on our doorstep. Though three hundred thousand did recover in the last twenty-five years, maybe half a million more have walked into our midst, and then out again. No doubt some were too sick to make even a start. Others couldn't or wouldn't admit their alcoholism. Still others couldn't face up to their underlying personality defects. Numbers departed for still other reasons. Yet we can't well content ourselves with the view that all these recovery failures were entirely the fault of the newcomers themselves. Perhaps a great many didn't receive the kind of sponsorship they so sorely needed. We didn't communicate when we might have done so. So AAs failed them. Perhaps more often than we think, we still make no contact at depth with those suffering the dilemma of no faith. 16
Charlie P. and Joe Mc.Q., two venerable AAs who conduct A.A. Big Book Seminars around the world, made some telling observations about the early statistics. They said:
If you look at the top of page xx in the Big Book, you'll see just how effective the book was when the fellowship's recovery program and the recovery program described in the book were the same. Page xx explains that AA grew by leaps and bounds.... Half of all the alcoholics who came to AA and seriously and sincerely tried to recover got sober immediately and stayed that way. Another 25 per cent sobered up a little more slowly. So in the beginning, when the fellowship program and the program of the Big Book were the same, it is estimated that 75 % of the people who used the Twelve Step program and really tried to recover from the disease of alcoholism actually did. We wonder what the percentage is today. We doubt seriously if it's 50 percent, let alone 75 per cent. ... The only thing that has really changed is the fellowship itself. I7
Those observations are very conservative, as any currently active can affirm. The author has attended almost two thousand meetings in many states; and the number of people who rise to claim lengthy sobriety on "sobriety calls" is astonishingly low. Sobriety celebrations, or "birthday meetings," or "chip" meetings, as they are sometimes described, start with a request for those with "24 hours" (without a drink) to raise their hand or stand. Then for those with "30 days;" then "60 days;" then "90;" then six months; then a year; and so on. And the deathly silence at most "chip" meetings, which occurs upon the call for those with more than three or four years is appalling. critics have reached similar conclusions. Some have estimated today's success rate at somewhere between 1.3 percent and 10.8 percent. 18 One current state A.A. archivist observed:
One survey question revealed that out of 100 newcomers, only 4 to 6 were able to maintain their newfound sobriety for a year. The vast majority slipped! This was not the case in AA's early years. 19
So, before we look back to "A.A.'s early years," we present this major reason for our study of A.A. 's spiritual origins. And that reason has been articulated over and over by A.A.'s current archivist, Frank M., who quotes Carl Sandburg as follows:
Whenever a civilization or society declines, there is always one condition present. They forgot where they came from. 20
The author is an active, recovered member of A.A. He has sponsored more than seventy men in their recovery. He still works with A.A. newcomers at almost every A.A. meeting he attends. He believes, from his own sustained recovery in A.A., and from observing the life-changes in the men he has sponsored, that active participation in the A.A. Fellowship, a thorough knowledge of A.A.'s Big Book, a diligent effort to take and practice A.A.'s Twelve Steps, and a well-directed program of spiritual growth-based on the spiritual verities the early AAs learned from
A.A. 's root sources-will still (1) expel the obsession to drink, (2) insure recovery, and (3) enable a life that is more than abundant. Now to the roots.
The Varied Sources of A.A.'s Basic Ideas
A.A. 's spiritual roots were several in number. Not all that clear. Not separate and distinct. And not just in the Oxford Group. Hence before we study the Oxford Group as a major source of A.A.'s spiritual ideas, we need to summarize the other sources. Those that have been acknowledged. Those that have been mentioned. Those that have scarcely been mentioned. Those that may have had some impact, but probably not on the original form and content of A.A. 's Twelve Steps and Big Book. And those that have been claimed but, from an historical standpoint, we leave to others to prove or disprove because they lack of relevance to the original program of recovery which still stands virtually unchanged from the form set forth in A.A. 's basic text in the spring of 1939.
For it is the original recovery program, the one with the seventy-five percent success rate, that we will examine here from the perspective of its Oxford Group origins. We have left, and leave, to some of our other titles a thorough exploration and exposition of the other roots. Here we present the following outline of them.
The Bible
You cannot examine any of the sources of A.A. 's spiritual principles without examining the Bible as well.
Bill Wilson said, many times and in many ways, that the spiritual substance of almost all of A.A. 's Twelve Steps came from the teachings of the Reverend Sam Shoemaker, rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in New York.21 Bill called Shoemaker a "co¬founder" of A.AY Shoemaker's long-time friend and assistant minister, the Reverend W. Irving Harris, described Shoemaker as a "Bible Christian." He said Shoemaker's church was the place to learn "How to find God. How to pray. How to read the Bible. How to pass faith on. "23 And Shoemaker himself wrote endlessly on the importance of the Bible and the study of it.24 Hence Bill's frequent, early exposure to Sam Shoemaker, Shoemaker's meetings, and Shoemaker's circle of friends quite simply must have meant exposure to the Bible.
A similar situation existed as to other A.A. sources in the Oxford Group. Dr. Frank N. D. Buchman's biographer described Buchman (the Oxford Group's founder) as being "soaked in the Bible. ,,25 And the Reverend Sherwood Day's pamphlet, The Principles of The Oxford Group, stated, "The principles of 'The Oxford Group' are the principles of the Bible. ,,26
The daily meditation books which were so widely used in early
A.A. were grounded on a Bible verse to be studied each day. 27 The Bible was also the principal subject matter of the other Christian literature that early AAs were reading as they developed their recovery program and sought spiritual growth. 28
But it was the Bible itself-not the books about it-that was the principal focus of early A.A. reading and meetings. It was a major source of A.A. 's ideas. Following are remarks by A.A. 's founders and Conference Approved literature corroborating this fact.
A.A. co-founder, Dr. Bob, modestly said:
It wasn't until 1938 that the teachings and efforts and studies that had been going on were crystallized in the form of the Twelve Steps. I didn't write the Twelve Steps. I had nothing to do with the writing of them. But I think I probably had something to do with them indirectly. After my June 10th episode, Bill came to live at our house and stayed for about three months. There was hardly a night that we didn't sit up until two or three o'clock talking. It would be hard for me to conceive that, during those nightly discussions around our kitchen table, nothing was said that influenced the writing of the Twelve Steps. We already had the basic ideas, though not in terse and tangible form. We got them, as I said, as a result of our study of the Good Book. We must have had them. Since then, we have learned from experience that they are very important in maintaining sobriety. We were maintaining sobriety-therefore, we must have had them. 29
When we started in on Bill D. [A.A. #3], we had no Twelve Steps, either; we had no Traditions. But we were convinced that the answer to our problems was in the Good Book. To some of us older ones, the parts that we found absolutely essential were the Sermon on the Mount, the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians, and the Book of James. 30
Dr. Bob's wife, Anne Ripley Smith, whom Bill Wilson called a "founder" of A.A. and the "Mother of A.A.," kept a journal from 1933 to 1939 in which she recorded the spiritual ideas the founders were then studying.3! Anne frequently shared the contents of this journal with the early AAs and their families who came to the birthplace of A.A. at the Smith home in Akron.32 Both Anne and Dr. Bob read the Bible daily; and Anne shared the following from her journal with those she and Dr. Bob helped:
Of course the Bible ought to be the main Source Book of all. No day ought to pass without reading it. 33
Quoting Bill Wilson as to Anne's emphasis on Scripture reading,
A.A. 's DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers said:
"For the next three months, 1 lived with these two wonderful people," Bill said. "I shall always believe they gave me more than 1 ever brought them." Each morning, there was a devotion, he recalled. After a long silence, in which they awaited inspiration and guidance, Anne would read the Bible. "James was our favorite," he said. "Reading from her chair in the corner, she would softly conclude, 'Faith without works is dead. '" This was
a favorite quotation of Anne's, much as the Book of James was a favorite with early A.A. 's-so much so that "The James Club" was favored by some as a name for the Fellowship. 34
Wilson also has been quoted as stating:
We much favored the Apostle James. The definition of love in Corinthians also played a great part in our discussions. 35
Wilson made some remarks about himself which illustrated the importance to him of the Bible as a source. He said:
[During an interview of T. Henry and Clarace Williams:] I learned a great deal from you people, from the Smiths themselves, and from Henrietta [Seiberling]. I hadn't looked into the Bible, up to this time, at all. You see, I had the [conversion] experience first and then this rushing around to help drunks and nothing happened. 36
For a great many of us have taken to reading the Bible. It could not have been presented at first, but sooner or later in his second, third, or fourth year, the A.A. will be found reading the Bible quite as often-or more-as he will a standard psychological work.3?
A.A.'s Conference Approved Literature said this:
This [from 1935 forward] was the beginning of A.A.'s "flying¬ blind period." They had the Bible, and they had the precepts of the Oxford Group. They also had their own instincts. They were working, or working out, the A.A. program-the Twelve Steps-without quite knowing how they were doing it. 38
The Bible was stressed as reading material, of course.39
Dr. Bob was the first group leader I heard refer simply and without ostentation to God. He cited the Sermon on the Mount as containing the underlying spiritual philosophy of A.A.40
Hence many Bible words, phrases, and ideas almost inevitably found their way directly into A.A.'s Big Book and other literature.41
Perhaps symbolic of this major A.A. source is the fact that Dr. Bob's own Bible is still, to this very day, brought to the podium of every meeting of A.A. 's first group, the King School Group in Akron. And it there remains throughout the meeting-a tradition the author personally observed when he attended the King School Group's meeting with Dr. Bob's daughter. 42
The Reverend Samuel Moor Shoemaker, Jr.
Our own research has confirmed what Bill Wilson often said, but never really described in depth. The Reverend Canon Samuel
Moor Shoemaker, Jr., D. D., S. T. D., rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in New York City, was a major source of the spiritual ideas incorporated into A.A. 's Twelve Steps and Big Book.
Early on in our investigation, it had seemed to us that Bill Wilson credited Sam Shoemaker as a major source of A.A. ideas more to deflect attention from the Oxford Group than to pinpoint Shoemaker as the principal source of those ideas. Thus A.A. 's own Conference Approved biography of Wilson had said:
While Bill was always generous in recognizing A.A. 's debt to the Oxford Group, he would always tie the Oxford Group connection to Dr. Shoemaker. 43
And we can see from some of the following statements by Bill just how this approach was accomplished.
However, our research for New Light on Alcoholism: The A.A. Legacy from Sam Shoemaker showed the direct link between Sam Shoemaker, Bill Wilson, and the ideas developed in early A.A. before its Big Book and Twelve Steps were written.44 Our investigation of Shoemaker's writing, his correspondence with Bill Wilson in the 1930's, and his personal journals, which were made available to us by his daughters, established a very close teacher¬student relationship.
And that relationship was initiated by Bill; for Bill assisted Sam Shoemaker in Shoemaker's work with drunks from the earliest days of Bill's sobriety.45 Shoemaker's personal journals recorded that Bill met and worked with Shoemaker from late December of 1934 to at least 1936.46 Later in the 1930's, Bill met with
Shoemaker in Shoemaker's book-lined study and often discussed Christian principles relevant to A.A.47 Bill participated in an Oxford Group businessmen's team in New York of which Shoemaker was the principal leader. 48 There were many other early Shoemaker-Wilson-A.A. links; and the examination of all of Shoemaker's writings shows the close parallels between their contents and the writings and ideas of Bill Wilson. A fact which commanded the attention of at least one earlier researcher. 49
Shoemaker himself said:
Bill Wilson found his spiritual change in this House [Calvary House adjacent to Shoemaker's church in New York City] when the Oxford Group was at work here many years ago. I have had the closest touch with Bill from that day to this.50
It happens that I have watched the unfolding of this movement [the fellowship of A.A.] with more than usual interest, for its real founder and guiding spirit, Bill W., found his initial spiritual answer at Calvary Church in New York, when I was rector there, in 1935.51
I never forgot that I was one of those who read the first mimeographed copy of the first book [Alcoholics Anonymous]-I
am afraid with considerable skepticism, for I was then under the shadow of the old group feeling that unless a thing were done directly under the auspices of the group, it was as good as not done at all. 52
And we will here list two of Bill's many tributes to Shoemaker which seem to us, at this point in our research, to have been well corroborated by the evidence we found. Bill said:
The Twelve Steps of A.A. simply represented an attempted to state in more detail, breadth, and depth, what we had been taught-primarily by you [Sam Shoemaker]. Without this, there could have been nothing-nothing at all.... Though I wish the "co-founder" tag had never been hitched to any of us, I have no hesitancy in adding your name to the list!53
Where did early AAs find the material for the remaining ten Steps? Where did we learn about moral inventory, amends for harm done, turning our wills and lives over to God? Where did we learn about meditation and prayer and all the rest of it? The spiritual substance of our remaining ten Steps came straight from Dr. Bob's and my own early association with the Oxford Groups, as they were then led in America by that Episcopal rector, Dr. Samuel Shoemaker [emphasis added].54
The latter remark confirms Bill's accreditation of Shoemaker; but it also points to the Oxford Group link about which we shall have much to say in a moment and then in detail throughout the rest of this, our study of "The Oxford Group & Alcoholics Anonymous."
Meditation Books, Quiet Time and God's Guidance
The student of early A.A. 's spiritual history who merely looks to the Bible, to the Oxford Group, to Bill Wilson's friends in the clergy, and to Christian literature of the 1930' s will miss an important part of the picture.
Early AAs believed they could be and were directly guided by God. They believed they could receive definite, accurate information from God. They had many guidance tools to help them on their way; and their convictions can still be found firmly embedded in the language of A.A. 's Eleventh Step and the Big Book's discussion of that step. The Eleventh Step states:
Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
The very titles of the guidance books used by early AAs give strong indication of the process they employed. Sam Shoemaker's parish magazine, The Calvary Evangel, contained an "Oxford Group Literature List" before, during, and after the years from 1933 to 1939. It recommended a tiny pamphlet by Hallen Viney, titled, How Do I Begin ?55 The Reverend Howard J. Rose wrote an equally tiny pamphlet titled The Quiet Time, and it was also included in Calvary's recommended literature list.56 Eleanor Napier Forde had, in 1930, written for the Oxford Group The Guidance of God; and Miss Forde's thoughts were quoted by Dr. Bob's wife in her Journal.57 Burnett Hillman Streeter, an Oxford theologian, had written The God Who Speaks. 58 Cecil Rose wrote
When Man Listens. 59 Jack Winslow wrote an article for The Calvary Evangel, titled "Vital Touch with God: How to Carry on Adequate Devotional Life;" and he also wrote When I Awake. 60 And Donald W. Carruthers wrote a pamphlet often mentioned by Sam Shoemaker and titled How to Find Reality in Your Morning Devotions. 61
As we cover in much more detail later, early AAs usually observed "Quiet Time," which included morning Bible study, reading from a page of a daily Bible devotional, "two-way" prayer (which meant asking God for guidance and listening for His message), writing down the thoughts received, and "checking" (a procedure we'll discuss in some detail and which, at times, was much criticized in some early A.A. quarters).
In The Akron Genesis of Alcoholics Anonymous, we covered just how early AAs observed Quiet Time and utilized Bible study, meditation books, two-way prayer, notebooks, and so on. 62 The AAs sought and felt they received information from God; and the information they received cannot directly be verified in our study.
For their assistance, early AAs employed a number of daily Bible devotionals. Most contained a verse for study, some references to other Bible verses, a meditation thought, and a prayer. The principal devotionals were the Methodist quarterly known as The Upper Room, Oswald Chambers' My Utmost for His Highest, Mary Wilder Tileston's Daily Strength for Daily Needs, and Victorious Living by E. Stanley Jones. 63 None of this literature was "Oxford Group" or "Shoemaker," though some of it was used by both sources.
The exact impact of these meditation books, of Quiet Time, and of God's direct guidance is seldom discussed in A.A. history studies. Yet A.A. 's Steps and literature contain recognizable evidence of early meditation, Quiet Time, and guidance ideas. And we have treated and will treat these important items at length in other titles.
Anne Smith's Journal: 1933-1939
As we've said, Bill Wilson frequently called Dr. Bob's wife, Anne Ripley Smith, the "Mother of A.A." On her death, Bill added, "In the full sense of the word, she was one of the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous."64 He often spoke of morning devotions at the Smith home, during which Anne read to Bill and Dr. Bob from the "Good Book. ,,65 He said that, in the summer of 1935, when he was living with Dr. Bob and Anne, "Anne and Henrietta infused much needed spirituality into Bob and me. "66
Yet with all these accolades directed at Anne Smith, a vital, detailed historical document, which contains sixty-four pages of information about Anne and her contribution, has lain virtually unnoticed for years. That source is the spiritual journal Anne compiled in the years between 1933 and 1939 and read to AAs and their families as those people came to A.A. 's Akron birthplace for "spiritual pablum. "67 This set of notes was referred to in a footnote of Dr. Ernest Kurtz's history of Alcoholics Anonymous.68 It was mentioned in a title about Sister Ignatia, who worked with Dr. Bob in his later A.A. years.69 And Dr.
Bob's daughter, Sue Smith Windows, touched on the importance of Anne's Journal in the story Sue and her brother wrote about their own lives. 70 But the full significance of this journal was not apparent to us until a copy of it was made available to us by A.A. General Services in New York through the good offices of Dr. Bob's daughter.
Even then, our first discussion of the journal bought into the idea that it was an "Oxford Group" workbook or notebook.71 Later, however, many readers asked us for more material on what Anne herself had actually said. We again reviewed the contents of the sixty-four page journal; and we saw from a new perspective how much of Anne's thinking, words, and language had, infact, been infused into Bill and Dr. Bob and had in fact found their way into the Twelve Steps and Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Our revised edition of the Anne Smith notes and journal tells the full story. 72 We will not here repeat the material in that title. Suffice it to say, however, that Anne's words on the unmanageable life, lack of power, God "as you know Him," "one day at a time," self-examination, confession, conviction, conversion, restitution, the guidance of God, the "spiritual experience," passing on the message, and the practice of spiritual principles can be found throughout her journal and throughout A.A. language and literature.
Anne's journal, therefore, seems to us to be a major A.A. spiritual root which Anne herself culled from the Bible, the Oxford Group, the daily devotionals, the Shoemaker books, Christian literature, and her own work with alcoholics and their families. It contains material she directly passed on to others in the Smith home and elsewhere in A.A. 's earliest formative days. Small wonder, then, that Bill Wilson referred to her as the "Mother of A.A." and a "co-founder. "73
Other Possible Sources
Some AAs have believed their spiritual ideas can be found in non¬Biblical and non-Christian sources. Yet even if that were the case, those were not the roots with which the founders worked or which they mentioned. There are, however, sources which did contribute ideas and which are not among those we've mentioned, and which do not involve the Oxford Group.
The first and most significant source involves the many Christian books, other than Oxford Group and Shoemaker books, which were read by early AAs.74 Some of the titles were studied by Dr. Bob, Anne Smith, Henrietta Seiberling, and Mr. and Mrs.
T. Henry Williams. Their probable influence lies not alone in the fact that they were read and circulated in early A.A., but in the fact that the Oxford Group people themselves did not have much of their own literature available in the formative years of A.A. There were a number of Sam Shoemaker books in the 1920's and early 1930's, but other significant Oxford Group books were not yet numerous in 1935. Hence Oxford Group adherents were themselves reading and "swapping" many other Christian titles, books by Oswald Chambers and other Christian writers of that day.
The most widely read authors [read by Oxford Group people and/or early AAs] were: James Allen, Oswald Chambers, Glenn Clark, Henry Drummond, Harry Emerson Fosdick, E. Stanley Jones, Toyohiko Kagawa, Charles Sheldon, and Leslie D.
Weatherhead. 75 Some AAs also read the earlier Christian writers, St. Augustine, aKempis, and Brother Lawrence, as well as works by writers on the life of Jesus Christ. 76
A second possible source of A.A. ideas seems to us to have been given far too much attention. That source was Emmet Fox.77 Emmet Fox was not, as many AAs believe today, a "member" of the Oxford Group; nor was Fox, despite the belief of some, in any way connected with the Oxford Group. Fox's ideas were, in fact, very contrary to those of Shoemaker, the Oxford Group, and the other Christian writers early AAs studied. 78 Both Dr. Bob and Bill Wilson studied or discussed Emmet Fox's books, but we found no mention of them in Anne Smith's Journal or during our investigation of Henrietta Seiberling's reading and beliefs. In other words, there was interest in Fox's writings, but not necessarily input from them. Many have possibly confused the "Sermon on the Mount," about which Dr. Bob spoke so much, and which can be found in Matthew, Chapters 5 to 7 of the Bible, with the book by Emmet Fox, The Sermon on the Mount. 79
To be sure, AAs read Fox's books.80 But they also read the Sermon on the Mount in the Bible. However, Dr. Bob studied a number of books on Jesus's Sermon on the Mount, including particularly those by Oswald Chambers, Glenn Clark, Emmet Fox, and E. Stanley Jones. 8l
Emmet Fox did not believe in the Biblical idea of salvation, or in the necessity of a decision to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and
Savior. 82 Yet these concepts were very much a part of early A.A. and Oxford Group-Shoemaker thinking. 83 We therefore believe that such influence as Fox may have had occurred after the battle over Big Book language which resulted in the elimination from the Big Book of all significant, specific mention of the Bible, Jesus Christ, and Christianity. 84
Igor Sikorsky, Jr., attempted to make the case that Fox was one of A.A. 's "Godparents. ,,85 But Sikorsky cited no authority for any of the influence he attributed to Fox. Sikorsky's evidence seems to rest on the fact that the mother of one of Bill Wilson's early alcoholic co-workers was also Emmet Fox's secretary. The problem is that Sikorsky was discussing a period after the writing and publication of A.A.'s Big Book.
A.A. historian Mel B. wrote of the influence of Fox on
A.A.86 Mel said: (1) Fox "influenced the pioneering AAs," (2) "the second AA member from Detroit, often mentioned the inspiration he received from Fox's book when he started his recovery in 1938," and (3) "The Sermon on the Mount became one of the society's most useful guides until the publication of Alcoholics Anonymous in 1939. ,,87 Mel added, "Bill Wilson freely acknowledged the importance of the book to AA ...."88 Though this is strong language, we do not find the evidence in A.A.'s Big Book that backs up Fox's alleged influence.
That Fox has had an impact through the years seems undeniable. The author's own observations in A.A. establish that Fox's books are often read and that they are occasionally quoted in A.A. That Fox and his "new thought" ideas had any significant impact on A.A. 's Twelve Steps and Big Book is, however, a far more speculative and probably unproven idea.
We have found one expression which conforms to Fox's thinking. Fox said the Bible "teaches that every man or woman, no matter how steeped in evil and uncleanness, has always direct access to an all-loving, all-powerful Father-God, who will forgive him, and supply His own strength to him to enable him to find himself again; and unto seventy times seven if need be. "89 Coupled with Fox's assertion that there is no plan of salvation in the Bible, this establishes there is no need for accepting Jesus Christ as personal Lord and Savior or for being born again in the Biblical sense. And note that page 28 of the Big Book states, "[A]ll of us, whatever our race, creed, or color are children of a living Creator with whom we may form a relationship upon simple and understandable terms as soon as we are willing and honest enough to try." This idea seems popular in today' s A. A.; and its appeal seems validated when AAs join together at the end of their meetings and commence the prayer, "Our Father."
But that was not the A.A. idea when Bill Wilson made a decision for Christ at Calvary Mission in 1934, when Bill and others in New York had their newcomers "give their lives to God," or when the alcoholic squad of the Oxford Group in Akron had newcomers "make surrender" in the years between 1935 and 1939.
The Oxford Group Roots Confirmed
In his last major address to A.A., Dr. Bob described his own and Bill's Oxford Group beginnings as follows:
We had both been associated with the Oxford Group, Bill in New York for five months, and I in Akron, for two and a half years.
Bill had acquired their idea of service. I had not, but I had done an immense amount of reading they had recommended. 90
Bill's biographer had the following to say about what Bill and Bob did with these roots:
They had both wound up trying to give shape and meaning to their lives by adhering to the excruciatingly high standards of the Oxford Group.91
All four of them [Bill and Lois Wilson and Bob and Anne Smith] were agreed that their efforts to find a practical program of recovery must be given top priority. They were agreed, but it was not an easy project. . . . But fortunately again-or so Bill and Bob believed at the time-there was the Oxford Group with its dynamic course of action all mapped out. They tried to base everything they did, every step they took toward formulating their program, on Oxford Group principles. And they both worked. They went daily to City Hospital, talked to drunks, brought some hopeful prospects back to live with them on Ardmore Avenue. They never stopped, and there were heady moments when their wildest hopes seemed justified.92
As Bill himself said, concerning this earliest trial and error period, he and Dr. Bob were tearing around, helping drunks, giving them "the Towns [Hospital] treatment," as to which Bill added, "That plus more oxidizing [probably short for "Oxfordizing"] has been magical. ,,93 By 1940, Bill had developed a laundry list of reasons why he felt the Oxford Group presentation had to be abandoned. But he prefaced his statements with the following:
I am always glad to say privately that some of the Oxford Group presentation and emphasis upon the Christian message saved my life. 94
Bill later admitted that he had greatly feared Roman Catholic Critics, as far as disclosing Oxford Group programs was concerned.95 In his 1940 Oxford Group critique, Bill listed a bill of particulars as to Oxford Group ideas which would not work. He specified some eight Oxford Group "attitudes" which he felt had required abandonment. 96 Then, despite his statement that he owed a "very real debt of gratitude to the Oxford Group," Bill pointed to a "vast and sometimes unreasoning prejudice [that] exists all over this country against the O.G. and its successor M.R.A." This, he said, was causing him to limit his public acknowledgement of the Oxford Group debt. 97
Writing to Jack Alexander on January 6, 1941, about Alexander's proposed Saturday Evening Post article on A.A., Bill said, concerning "the Oxford Group situation":
I would give anything if you could avoid mentioning the matter at all, but if it must be noted I'm quite anxious to avoid words carrying criticism or sting. After all we owe our lives to the group.
In 1943, Bill said:
While I shall be eternally grateful to the Oxford Group for my own recovery, I cannot see the advantage of raising unnecessary prejudice.98
By 1955, Bill had begun to change his tune. He said at A.A.'s St. Louis Convention:
The basic principles which the Oxford Groupers had taught were ancient and universal ones, the common property of mankind. Certain of the former O.G. attitudes and applications had proved unsuited to A.A.'s purpose, and Sam's own conviction about these lesser aspects of the Oxford Groups had later changed and become more like our A.A. views of today. But the important thing is this: the early A.A. got its ideas of self-examination, acknowledgment of character defects, restitution for harm done, and working with others straight from the Oxford Groups and directly from Sam Shoemaker, their former leader in America, and from nowhere else. 99
The Foreword to the Second Edition of the Big Book added a bit more to this picture, saying:
Though he [Bill Wilson] could not accept all the tenets of the Oxford Groups, he was convinced of the need for moral inventory, confession of personality defects, restitution to those harmed, helpfulness to others, and the necessity of belief in and dependence upon God [emphasis addedVoo
Finally, in 1960, as we've previously written, Bill broadened his Oxford Group acknowledgement much further, stating that the spiritual substance of almost all the steps came from his and Dr. Bob's earlier association with the Oxford Group. Bill pointed out that AAs had learned about moral inventory, amends for harm done, turning wills and lives over to God, meditation and prayer "and all the rest of it" from the Oxford Group.lS!
A month after Oxford Group founder, Frank Buchman, died in 1961, Bill finally said, "Now that Frank Buchman is gone and I realize more than ever what we owe to him, I wish I had sought him out in recent years to tell him of our appreciation. ,,102
When the time came for A.A.'s own "official" historians to report on Bill Wilson's utilization of Oxford Group principles and practices, they cast fear of "unnecessary prejudice" aside. In A.A.'s Conference Approved biography of Bill, the authors made observations like these:
Criticism and rejection notwithstanding, Lois and Bill did not become immediately disillusioned with the Oxford Group or with its principles, from which Bill borrowed freely [emphasis added].103
Bill was about to write the famous fifth chapter [of the Big Book], "How It Works." The basic material for the chapter was the word-of-mouth program that Bill had been talking ever since his own recovery. It was heavy with Oxford Group principles . . . . [emphasis addedV04
Bill's first three steps were culled from his reading of James, the teachings of Sam Shoemaker, and those of the Oxford Group [emphasis added]. 105
We believe that when the reader has studied our book, he or she will realize precisely how, and to what a great extent Bill did in fact "borrow freely" and write a Big Book that was "heavy with Oxford Group principles."