A.A. and the Twelve Steps
A.A. History
By Dick B.
© 2012 Anonymous. All
rights reserved
Would you like to learn about A.A. its Twelve Steps? Would
you like make A.A. history and the roots of A.A. a part of your study? Would
you like to know what A.A. “founder” Rev. Samuel Shoemaker said about A.A. and
the Twelve Steps? If you would, then Courage
to Change by Bill Pittman and Dick B. is the first place to turn. http://www.amazon.com/Courage-To-Change-Christian-Twelve-Step/dp/1568382456.
In fact, Courage to Change: The Christian
Roots of the Twelve-Step Movement is one of earliest source books for the
study of A.A. history, reporting the role of A.A. founder Bill Wilson and of the
man Bill Wilson dubbed a “cofounder” of A.A., as a means for understanding A.A.
and the Twelve Steps.
There are other, later, A.A. history books by author Dick B.
that add to the A.A. and study groups scene. And we will talk about them in a
moment.
In Courage to Change,
Bill Pittman and Dick B. crafted a simple, A.A.-founder-related presentation of
each of the Twelve Steps—covering the Steps one by one. Rev. Samuel M.
Shoemaker was Rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in New York. His church was in
charge of Calvary Mission where A.A. founder Bill Wilson went to the altar and
made his decision for Jesus Christ about December 7, 1934. Shoemaker was the
chief American lieutenant of the Oxford Group which laid out the biblical
principles and the practical program of action that Bill codified in the A.A.
Big Book and its Twelve Steps. So much so, that Bill Wilson asked Rev.
Shoemaker to write the Twelve Steps, but Shoemaker declined. However, A.A. “founder”
Shoemaker did work with Bill Wilson in Shoemaker’s book-lined study at Calvary
House as Bill was developing the language of A.A.’s 12 Steps contained in the
book Alcoholics Anonymous published
April 10, 1939.
Sam Shoemaker was known as “a Bible-Christian.” His 30-plus
books, articles, sermons, and efforts at Calvary Church regularly presented key
ideas long before A.A. was founded in June 1935 that eventually made their way
into A.A. Shoemaker frequently cited a Bible verse that supported a Step idea.
In describing what a Step meant and how to take it, Shoemaker would cite a
Bible verse and then use the very language for that Step that one can find in
both Shoemaker’s words and in the words of Bill Wilson.
In addition to laying out each Step and the correlative
language from the Bible and Shoemaker, Pittman and Dick B. also included two
vitally-important and useful articles by Shoemaker which were directly related
to A.A. and the Twelve Steps. The first was the “Those Twelve Steps as I
Understand Them.” The second was “What the Church Can Learn from Alcoholics
Anonymous.”
Dick B. went on to write and publish three additional books
about A.A. and the Twelve Steps. Each adds more A.A. history specifics to the
ideas that Bill Wilson and Rev. Shoemaker formulated in the actual Steps. The
first title is Dick B., New Light on
Alcoholism: God, Sam Shoemaker, and A.A. Pittsburgh ed.: www.dickb.com/newlight.shtml.
The second title is Dick B., Twelve Steps
for You: www.dickb.com/12StepsforYou.shtml.
The third is By the Power of God: www.dickb.com/powerofgod.shtml
There are several things a reader can do to enhance his
understanding of the Twelve Steps, his knowledge about A.A. and the Twelve
Steps, and his ability to “take” the Twelve Steps and take a newcomer through
each Step. The first is to look at the 12 suggested Steps as they are spelled
out in the Big Book. The second is to look for the specific instructions the
Big Book provides for taking each Step (sometimes a bit murky or actually
missing in details). The third is to read two A.A. General Service
Conference-approved books—Alcoholics
Anonymous Comes of Age by Bill Wilson and The Language of the Heart—where Bill Wilson specifically attributes
at least 10 of the 12 Steps to Shoemaker. The fourth is to read Bill Pittman
and Dick B., Courage to Change. Finally,
to read the three Dick B. books cited above and particularly the explanation of
Shoemaker’s part in each Step.
Courage to Change
is now available in Kindle format from Amazon.com: http://goo.gl/rItYA.
Good hunting!
Gloria
Deo
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