Filed under: news
The second issue of 24 Newsletter has arrived at Stepstudy HQ, and it is a certified Good Read.
For those not familiar with the publication, 24 Newsletter is produced by the folks on East Ridge, an intentional community founded by AA old-timer and editor of the 12×12 Tom Powers.
Here’s a bit to whet your appetite:
“Many recoveries are never interrupted. They just proceed on and on to deeper degrees of sanity and reach a point of real spiritual awakening. It is possible, however, to take this Program and twist it. There are a few of us who do not value what is coming to us, who do not see the nature of this gift even if it is in our laps. I took my early growth in AA as an indication that I was really a pretty smart guy. I got all renewed in the smart-guy department and I began to take the parts of the Program I liked and leave out the parts I didn’t like. And this progressed to the point where the part of the Program that I didn’t like was the sobriety part.”
(Tom Powers, describing his relapse in Sanity—the Heart of the Program)
If you’d like to read more, just head over to alladdictsanonymous.org and click the top left link to sign up for the newsletter.
Filed under: news
“Becoming Recovered 1.0″ has been added to the downloads page. This guide to the Twelve Steps has been popular on the site, and so will be offered at least until a full revision can be made available.
Of interest on the side bar is a new link. The virtual community has managed to piece together a well researched and informative wiki on the Oxford Group. Thus, OGwiki has been added to stepstudy’s Recommended list.
Filed under: news
We’re a bit late to relate this news, but thought it worth mentioning anyway. AA historian Glenn Chesnut of hindsfoot.org has posted the entire manuscript of his book God and Spirituality: Philosophical Essays on his site for free downloading. While the subject matter may not be directly related to AA history, the table of contents is still quite promising. His essay on the “X-factor” of conversion is of particular interest. Check it out. (link)
Filed under: audio/video
Here’s a section of a 1946 newsreel that was made by March of Times about problem drinking. The full reel had sections on the Temperance movement and the dangers of drunk driving. It also featured an appearance by Dr. E.M. Jellinek (wiki) and profiled the Yale studies on alcoholism.
“Fred”, who appears in this section of the reel, also appeared in earlier sections, which dramatized his drinking exploits. The footage is available from HBO’s archives. You can see the outline for the clips on this “episode” of MOT here. (You’ll have to scroll down more than half way to get to MOT VOL Twelve 12.11)
Filed under: audio/video
Noah Levine, author of Dharma Punx, has posted a series of talks/discussions on the relationship between Buddhist principles and the Twelve Steps. Levine draws on his personal experience as a Buddhist in recovery to explain the connection between the two.
Follow this link and scroll down until you find the talks titled “Buddhism & Recovery.”
For a quick sample, here is Levine’s talk on Step One:
Buddhism & Recovery: Step 1
(Thanks to Piers K. for the link!)
Filed under: news
Welcome to the new (and hopefully improved) stepstudy.org! You’ll find that almost all of the material from the original stepstudy is here, minus one significant item.
Becoming Recovered is currently unavailable because we are finally working on a second draft.
Thanks for visiting.
Keep coming back.
-James R.
Filed under: audio/video
American acceptance and understanding of Twelve Step culture can be measured by depictions of recovery in the popular media. AA has a long history with news and entertainment industry. One early representation of Twelve Step recovery came in the from of a Warner Brothers Cartoon, “Birds Anonymous.” This won an Oscar in 1958 for best animated short, and it’s well worth watching to get a sense of what the popular understanding of AA was at that time.
Enjoy.
Filed under: articles | Tags: christianity, henry drummond, oxford group, oxford group predecessors, soul surgery
Here we present an essay by Henry Drummond, one of the theologians, who (like F.B. Meyer) was an inspiration to Frank Buchman and other Oxford Groupers. Buchman said about “Spiritual Diagnosis” that it was the inspiration for Soul Surgery (see downloads).
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The single most important issue in Twelve Step history is that of early AA’s relationship to Evangelical Christianity by way of the Oxford Group. The best book on this subject to date has been published by Hindsfoot Foundation: Changed By Grace: V.C. Kitchen, the Oxford Group, and A.A. Author Glenn F. Chesnut has done a marvelous job of placing early AA in the context of the Evangelical movement as it has developed over the last three centuries.
Filed under: articles | Tags: big book, god stuff, sponsorship, twelve step practice
“The Twelve Steps are a design to change you. They also bring you every Step closer to God.”
Colby B.
HISTORY AND CONTEXT
Alcoholics Anonymous, which earned the moniker “the Big Book” due to the unwieldy size of its first edition, was not used as a guide to recovery from alcoholism until some years after its publication in Cleveland, where a member of the fellowship named Clarence S. began using the book as a way of educating newcomers. In Cleveland, meetings of this now growing fellowship were the first to call themselves Alcoholics Anonymous. Clarence S. and the AA members in Cleveland modeled a style of one-on-one sponsorship in which a member of the fellowship experienced in the Twelve Step program would take a “pigeon,” or newcomer, under his wing, help him adjust to sobriety, and coach him through the Twelve Steps. This meant that the sponsor and newcomer would meet and work their way through the Big Book together, page by page. “Big Book sponsorship” was a style of AA unique to Cleveland at that time, and has since become a vocal minority movement within the fellowship.
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