Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is a global fellowship founded in 1935 by Bill Wilson (known as Bill W.) and Robert Smith (known as Dr. Bob), and has since grown to be worldwide.
Alcoholism in the 1700s and 1800s Nearly two centuries before the advent of Alcoholics Anonymous, John Wesley established Methodist penitent bands, which were organized on Saturday nights, the evening on which members of these small groups were most tempted to frequent alehouses. The hymns and teaching provided during the penitent band meetings addressed the issues that members faced, often alcoholism. As a result, penitent bands have often been compared to Alcoholics Anonymous in scholarly discourse.
Temperance Movement and Prohibition
Alcoholism in the 1930s In post-Prohibition 1930s America, it was common to perceive alcoholism as a moral failing, and the medical profession standards of the time treated it as a condition that was likely incurable and lethal. Those without financial resources found help through state hospitals, the Salvation Army, or other charitable societies and religious groups. Those who could afford psychiatrists or hospitals were subjected to a treatment with barbiturate and belladonna known as "purge and puke" or were left in long-term asylum treatment. Despite being aware of medical issues associated with alcoholism, doctors and scientists dismissed them. Skepticism of earlier 20th century claims about the dangers of alcohol arose, minimizing the reality of alcohol-related health problems. Moreover, alcohol-related diseases were not published during this time. Post-prohibition scientists allegedly were eager to separate themselves from the period of temperance. The legislature of Virginia burned scientific journals that condoned moderate drinking to distance themselves from the "wet-dry debate".
The Oxford Group The Oxford Group was a Christian fellowship founded by American Christian missionary Frank Buchman. Buchman was a minister, originally Lutheran, then Evangelical, who had a conversion experience in 1908 in a chapel in Keswick, England, the revival center of the Higher Life movement. As a result of that experience, he founded a movement named A First Century Christian Fellowship in 1921. This came to be known as the Oxford Group by 1928. Buchman summarized the Oxford Group philosophy in a few sentences: "All people are sinners"; "All sinners can be changed"; "Confession is a prerequisite to change"; "The changed person can access God directly"; "Miracles are again possible"; and "The changed person must change others." The practices they utilized were called the five C's:
Confidence Confession Conviction Conversion Continuance Their standard of morality was the Four Absolutes – a summary of the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount:
Absolute-Honesty Absolute-Purity Absolute-Unselfishness Absolute-Love In his search for relief from his alcoholism, Bill Wilson, one of the two co-founders of AA, joined The Oxford Group and learned its teachings. While Wilson later broke from The Oxford Group, he based the structure of Alcoholics Anonymous and many of the ideas that formed the foundation of AA's suggested Twelve-Step Program on the teachings of the Oxford Group. Later in life, Bill Wilson gave credit to the Oxford Group for saving his life. An Oxford Group understanding of the human condition is evident in Wilson's formulation of the dilemma of the alcoholic; Oxford Group program of recovery and influences of Oxford Group evangelism still can be detected in key practices of Alcoholics Anonymous. The Oxford Group writers sometimes treated sin as a disease. They believed that sin was "anything that stood between the individual and God". Sin frustrated "God's plan" for oneself, and selfishness and self-centeredness were considered the key problems. Therefore, if one could "surrender one's ego to God", sin would go with it. In early AA, Wilson spoke of sin and the need for a complete surrender to God. The Oxford Group also prided itself on being able to help troubled persons at any time. AA gained an early warrant from the Oxford Group for the concept that disease could be spiritual, but it broadened the diagnosis to include the physical and psychological. In 1955, Wilson wrote: "The early AA got its ideas of self-examination, acknowledgment of character defects, restitution for harm done, and working with others straight from the Oxford Group and directly from Sam Shoemaker, their former leader in America, and from nowhere else." According to Mercadante, however, the AA concept of powerlessness over alcohol departs significantly from Oxford Group belief. In AA, the bondage of an addictive disease cannot be cured, and the Oxford Group stressed the possibility of complete victory over sin.
How Alcoholics Connected with the Oxford Group Rowland Hazard In 1926, Rowland Hazard, an American business executive, went to Zurich, Switzerland, to seek treatment for alcoholism with psychiatrist Carl Jung. When Hazard ended treatment with Jung after about a year, and came back to the US, he soon resumed drinking, and returned to Jung in Zurich for further treatment. Jung told Hazard that his case was nearly hopeless (as with other alcoholics) and that his only hope might be a "spiritual conversion" with a "religious group". Back in America, Hazard went to the Oxford Group, whose teachings were eventually the source of such AA concepts as "meetings" and "sharing" (public confession), making "restitution", "rigorous honesty" and "surrendering one's will and life to God's care". Hazard underwent a spiritual conversion" with the help of the Group and began to experience the liberation from drink he was seeking. He became converted to a lifetime of sobriety while on a train ride from New York to Detroit after reading For Sinners Only by Oxford Group member AJ Russell. Ebby Thacher Members of the group introduced Hazard to Ebby Thacher. Hazard brought Thacher to the Calvary Rescue Mission, led by Oxford Group leader Sam Shoemaker. Over the years, the mission had helped over 200,000 needy people. Thacher also attained periodic sobriety in later years and died sober. Bill Wilson In keeping with the Oxford Group teaching that a new convert must win other converts to preserve his own conversion experience, Thacher contacted his old friend Bill Wilson, whom he knew had a drinking problem.
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