Book Description

The much-awaited work of A.A. Historian Dick B. on the origins of each of the Twelve Steps. First and foremost a history of each step. How each of A.A.'s co-founders contributed to each of the Steps. It looks at the original Akron A.A. program which had no "Steps" and took its basic ideas from the Bible and its principles and practices primarily from the United Christian Endeavor Movement of Dr. Bob's youth. Then--source by source--it looks at each Step as it was impacted upon by a particular contributor. The Bible, Oxford Group, Rev. Sam Shoemaker, Dr. Bob's wife Anne Smith, the so-called "Six Steps, then the other sources. This book is an historical study of the roots of each Step; and it can be used for individual and group study of the Steps in a very meaningful way.It is also a guide. A guide to understanding, and a guide to taking each Step. It also shows you how to take the Steps exactly as directed in A.A.'s Big Book. It suggests how you might look at each Step in terms of the contributions to that Step's lanugage and meaning by each of its sources. Finally, it provides Christians and other students with a means of considering, learning, and "taking" each of the Steps in light of that Step's biblical and historical roots--with the Big Book, Bible, and history at hand.When you are through, you will have a perspective of the real spiritual utility of the Twelve Steps in a believer's world, despite the secularization and universalism that are diluting all Twelve Step programs and the language used in connection with the Steps. For example, "God as we understood Him" historically and biblically means Almighty God, the Creator, as He is understood by the newcomer at the time of taking Steps 3 and 11. So too "powerless" in Step 1 is presented in its historical context ("I was licked") rather than in some puzzling linquistic context, seldom understood or unraveled.You'll know and guide the taking of the Twelve Steps as they were intended to be understood and as you never did before.