# What were the "Four Absolutes"? Are they in the Big Book?

**In short:**
- The Four Absolutes were the Oxford Group's moral standards: absolute honesty, absolute purity, absolute unselfishness and absolute love. Early members in both Akron and New York heard them in the Oxford Group before A.A. separated from it.
- They are not in the Big Book. A search of the whole fourth-edition text finds no "Four Absolutes" and no "absolute honesty," in the program chapters, the forewords, the appendices or the personal stories.
- The co-founders saw them differently. Dr. Bob, in 1948, called them "the only yardsticks we had in the early days, before the Steps," and still used them. Bill W. said the New Yorkers dropped the expressions because the dose was too strong for most drinkers, and that putting the word "absolute" in front of these ideals turned people away.
- A 1980 history says the absolutes were still being quoted at meetings in the Akron and Cleveland area.

## What the Big Book says (and doesn't)

The phrase "Four Absolutes" and the set "absolute honesty, absolute purity, absolute unselfishness, absolute love" don't appear anywhere in the fourth edition. The book does use some of the same words separately, as ordinary goals rather than absolutes; for example, a recovering man is unlikely to get far "if he fails to show unselfishness and love under his own roof" (p. 127), and members "have begun to learn tolerance, patience and good will toward all men" (p. 70). The program it does set out is the Twelve Steps, which, it says, are "guides to progress" (p. 60), with "spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection" as the aim (p. 60). See *Is "progress, not perfection" in the Big Book?*

## Dr. Bob: "the only yardsticks" (1948)

In his last major talk, printed in P-53, Dr. Bob said the Four Absolutes "were the only yardsticks we had in the early days, before the Steps" (P-53). "I think the Absolutes still hold good and can be extremely helpful." (P-53). When the right course wasn't obvious, he measured a decision against absolute honesty, unselfishness, purity and love; if it checked out against all four, his answer "can't be very far out of the way" (P-53). He linked trouble with Step One to a lack of purity of motive, and said absolute unselfishness meant giving of yourself, not a dime to a beggar (P-53). He also said no one ever fully reaches absolute love, "but that doesn't mean we can't try to get it" (P-53).

## Bill W.: too strong a dose (1957, 1940)

- **A.A. Comes of Age (1957).** Before Bill went to Akron in 1935, Dr. Silkworth told him he was failing partly because he preached the Oxford Group precepts of being absolutely honest, pure, unselfish and loving: "This is a very big order." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Bill writes that alcoholics found the absolutes "frequently too much" when first contacted: "These ideas had to be fed with teaspoons rather than by buckets." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). The terms were also the Oxford Group's own, and using them would have kept A.A. tied to that group in the public mind (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). By the fall of 1938, he says, Akron members still talked about the absolutes, but "This dose was found to be too rich for New Yorkers, and we had abandoned the expressions." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).
- **Bill's letter of October 30, 1940** (quoted in *Pass It On*, 1984). Honesty, purity, unselfishness and love remained goals for A.A. members, he wrote, but when "absolute" was put in front of them, "they either turned people away by the hundreds or gave a temporary spiritual inflation resulting in collapse" (Pass It On, 1984).

## How they reached Bill and Akron (later accounts)

- **Ebby.** *Pass It On* (1984) says Rowland H., the Oxford Grouper who helped Ebby get sober in 1934, impressed on him the four principles of the Oxford Group, and that Ebby said Rowland was "particularly strong in advocating absolute honesty" (Pass It On, 1984). At the Oxford Group meetings Bill attended after his hospital stay, Bill recalled hearing little theology but "plenty of absolute honesty, absolute purity, absolute unselfishness, and absolute love" (Pass It On, 1984).
- **Akron.** *Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers* (1980) calls the four absolutes the core of the Oxford Group program (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). T. Henry Williams recalled that a newcomer at his house in 1938–39 was asked to surrender his life to God and "start in to really live up to the four absolutes" (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). Oxford Groupers were disappointed that the Big Book left them out, because "the Twelve Steps had replaced the four absolutes, which were not mentioned, either" (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). The book adds that the absolutes "are still published and widely quoted at A.A. meetings" in the Akron–Cleveland area (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980).

## Where the sources differ
- **Their value.** Dr. Bob, in 1948, said they "still hold good" (P-53). Bill, in 1940 and 1957, said the word "absolute" did more harm than good with most alcoholics and the New Yorkers dropped it (Pass It On, 1984; A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Both remain on the record; the Big Book itself uses neither the term nor the list.
- **The order.** Bill lists honesty, purity, unselfishness, love (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957); Dr. Bob lists honesty, unselfishness, purity, love (P-53). The order doesn't change the meaning.

## Read it yourself
- Chapter 5, "How It Works" (pp. 58–71), free from A.A.: https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt5.pdf
- Chapter 9, "The Family Afterward" (pp. 122–135): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt9.pdf
- P-53, *The Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous* (Dr. Bob's 1948 talk): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/literature/P-53_0725.pdf
- *A.A. Comes of Age*, *Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers* and *Pass It On* are sold by A.A. World Services: https://onlineliterature.aa.org
- Related: *What did early A.A. take from the Oxford Group, and why did it separate?* · *What were the "six steps" used before the Twelve Steps?* · *Who was Dr. Bob?*

## Sources
| Source | Pages | Date |
|---|---|---|
| *Alcoholics Anonymous*, whole text searched; Chapters 5 and 9 | 60, 70, 127 | 1939 text (fourth edition 2001) |
| P-53, Dr. Bob's last major talk | — | December 1948; pamphlet © 2017 |
| *A.A. Comes of Age* | — | 1957 |
| *Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers* | — | 1980 |
| *Pass It On* (including Bill's letter of October 30, 1940) | — | 1984 |

Big Book page numbers are from the fourth edition (2001).
*Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book, P-53,* A.A. Comes of Age, *Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers *and* Pass It On *are © A.A. World Services, Inc.; Dr. Bob's 1948 talk in P-53 is © AA Grapevine, Inc.*