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What did early A.A. take from the Oxford Group, and why did it separate?

In short:

  • Both co-founders got their start in the Oxford Group, a Christian movement of the 1930s. Bill W. came to it through his friend Ebby in late 1934; Dr. Bob had been going to its meetings in Akron for about two and a half years.
  • From it early A.A. took the practices of self-examination, admitting defects to another person, making restitution, and giving of oneself to others, along with prayer and dependence on God. Bill said these came "straight from the Oxford Groups" and from its American leader, the Rev. Sam Shoemaker.
  • The alcoholics left because some Oxford Group ways did not work with drunks: pressure and aggressive evangelism, "team guidance," the "absolutes" as a dose too strong at first, and an emphasis on prominent names that clashed with the alcoholics' wish to stay anonymous. The Oxford Group also aimed to change the whole world, while the alcoholics kept to alcoholics.
  • New York separated in 1937. Cleveland's members broke away in May 1939, and Akron's late in 1939. The 1939 Big Book never names the Oxford Group.

What the earliest texts say

The 1939 Big Book describes the program but doesn't name the Oxford Group anywhere in its text. Bill's friend simply has "a simple religious idea and a practical program of action" (p. 9).

The 1955 Foreword to the Second Edition gives the connection in one sentence: the broker had met "an alcoholic friend who had been in contact with the Oxford Groups of that day" (pp. xv–xvi). "Though he could not accept all the tenets of the Oxford Groups" (p. xvi), he was convinced of the need for moral inventory, confession of defects, restitution, helpfulness to others, and dependence on God (p. xvi).

Dr. Bob, 1948 (his last major talk, printed in P-53). Both men had been associated with the Oxford Group, "Bill in New York, for five months, and I in Akron, for two and a half years" (P-53). The group had told Dr. Bob to attend meetings, join a church and pray, and he did, but kept getting drunk (P-53). "Bill had acquired their idea of service. I had not" (P-53). The one thing they hadn't told him was what Bill did that first Sunday: "attempt to be helpful to somebody else." (P-53). He also said the Oxford Group's Four Absolutes were "the only yardsticks we had in the early days, before the Steps" (P-53). See What were the "Four Absolutes"? Are they in the Big Book?

What A.A. took (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957)

At the 1955 convention Bill said the early A.A. got "its ideas of self-examination, acknowledgment of character defects, restitution for harm done, and working with others straight from the Oxford Groups and directly from Sam Shoemaker" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957), "and from nowhere else." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). He adds that some Oxford Group attitudes had proved unsuited to A.A.'s purpose, and that Shoemaker's own views on those had later changed (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). In the same book, Bill names three sources of the word-of-mouth program: the Oxford Groups, William James and Dr. Silkworth (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).

Why they separated (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957)

Bill says the New York alcoholics worked alongside the Oxford Groups until the middle of 1937 and parted in the latter part of that year (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). His reasons (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957): - The Oxford Groups did not think much of an aim limited to alcoholics; the alcoholics, for their part, felt sure they could not help save the whole world, but could sober up many drunks. - Drinkers would not take pressure of any kind: "They always had to be led, not pushed." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). They would not stand for aggressive evangelism, nor accept "team guidance" for their personal lives. - The absolutes (honesty, purity, unselfishness, love) were often too much at first: "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 would tie A.A. to it in the public mind. - Most alcoholics wanted to be anonymous, while the Oxford Groups "depended very much upon the use of prominent names" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).

"Our debt to them, nevertheless, was and is immense, and so the final breakaway was very painful." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). In Akron, he says, the members withdrew "later, and well after the A.A. book was published" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).

Later accounts (1980, 1984)

  • Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers (1980) describes the Oxford Group as a movement founded by Frank Buchman, a Lutheran minister, which sought to recapture first-century Christianity through surrender to God, self-examination, confession, restitution and giving without reward (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). It says many Oxford Groupers were disappointed in the Big Book because it didn't mention the group and the Twelve Steps had replaced the absolutes (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). It gives the reasons offered for leaving the group unnamed: A.A. had to avoid looking affiliated with any religious group, Catholics were coming in, and, a reason it says "never came out publicly," Buchman was regarded by some as sympathetic to Hitler after a widely publicized interview in 1936 (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). After the Cleveland members left in May 1939 (see How did the Cleveland group become the first to call itself Alcoholics Anonymous?), the Akron alcoholics moved their meeting to Dr. Bob's house late that year, and on January 2, 1940, he wrote to Bill: "Have definitely shaken off the shackles of the Oxford Group" (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980).
  • Pass It On (1984) says the Oxford Group leaders in New York resented Bill's separate meetings for alcoholics, and that Bill left in 1937 (Pass It On, 1984). It quotes his 1940 letter: "some of the Oxford Group presentation and emphasis upon the Christian message saved my life" (Pass It On, 1984), yet "other attitudes of the O.G. nearly got me drunk again" (Pass It On, 1984). He listed aggressive evangelism, personal publicity, the word "absolute," coercion and "checking," and too little emphasis on tolerance (Pass It On, 1984). He did not credit the group publicly, he wrote, for fear of tying A.A. to it in the public mind (Pass It On, 1984). The book dates the Akron break to November and December 1939 (Pass It On, 1984).

Where the sources differ

  • When Akron left. Bill (1957) says "well after the A.A. book was published" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957), and the timeline in our later printing of his book says the Midwest withdrew in the summer of 1939 (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). The 1980 and 1984 books put Cleveland's break in May 1939 and Akron's in November–December 1939 (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980; Pass It On, 1984). Dr. Bob in 1948 remembered holding the Akron meetings at "a friend's house" (P-53), unnamed in his talk (the other accounts place them at T. Henry Williams's), "Until 1940, or maybe early in 1941" (P-53).
  • The new name, Moral Re-Armament. Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers says Buchman renamed the movement in 1939 (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980); Pass It On says 1938 (Pass It On, 1984).

Read it yourself

Sources

Source Pages Date
Alcoholics Anonymous, "Bill's Story" 9 1939
Foreword to the Second Edition xv–xvi 1955
P-53, Dr. Bob's last major talk — December 1948; pamphlet © 2017
A.A. Comes of Age (timeline, later printing), 24, 40, 78 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.*

These pages answer questions about A.A. from A.A.'s own published literature, read in full, with every quote checked word for word against the page it cites. Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. What we read, and when each source was written.