A.A. – The Four Absolutes –The Facts One
More Time
A First Century Christian Fellowship
Dick B.
© 2013 Anonymous. All
rights reserved.
Summary
The so-called “Four Absolutes” of A.A. were cherished
“yardsticks” in earliest A.A.—standards for determining right behavior as
measured through God’s eyes. And A.A.’s Cofounder Dr. Bob made that clear.[1]
The Four Absolutes were Honesty, Purity, Unselfishness, and Love. See The Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous:
Biographical Sketches Their Last Major Talks
Robert E. Speer:
The time-line for the recovery origins of these principles begins with
Presbyterian missionary leader Robert E. Speer. In 1902, Speer published The
Principles of Jesus.[2] Chapter 6 was titled “Jesus and Standards.”[3] And
Speer there spelled out “some” moral principles that could be applied to
determine and practice what was “right or wrong.” Speer said the teachings of
Jesus set up absolute principles which didn’t allow men to measure their
conduct by what they “thought” was right or wrong. Jesus, he said, enabled men
to have absolute standards of conduct by which they were able to “know whether
it is right or wrong, drag it into Jesus’ presence, and see how He looks at it,
and how it looks to Him.”[4] Some have erroneously stated that Speer fashioned
the four standards from the teachings in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5 to
7). But his citations were much more broad. Speer said that Jesus taught in a
practical way in order to make people understand, and the illustrations Jesus
used were themselves such as to make some principle perfectly clear. The
teachings set up standards (Mark 9:33; Matt. 5:34, 37; 6:16; Mark 7:15; Luke
9:60). Perfection was his standard (Matt. 5:48). He had attained it (John
8:29). He demanded it. Right is to be right. Thinking it right or thinking it
wrong does not make a thing right or wrong. Jesus, said Speer, set up an
absolute standard of truth. He said, if God were your Father, you would love
me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he
sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech? Even because ye cannot hear my
word. Ye are of your father, the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will
do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because
there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for
he is a liar, and the father of it (John 8:42-44). Jesus set up an absolute
standard of unselfishness. Speer pointed to Mark 10:45: “For even the Son of
man came not to be ministered unto, but
to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. Jesus set up
an absolute standard or purity. He
tolerated no uncleanness whatsoever. . . . A hand or an eye, outer or inner
sin, must be sacrificed to the claims of the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 5:29,
30). Jesus set up an absolute standard of love. Jesus said, “A new commandment
I give unto you, That you love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also
love one another (John 13:34),
Henry B. Wright:
Next in line comes Yale’s Professor Henry B. Wright. And in 1909, Wright
published The Will of God and a Man’s
Lifework.[5] Wright devoted this teaching to the relation of the act of
surrender of self in doing God’s will. He contended that willingness to do
God’s will is a necessary condition for knowledge of it. He pointed to the
Bible and Nature as the parts of God’s will that every one may know.[6] Wright
emphasized that God reveals His Universal Will for the world in Jesus, the
Living Word, and in the Bible, the Written Word.[7] Then he asked if there were
“absolute standards of right and wrong; how Jesus found out the particular will
of God for himself, and said Jesus “always did the things which were pleasing
to God.” Citing Scripture, Wright pointed to verses in the Bible dealing with
purity (Matthew 5:29), unselfishness (Luke 14:33); honesty (Luke 16:11), and
love (John 15:2). Wright explained that Jesus was sure of God’s presence and
guidance; and Wright reconstructed the “absolute standards of right and wrong”
from the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles. Wright quoted Robert E. Speer as
follows:
Mr. Robert E. Speer has reconstructed from the teaching of
Jesus the four standards in regard to which he never allowed himself an
exception and with reference to which his teaching is absolute and unyielding.
Jesus gives us no direct teaching in regard to such things as smoking,
drinking, card playing, theatre, dancing, etc. He recognized that some men
could decide one way and others just the opposite on like questions and yet
both sides be true Christians. But in regard to four things there was no such
option. A man must be pure, he must be honest, he must be unselfish, he must
express himself in deeds of love or else he cannot see the kingdom of God.
There is no exception to be made on these four counts.[8]
Having discussed many relevant verses applicable to the
“Universal Will of God,” Wright then explained that God also has a Particular
Will for each individual man, He suggested it rested on the “Fourfold
Touchstone of Jesus and the Apostles.” He suggested, as to the four
touchstones, that there be a test of Purity, Honesty, Unselfishness, and Love.
He said that obedience provided the assurance as to one’s duty and power to
achieve results. Wright illustrated:
To every problem, great or small, which presents itself in a
small matter like one’s bearing in a game of sport, in a large matter like the
choice of a life career, the Christian who is absolutely surrendered to God
asks himself this question: “Is the step which I had planned to take an
absolutely pure one? Is it an absolutely honest one? Is it the most unselfish
one? Is it the fullest possible expression of my love? If it fails to measure
up to any one of these four standards it cannot be God’s will and I must not
take it, no matter what the refusal may cost me in suffering, mental or
physical. As he holds his instrument of apprehension, the human will,
resolutely to this standard, the Christian is conscious of its becoming strong
both to know and to do God’s will and there comes the undoubted, the compelling
conviction which guides and impels him forward. . . . The mysterious meeting
place in the prepared and willing heart between the human and divine where
precisely the will is finally moved into line with God’s of these things knoweth
no man, save only the spirit of God.[9]
Discussing each of the four “absolutes” in turn, and using
purity as the first, he proposed the following: “Is the step which I had
planned to take an absolutely pure one? If it is not, it cannot be God’s will for
that life.” And as to each of the four absolute standards, Wright would thus
look at the question in terms of purity versus impurity, and then cite
applicable Bible verses that provided definitions of God’s will, for example,
as to fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, adultery. Furthermore,
each absolute—purity, unselfishness, honesty, and love—was to be related to the
other three so that if something were deemed pure, it must also be absolutely
unselfish, absolutely honest, and absolutely an act of love.
Frank N. D. Buchman
and the Oxford Group - A First Century
Christian Fellowship
The Oxford Group’s Four Absolutes can be found in the
speeches of its founder Frank Buchman.[10] They can also be found in books
about Buchman, descriptions of Oxford Group principles, in Rev. Sam Shoemaker’s
writings, in A.A. General Services Conference-approved books discussing the
Oxford Group, in Anne Smith’s writings, and in some Oxford Groups today.[11] As
stated, the historical chain begins with Robert E. Speer. Speer’s discussion
and cited verses were expanded by Henry B. Wright. And, according to Oxford
Group activist and long-time employee T. Willard Hunter, Henry B. Wright was
the most influential force in Frank Buchman’s life, other than Buchman’s
mother. Buchman’s biographer Garth Lean explained:
The moral standards which he [Buchman] used as a test of
directing thoughts also became central to Buchman’s life and teaching: he took
them as measuring rods for daily living. Here again he was indebted to Henry
Wright. “The absolutes” had originally been set out, as a summary of Christ’s
moral teaching, by Robert E. Speer in his book, The Principles of Jesus.
Buchman had several times heard Speer preach at Mount Airy, but it was in
Wright’s book that he first found the summarized standards “in regards of
which,” Wright maintained, “Christ’s teaching is absolute and unyielding.”
Wright defined them as “the four-fold touchstone of Jesus and the apostles” and
maintained that an individual could apply them “to every problem, great or
small which presents itself . . . if (anything) fails to measure up to any one
of these four it cannot be God’s will.”[12]
Samuel M. Shoemaker,
Jr. became a colleague of Frank
Buchman’s in the earliest 1920’s. He was called in 1925 to be rector of Calvary
Episcopal Church in New York. He shortly became the Oxford Group’s most
prolific author, Frank Buchman’s chief lieutenant in the United States, and
actually provided space in Calvary House (adjacent to the church) for the
Oxford Group’s American headquarters where Buchman himself lived when he was in
the United States. Shoemaker also became a close friend of Bill Wilson, taught
Wilson most of the spiritual principles that were embodied in the Twelve Steps,
and was dubbed a “cofounder of A.A.” by Wilson himself.[13] Shoemaker wrote
extensively on the importance of the Four Absolutes.[14] And the following is
indicative of his view:
We must get to the point of whether the man is “willing to
do his will” in all areas. Take the four standards of Christ: absolute honesty,
absolute purity, absolute unselfishness, and absolute love. When people’s lives
are wrong, they are usually wrong on one or more of these standards. . . . By
our own frank honesty about ourselves and our willingness, under God as He
guides, to share anything in our own experience that will help the other
person, and by the willingness to ask God-inspired questions of them that carry
the matter right down to the roots, we shall get deep enough to know the real
problems . . . . If the person is honest with himself and with God, he will be
honest with us and be ready to take the next step, which is a decision to
surrender these sins, with himself, wholly to God.[15]
Early A.A.: In a few words, we can summarize how the Four
Absolutes were handled in early Alcoholics Anonymous.
Bill Wilson:
Wilson was actively involved in Oxford Group activities from late 1934 through
August, 1937. He and his wife attended many meetings, attended Oxford Group
house parties, and met Frank Buchman and Rev. Shoemaker and other leaders such
as Rev. W. Irving Harris and his wife Julia. Bill himself was much involved in
an Oxford Group team in late 1935 and early 1936. Bill said he had heard plenty
about the Four Absolutes. However, his wife Lois claimed, the “Oxford Group
kind of kicked us out [because] she and Bill were not considered ‘maximum’ by
the groupers.”[16] By October 30, 1940, Bill said: “I am always glad to say
privately that some of the Oxford Group presentation and emphasis upon the
Christian message saved my life. Yet it is equally true that other attitudes of
the O.G. nearly got me drunk again, and we long since discovered that if we
were to approach alcoholics successfully, these [attitudes] would have to be
abandoned.” [17] He wrote a laundry list of 8 criticisms of the Oxford Group,
including a condemnation of the four absolutes, saying “when the word
‘absolute’ was put in front of these attributes, they either turned people away
by the hundreds or gave a temporary spiritual inflation resulting in
collapse.”[18] Despite these remarks, Wilson did another turnabout. According
to one historian, Wilson wrote in 1960:
In the old days of the Oxford Groups, they were forever
talking about the Four Absolutes—Honesty, Purity, Unselfishness, and
Love—trying to get too good by Thursday. . . . Absolutes in themselves are not
necessarily destructive. Every sound theological system contains them. When we
say that our destiny is to grow in the likeness and image of God, we are
stating a healthy relation between a relative and an absolute state of affairs.
Therefore when writing the Twelve Steps, it was necessary to include some sort
of absolute value or else they wouldn’t have been theologically sound. . . .
That could have been unfortunate and as misleading as we found them in the
Oxford Group emphasis. So in Steps Six and Seven, and in the use of the word
God, we did include them.[19]
Dr. Bob Smith:
His position was and remained the opposite of Bill’s. In his last major address
to AAs, Dr. Bob said:
The four absolutes, as we called them, were the only
yardsticks we had in the early days, before the Steps. I think the absolutes
still hold good and can be extremely helpful. I have found at times that a
question arises, and I want to do the right thing, but the answer is not
obvious. Almost always, if I measure my decision carefully by the yardsticks of
absolute honesty, absolute unselfishness, absolute purity, and absolute love,
and it checks up pretty well with those four, then my answer can’t be very far
out of the way.[20]
Dr. Bob’s wife Anne
Ripley Smith: In her journal from which she shared with early AAs and their
families, Anne spoke repeatedly about how to apply the four standards. She
said:
Test your thoughts. It is possible to receive suggestions
from your subconscious mind. Check your thoughts by the four standards. . . .
Make the moral test. 4 standards. . . . Basis of an interview. Is a challenge
on the four standards. . . . Why I had
been absolutely honest but not living. . . . Follow Christ’s absolute
commandment. . . . Absolute honesty
demands that we no longer wear a mask. . . . Sharing. . . It is being honest
even after it hurts. . . . Every time we register aloud the new attitude and
change of heart with absolute honesty, another bridge is burned behind us and
another stake is driven in to mark our progress. . . . Check your life
constantly by the four absolutes.[21]
Clarence H. Snyder
who founded Cleveland A.A.: Many might conclude that when Clarence Snyder (who
got sober in February, 1938, and remained sober until his death years later)
founded Alcoholics Anonymous in Cleveland, Ohio, he took the best of A.A.
there. The best at that time! He embraced the Bible, the Four Absolutes, the
Big Book, and the Twelve Steps. AAs achieved a 93% success rate.[22] Clarence
said:
New people were told they had to read the Bible—The King
James Version of the Bible. They were instructed to do this on a daily basis.
Clarence said that newcomers were also told to read The Upper Room and to read
the Sermon on the Mount by Emmet Fox. Clarence said the new people were then
instructed on the Four Standards. These were the Biblical principles the Oxford
Group people had taken from the teachings of Jesus Christ found in the Bible.
These “Four Standards” were also called the “Four Absolutes”—Absolute Honesty,
Unselfishness, Love and Purity.[23]
Clarence frequently took newcomers through the newly written
Twelve Steps in two days time. He wrote a pamphlet on going through the Steps
to guide them.[24]
What Happened to the
Four Absolutes?
Bill Wilson framed the “moral inventory” items in Step Four.
In that Step and in Steps Ten and Eleven, he proposed testing conduct for
resentment, fears, selfishness, and harms done to others. He also claimed that
the A.A. program called for grasping and developing a manner of living which
demands rigorous honesty.[25] The Absolutes, as such, simply vanished from the
Big Book program of recovery. What can be said is that those, like myself, who
have visited A.A. meetings and members all over the United States and reviewed
thousands of pieces of A.A. literature, frequently encounter mention of the
Four Absolutes, especially among those who have great respect and affection for
Dr. Bob or Clarence Snyder. However, the idea of relating each of the standards
to a teaching of Jesus has usually been replaced by pamphlets or discussions of
what, in the opinion of the particular writer, constitutes conduct consistent
with this or that absolute. Also, the writers and speakers often omit the
critical part of the Four Absolute tests. Those applying them were also to look
to God and His Word for illustration and understanding and also ask God for the
wisdom in applying them to proposed action (James 1:5-8).
The Oxford Group & Alcoholics Anonymous: A Design for Living That
Works, 2d ed.
Gloria Deo
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] The Co-Founders
of Alcoholics Anonymous: Biographical Sketches Their Last Major Talks (New
York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1972, 1975), 17.
[2] Robert E. Speer,
The Principals of Jesus: Applied to Some Questions of To-Day (New York:
Association Press, 1902).
[3] Speer, The
Principles of Jesus, 33-36.
[4] Speer, The
Principles of Jesus, 33.
[5] Henry B. Wright,
The Will of God and a Man’s Lifework (NY:
Association Press, 1924). Copyrighted in 1909 by The International Committee
of Young Men’s Christian Associations.
[6] Wright, The Will
of God, 135.
[7] Wright, The Will
of God, 138.
[8] Wright, The Will
of God, 169.
[9] Wright, The Will
of God, 173-74.
[10] Frank N. D.
Buchman, Remaking the World (London: Blandford Press, 1961), 36, 40, 96, 131.
[11] For a thorough
review of these statements, the supporting bibliography, and a discussion of
the Oxford Group and the Four Absolutes, see Dick B., The Oxford Group and
Alcoholics Anonymous: A Design for Living That Works New Rev. ed. (Kihei, HI:
Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 1998), 237-46.
[12] Garth Lean,
Frank Buchman: A Life (London: Constable, 1985), 76
[13] These statements
are documented and thoroughly discussed in Dick B., New Light on Alcoholism:
God, Sam Shoemaker, and A.A. Pittsburgh ed. (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research
Publications, Inc., 1999).
[14] Dick B., New
Light on Alcoholism, 55, 56, 97, 98, 101, 107-09, 117, 142-43, 159, 167,
234-35, 239, 241-42, 312, 314, 393, 414, 419-20, 432-33, 455, 462, 523,
[15] Samuel M.
Shoemaker, Jr., The Church Can Save The World (New York: Harper & Brothers,
1938), 110-14; Dick B., New Light on
Alcoholism, 56-57.
[16] Pass It On, 174.
[17] Pass It On, 171.
[18] Pass It On,
172-73.
[19] Ernest Kurtz,
Not-God: A History of Alcoholics Anonymous.(Center City, MN: Hazelden, 1979),
242-43.
[20] The Co-Founders
of Alcoholics Anonymous: Biographical Sketches: Their Last Major Talks (New
York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1972, 1975), 17.
[21] Dick B., Anne
Smith’s Journal 1933-1939:A.A.’s Principles of Success.3rd ed, (Kihei, HI:
Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 1998), 32-33.
[22] Mitchell K., How
It Worked: The Story of Clarence H. Snyder and The Early Days of Alcoholics
Anonymous in Cleveland, Ohio (Washingtonville, NY: AA Big Book Study Group,
1997), 108.
[23] Mitchell K., How
It Worked,, 69.
[24] Mitchell K., How
It Worked, 240-44.
[25] Alcoholics
Anonymous, 4th ed. (NY: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 2001), 28
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