In the post on Monday, May 12, 2014 I made the following statement as my reason for resuming this blog: “the events of recent days have led me to the point where I am no longer able to stay silent” – and that is true. However, I feel that it is only fair to begin at the start of my current adventure with an event that was very positive – also – one which has generated at least two more significant writing projects – more about that later in this blog.

For a number of years I have been part of a discussion group made up of professionals involved in various roles in assisting people in the process of making the continuing journey of recovery from substance abuse. This group of colleagues and friends have made a significant impact on my life – an impact for which I will always be extremely grateful. Sometimes we have read books and had discussions that mostly left me in the dust wondering if I really should be in such a group – examples: Drug and Alcohol Abuse: A Clinical Guide to Diagnosis and Treatment by Marc A. Schukit and Traumatic Stress: The Effects of Overwhelming Experience on Mind, Body, and Society edited by Bessel A. van der Kolk, Alexander C. McFarlane, and Lars Weisaeth. Recently the group – which had been on sabbatical for several months – studied Changed by Grace: V. C. Kitchen, the Oxford Group, and A.A.written by Glenn F. Chesnut (New York: iUniverse, Inc., 2006). The Preface of this superb volume includes the following:

A number of wise commentators have already uttered the judgment that Alcoholics Anonymous was the most important new spiritual movement in the twentieth century . . . their twelve step approach to spiritual development also successfully navigated the sweeping transformation in our understanding of the world which took place over the course of the twentieth century, and did it far better than most religious and spiritual groups of that period . . . the biggest shift in human understanding since the Ancient Greeks destroyed the old mythological world view over two thousand years ago . . . Instead of fighting the new science, A.A. learned how to express fundamental spiritual concepts in ways which men and women of the new scientific era could understand and accept. Ancient spiritual ideas came back to life again with a bold new power when expressed in twelve step terms.(xi-xii)

The opening chapter of the book traces the work of Victor Constant Kitchen (1891-1975) and Frank Buchman (1878-1961), founder of the Oxford Group, and their influence on the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous. Chesnut also explores the impact of the work of two “key” figures from the modern evangelical movement, Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), a Congregationalist pastor in Massachusetts, who was selected as the first president of Princeton University before his death, and John Wesley in England (1703-1791), a priest of the Church of England who taught Greek and Latin classics and theology, including the New Testament, at Oxford University.(Chesnut, 7) Wesley, of course, is remembered as the founder of Methodism. Chesnut describes the environment which surrounded these two important figures: Edwards and Wesley were both thoroughly conversant with the new Newtonian physics, as well as the writings of John Locke, the founder of modern psychology. Both believed firmly that good theology had to fit in with the best findings of modern science. Neither one saw any necessity for conflict between science and religion, if the theologians were doing their job properly . . . both [were] highly educated intellectuals who not only knew the ancient philosophical and theological tradition backwards and forwards, but were right at the forefront of all the new developments in thought which were taking place during their lifetimes, which was the period when the rise of modern science first began to affect western ideas in a major way.(8)

Chesnut also speaks to the environment of the life of Frank Buchman, a Lutheran pastor of German-Swiss background.(3): The modern Protestant evangelical movement had arisen within the English-speaking world, and moved to a very different kind of spirit than was found in orthodox German and Scandinavian Lutheranism. Orthodox Lutheran pastors laid great emphasis upon holding all of the correct doctrines and dogmas which had been laid out in such enormous detail in the Augsburg Confession, the Book of Concord, and the other standards of Lutheran orthodoxy . . . The emphasis which Frank Buchman placed upon Gefuhl (feeling and emotions) and the religion of the heart also came from his Lutheran pietist background. So Buchman’s pietism enabled him to break with the kind of rigid orthodoxy which was typical of so many Lutheran pastors, and made it possible for him to learn how to work with Christians who held a wide variety of other beliefs.(3-6)

The writing of Chesnut immediately sent me on a journey that will eventually result in two more significant research and writing projects. The first centers on the evolution of spiritual thought and understanding beginning with the thinking of Aristotle and continuing to the present day. The second, which develops from the first, focuses on the different ways that certain faith traditions have developed and the possible ways that the development of those traditions may have with the discord that is present in many of our current institutional faith traditions. Certainly, I will have much more to say about each of these in future writings.

Enough has been said, however, in this post – so – grace and peace until we meet again.