Alcoholics Anonymous and the Bible

A.A. History Fragment No. Two
Dick B.
© 2009 Dick B. All rights reserved

Alcoholics Anonymous Cofounder Bill Wilson wrote of early A.A.: “Each morning, there was a devotion. . . . Anne would read from the Bible. James was our favorite. . . the Book of James was a favorite with early A.A.’s—so much so that ‘The James Club’ was favored by some as a name for the Fellowship.” Dr. BOB and the Good Oldtimers, 1980, 71. Dr. Bob stated: “they were convinced that the answer to their problems was in the Good Book. To some of us older ones, the parts that we found absolutely essential were the Sermon on the Mount, the 13th chapter of First Corinthians, and the Book of James.” DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers, 96. Dr. Bob also stated: “I didn’t write the Twelve Steps. I had nothing to do with the writing of them. . . . We already had the basic ideas, though not in terse and tangible form. We got them . . . as a result of our study of the Good Book.” DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers, 96-97. For a careful review of the basic ideas that Alcoholics Anonymous got from the Bible (which they called the “Good Book”), see Dick B., The Good Book and the Big Book: A.A.’s Roots in the Bible.

http://dickb.com/goodbook.shtml