Spirituality in A.A.
“For millions of addicts around the world, Alcoholics Anonymous’s basic text—informally known as the Big Book—is the Bible. And as they’re about to find out, the Bible was edited.”
“After being hidden away for nearly 70 years and then auctioned twice, the original manuscript by AA co-founder Bill Wilson is about to become public for the first time next week, complete with edits by Wilson-picked commenters that reveal a profound debate in 1939 about how overtly to talk about God. The group’s decision to use ‘higher power’ and ‘God of your understanding’ instead of ‘God’ or ‘Jesus Christ’ and to adopt a more inclusive tone was enormously important in making the deeply spiritual text accessible to the non-religious and non-Christian, AA historians and treatment experts say.”
