They saw sin was "anything that stood between the individual and God". The Oxford Group writers sometimes treated sin as a disease. Īn Oxford Group understanding of the human condition is evident in Wilson's formulation of the dilemma of the alcoholic Oxford Group program of recovery and influences of Oxford Group evangelism still can be detected in key practices of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Later in life, Bill Wilson gave credit to the Oxford Group for saving his life. While Wilson later broke from The Oxford Group, he based the structure of Alcoholics Anonymous and many of the ideas that formed the foundation of AA's suggested 12-step program on the teachings of the Oxford Group. In his search for relief from his alcoholism, Bill Wilson, one of the two co-founders of AA, joined The Oxford Group and learned its teachings. Their standard of morality was the Four Absolutes-a summary of the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount: The practices they utilized were called the five C's: This came to be known as the Oxford Group by 1928.īuchman summarized the Oxford Group philosophy in a few sentences: "All people are sinners" "All sinners can be changed" "Confession is a prerequisite to change" "The changed person can access God directly" "Miracles are again possible" and "The changed person must change others."
As a result of that experience, he founded a movement named A First Century Christian Fellowship in 1921. Buchman was a minister, originally Lutheran, then Evangelist, who had a conversion experience in 1908 in a chapel in Keswick, England, the revival center of the Higher Life movement. The Oxford Group was a Christian fellowship founded by American Christian missionary Frank Buchman. Those who could afford psychiatrists or hospitals were subjected to a treatment with barbiturate and belladonna known as "purge and puke" or were left in long-term asylum treatment. Those without financial resources found help through state hospitals, the Salvation Army, or other charitable societies and religious groups. In post- Prohibition 1930s America, it was common to perceive alcoholism as a moral failing, and the medical profession standards of the time treated it as a condition that was likely incurable and lethal. As a result, penitent bands have often been compared to Alcoholics Anonymous in scholarly discourse. The hymns and teaching provided during the penitent band meetings addressed the issues that members faced, often alcoholism. Nearly two centuries before the advent of Alcoholics Anonymous, John Wesley established Methodist penitent bands, which were organized on Saturday nights, the evening on which members of these small groups were most tempted to frequent alehouses. 6.2 An Akron group and a New York groupĪlcoholism in the 1700s and 1800s.4.1 How Alcoholics Connected with the Oxford Group.