|
SOBER
FAITH by G. Aiken Taylor (2nd Printing [1954]).
Subtitled Religion and Alcoholics Anonymous. The author examines the spiritual principles of the
12 step program of AA in respect to it's religious parallels, and shows how each can benefit
from the other. This book is one of the first major attempts by a non-alcoholic
to study AA from the standpoint of religion. Copies of this book are EXTREMELY RARE
emai LDP eztone@hotmail.com
Dr Taylor also had 3 articles published in the AA Grapevine
Available as Digital Downloads
1.One
AA's Answer to Dr. Taylor (by G. Aiken Taylor, Ph.D.)
North Carolina, Dr. Taylor is the
a--HELL, I can't buy that! A young and apparently successful
member of AA reacted rather sharply to my question about the
part God played in his recovery. I'm not a religious man, he
concluded evenly.
November
1953
2.AA
Not a Religion (by J.F.H.)
California--In the November Grapevine
there appeared an article by Dr. G. Aiken Taylor, a
non-alcoholic and a Presbyterian pastor greatly interested in
AA. His contention that permanent success depends whether or not
one gets the spiritual side of the program has moved several
AAs to comment.
January
1954
3.On
the Other Hand. . . (by Anonymous)
Ontario--In the November Grapevine there
appeared an article by Dr. G. Aiken Taylor, a non-alcoholic and
a Presbyterian pastor greatly interested in AA. His contention
that permanent success depends whether or not one gets the
spiritual side of the program has moved several AAs to comment.
January
1954
|
|
G. Aiken Taylor |
|
|
George Aiken Taylor |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dr.
Taylor, editor of the Presbyterian Journal from 1959 until
1983, served as president of Biblical Theological Seminary in
Hatfield, Pa., until his death early in 1984. |
|
|
Biographical Sketch:
George Aiken Taylor was born on January 22, 1920
in Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil, the son of Presbyterian missionaries
George W. Taylor and Julia Pratt Taylor. When he was fifteen years
old he returned to this country to complete his education,
graduating from the Presbyterian College of South Carolina with the
A.B. degree in 1940. He taught in the South Carolina public schools
for a year, and then entered the U.S. Army in 1941. He served with
the 36th (Texas) Infantry Division and rose to the rank
of Captain, commanding a heavy weapons company in the 142nd
Infantry. He participated in five major campaigns in World War II,
was wounded once and decorated once.
Taylor married the former Blanche Williams of
Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1942. A son, George Aiken Jr., was born
in 1943, Jane Bright in 1946, Hugh Pratt in 1948, and Julia
Elizabeth in 1950.
After the war, Taylor entered Columbia Theological
Seminary in Decatur, Georgia, graduating with the B.D. degree, Magna
Cum Laude in 1948. He was also ordained in 1948. He served as
pastor of Smyrna Presbyterian Church in Smyrna, Georgia for two
years and then became pastor of Northside Presbyterian Church in
Burlington, North Carolina. In 1950 he then entered Duke University
for graduate study. Later he was awarded the Ph.D. degree by Duke
for his dissertation, John Calvin, the Teacher, a study of
religious education in Calvin’s Geneva.
Dr. Taylor served as pastor of First Presbyterian
Church in Alexandria, Louisiana from 1954 to 1959. He became
interested in the work of Alcoholics Anonymous through his own work
with alcoholics, developing an appreciation for A.A.’s principles,
and wrote A Sober Faith in 1953. His book St. Luke’s Life
of Jesus was published in 1954.
In 1959 Dr. Taylor became editor of The
Presbyterian Journal, an independent weekly with an
international circulation and with offices in Asheville, North
Carolina. He served in this capacity for twenty-four years, and
during that time was active in the conservative movement in the PCUS
which eventuated in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), formed
in 1973. He was a leader in the PCA and was elected moderator of
the General Assembly of that denomination in 1978.
In 1983, Dr. Taylor was named president of
Biblical Theological Seminary in Hatfield, Pennsylvania, and was
inaugurated in December of that year. However, three months
lateron March 6, 1984he died suddenly. Memorial services were
held in Pennsylvania, and funeral services at Gaither Chapel in
Montreat, North Carolina. Dr. Taylor was buried in nearby
Swannanoa, North Carolina.
C. Gregg Singer, was a close friend of Dr.
Taylor’s.
Dr. C. Gregg Singer is on the faculty of Greenville SC NC
Presbyterian Theological Seminary, and the author of A
Theological Interpretation of American History....
33 C. Gregg Singer, 88, of Salisbury, NC, died
March 22, 1999. |
In the end, however, the denomination that was at the
focus of the Journal's coverage was not rescued from theological
liberalism. By 1973, a number of members of that church, including
Journal editor G. Aiken Taylor, withdrew to form the more conservative
Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). Yet ironically, that development
ultimately left the Journal without a solid constituency. Circulation
dropped through the rest of the 1970's from a one-time high of 44,000 to
about 20,000 as the decade ended.
Christians and AA A REFORMED
CRITIQUE OF ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS
R. Scott Clark, D.Phil* Assc Prof of Church History and Academic
Dean Westminster Theological Seminary in California
excerpted here is his insight and review
of A Sober Faith by G Aiken Taylor
Many Christians, including Evangelical and
even Reformed Christians, have said that the disease model is sufficient
to explain the success of AA and its offspring. Several writers have
even tried to justify the synthesis of the pragmatism of AA with various
Christian forms. One notable attempt was the late G. A. Taylor's A Sober
Faith (1953). Taylor is remembered in Reformed and Presbyterian circles
as the editor of the Presbyterian Journal
In the preface, Russell Dicks called Taylor a
friend of both the Church and AA.24 This is only half true. Taylor
wished to be a friend to both, but such is impossible. One cannot have
two masters. He must love the one and hate the other.25 Taylor fails to
make necessary and biblical distinctions between AA and Christianity.
Christianity is God's covenant relation to and redemption of his people
from their sins, but AA is not.
Taylor says,
In its own unique way it [AA] goes about
leading men and women to God who never before gave Him much thought.
I hope the more conservative of my brethren who may feel inclined to
question AA's theology at this point will withhold their judgment
for the moment. AA's success constitutes a powerful recommendation
for its methods.26.
With all due respect, Christians cannot
withhold theological or moral judgment upon a vaguely utilitarian basis.
Other sects, e.g., Jehovah's Witnesses, also claim to lead one to god,
but it is clearly not the God of the Bible. Isaiah complains about hand
made idols, Paul complains about those whose god is their belly. If the
god to whom one is brought is not the Lord Jesus Christ then it is
vanity. There are no intermediate steps to God.
In fact, AA is not the worship of the true
and living God but is specifically applied peer pressure to alter a
particular behavior pattern, often by replacing one addiction for
another, in the nature of the case, bottle support for group support.27
Taylor's claim that, at some point, every
serious member of AA is confronted by necessity with Christianity is
simply not true.28 In fact the leading currents of thought are moving
away from the more overtly religious emphasis of years past to a more
mechanistic and secular faith. The authority of Bill and the other
founders of AA is also waning. After all isn't one persons experience
just as normative as anyone else's? Agnosticism reigns in AA. God as we
conceive of Him and the authority of God as He is expressed in our
group conscience, has taken its natural course. If someone became sober
without any god, then god isn't strictly necessary. Of a course the god
which began as a useful idea gives way to bare agnosticism.
Taylor admitted the parallels between
Christianity and AA. Rather than chalking these apparent similarities up
to plagiarism, Taylor says that there is just the right amount of
religion in AA to make it effective without scaring this diseased person
away from Christianity. After all, he says, alcoholics are notorious for
their bad feelings about religion. Taylor thinks AA is a good
introduction for Alcoholics to Christianity.29
Taylor's biggest error was to deny the
biblical teaching regarding human responsibility for sin. By saying as
he does, with AA, that alcoholism (or any other excessive behavior for
that matter) is a matter of treating a disease then one has removed the
problem from the proper sphere of reference (sin and redemption) and
conceded that biblical revelation, the work of Christ and the means of
grace (preaching of the Word and sacraments) are insufficient for
redemption and the Christian life.
God's Word consistently describes our lot
differently. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
(Romans 3.23). All hold down the knowledge of God in unbelief (Romans
1.18). All are prone, by nature, to hate God and their neighbor. The
Christian view of the matter is that the alcoholic, no matter how tragic
his case, has no advantage over the average son of Adam in that respect.
The answer does not lie with a synthesis of obvious Christian behaviors
and doctrines (or facsimiles thereof) with modern disease models.
The answer lies in real repentance and faith
in the living God, the second person of the Trinity, the Jesus who died
for sinners and was raised again for our justification and who through
the Holy Spirit effectively calls us to faith and who gives us new life
and who makes us holy in himself.
What is the real difference between addictive
sexual behavior and alcoholism? Once one becomes addicted to the
sensations of orgasm he does not want to quit and will order his life
around it. The question is not how much, but why, the inappropriate and
damaging behavior continues? The why of the behavior is the same. All
human beings are addicted to sin. Who of us in our old life was not?
This is not to deny that alcoholism is not damaging, but to assert that
all sin has its own form of fallout. The affects are different in some
regard, but the progressive nature of the addiction begins with the will
to sin. The effects of sin do not justify calling a sin a disease. In
which case habitual drunkenness is no more a disease than habitual use
of pornography. Neither sin is excusable no matter what the cause.
A 1982 book by A. C. DeJong, Help and Hope
for the Alcoholic, is little improvement over Taylor. DeJong takes the
middle road. DeJong's approach is very similar to Taylor's because his
belief is that the Bible does not speak about the abuse of alcohol, (or
that what it says is outdated), that Alcoholics Anonymous is a useful
adjunct to the Church, and most importantly that alcoholism is not sin,
but a disease.30
The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and
Social Science, Vol. 292, No. 1, 191-192 (1954)
|
