Comments | bobby1933: A Power Greater? Second Step (Part 1)

bobby1933

A Power Greater? Second Step (Part 1)

Sep 27, 2016 19:23

"(We) came to believe in a power greater than ourselves who could restore us to sanity." The Second Step of the 12 Steps of AA and Al Anon.

( A Power Greater than myself....Read more... )

via negitiva, emily dickinson, taoism, christianity, 12-step programs

Comments 5

reginaterrae September 28 2016, 01:49:01 UTC

Have you read Bede Griffiths or Henri Le Saux? Camaldolese Benedictine monks who pioneered a profound encounter between Christianity and Hinduism. Here is the website of their "Christian ashram" in India. They go well beyond mere dialogue, in the conviction that there is one ultimate truth, and explore deeply how that Truth is expressed in the two apparently poles-apart religions.

I am just scratching the surface, haven't even begun to read, but am fascinated. My Abbot cited Griffiths and Le Saux as his favorite theologians, on his profile recently posted on St. Anselm's website. I think I've mentioned before how much Abbot James has been involved over the years in the Inter-religious Monastic Dialogue.

bobby1933 September 28 2016, 02:14:26 UTC

Thank you.

Of course, i've heard of Griffiths, though i don't know much about him. And i think i might have read some of Le Saux' poetry. I am going to look him up right now. (Didn't he take an Indian name?)

reginaterrae September 28 2016, 02:23:49 UTC

Yes, for their monastic names they took Indian names. Le Saux was Abhishiktananda (the Bliss of Christ). Griffiths was Swami Dayananda (first Dhayananda, meaning Bliss of Prayer, then Dayananda, meaning Bliss of Compassion, according to the ashram's website).

amaebi September 29 2016, 12:19:08 UTC

Now that I think about it, "greater than myself" is a really hilarious measure, for theology in general. In a 12-step context, of course, it's different. That desperate concentration on I can't but Something can."

bobby1933 September 29 2016, 16:08:28 UTC

A monarch, or somebody who thought like one, would fail to get the joke. Yet it is only a monarchical or post-monarchical world that makes the joke possible.

God as "a power higher than myself" would be very conceivable in a patriarchal. individualistic ("every man a king") capitalistic society during an economic depression.

I wonder if the actual words "Higher Power" came out of the Oxford Group movement??