Here comes another video from our NYC conference, this time from John Zahl. In addition to some deep wisdom, it features what was hands-down the best joke of the conference.
You may download the recording of this talk by clicking here. And you may order a copy of the book that the talk is based on by clicking here.
I was saddened yesterday to hear that Roger Ebert had died. Like many of my generation, I grew up watching him and Gene Siskel talk movies and do their thumbs-up-or-down routine on TV, probably my first public role models for cultural criticism of any kind. Ebert gave you permission to have an opinion–a strong one–about a movie, yet also didn’t seem consumed by loftiness. At least, not completely. You could disagree with another person and still be generous to them; it was clear that he and Siskel were friends. Plus, you always got the sense that he genuinely liked movies,…
Continuing with our series of previews of our recent publication Grace in Addiction: The Good News of Alcoholics Anonymous for Everybody, here’s a section from the chapter having to do with Step 7, i.e. “Humbly asked him to remove our shortcomings.”
An important part of parenting comes when the parent makes a mistake. Perhaps tempers flare in a regrettable way. Or maybe a crucial decision turns out to have been a misstep. Maybe the parents move their child into a new school that proves to be a poor match, and the child has to switch back later. God’s grace is…
1. Not knowing much (at all) about Pope Francis, maybe you were as pleasantly surprised as I was to read David Brooks’ irenic column about “How Movements Recover”, in which he articulated a philosophy and approach quite near and dear to this mocking-heart:
Augustine [of Hippo], as his magisterial biographer Peter Brown puts it, “was deeply preoccupied by the idea of the basic unity of the human race.” He reacted against any effort to divide people between those within the church and those permanently outside. He wanted the church to go on offense and swallow the world. This would involve swallowing…
Continuing with our series of previews of our recent publication Grace in Addiction: The Good News of Alcoholics Anonymous for Everybody, we move to a section from the chapter having to do with Step 7, i.e. “Humbly asked him to remove our shortcomings.”
“Although people do sometimes have a sense of peace with God… nevertheless, in a given situation it is not so much peace with God that is the true mark of the Holy Spirit at work, but birth pangs.” -Christoph Blumhardt
Another image of God’s work in a person’s life comes from John’s Gospel: “The wind blows wherever it…
A second preview from our brand new publication Grace in Addiction: The Good News of Alcoholics Anonymous for Everybody. We’ve heard that it makes a terrific Christmas present (not unlike giving someone a stick of deodorant, but hey…). This one comes from the chapter on Step 3 (“made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood him”), pgs 64-69:
“Let me give you a truth that can make all the difference in the world: almost everything you think about doing to make something better is wrong and will only make…
Our last post before taking a break for the holiday and the first in a series of previews of our brand new publication, Grace in Addiction: The Good News of Alcoholics for Everybody by John Z, this section comes from pages 23-25:
An important issue for Alcoholics Anonymous is the problem of agency: in other words, is the emphasis placed on the individual’s initiative or on God’s work upon the individual?
For starters, it should be understood that the “work-related” terminology of the Twelve Steps can just as easily be interpreted as a descriptive tool, rather than a prescriptive one. In other…
We are beyond excited to announce the release of our new publication, Grace in Addiction: The Good News of Alcoholics Anonymous for Everybody by John Z! Years in the making, this book is the most substantial–and dare I say practical–project that Mockingbird has ever done. The official blurb goes like this:
Church basements are curious places. Playing host to the vibrant world of Twelve Step Recovery, they witness the sort of healing and redemption that would make those on the ground floor proud, and maybe even envious. Yet despite the Church and Alcoholics Anonymous both being in the business of bringing “hope to the hopeless”, the two worlds seldom seem to interact. Packed with vivid illustrations, good humor, and practical wisdom, Grace in Addiction attempts to bridge this divide and carry the unexpected good news of AA out of the basement and into the pews–and beyond! Highly recommended for anyone who has struggled with addiction, knows someone who has struggled with addiction, or spent any time living and/or breathing.*Not to be confused with the Grace in Addiction pamphlet that Mockingbird published in 2010. That one provided some of the basis and inspiration for this one, but it was 30 pages, as opposed to 285! To read an excerpt of the introduction, go here. There are also some preview pages available on Amazon–where the book is available for purchase
As a bonus, here’s the author himself (whoever he may be), giving a presentation about the material at our recent conference in Charlottesville:
In 2010, Mockingbird published a little pamphlet called Grace in Addiction: What the Church Can Learn from Alcoholics Anonymous, and the response was so positive that we decided to develop it into a full-length book. We are truly excited to announce that the project–retitled Grace in Addiction: The Good News of Alcoholics Anonymous for Everybody–is now finished and will make its debut later at the Fall Conference in Charlottesville, VA (9/28-29)! Not only will it be available for the first time, the esteemed author John Z will be on hand to present some of the material in person. The session,…
Another wonderful section of Mary Karr’s memoir of addiction and recovery, Lit, tells of how God chose to speak profoundly to her through the mouth of a total nut (and fellow addict). Obviously the Bible offers great precedent for this kind of thing (what we like to call The Nazareth Principle), but it’s nonetheless remarkable to hear of such occurrences in more modern contexts. Of course, Alcoholics Anonymous–the subject and setting of much of the book–embodies this idea. Crazy people in AA meetings often say smart things. Balaam’s ass might as well be the movement’s mascot.
In this excerpt, Mary recounts…
A beautiful passage about what it means to have a spiritual “awakening,” taken from Alcoholics Anonymous’ Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions:
“Still more wonderful is the feeling that we do not have to be specially distinguished among our fellows in order to be useful and profoundly happy. Not many of us can be leaders of prominence, nor do we wish to be. Service, gladly rendered, obligations squarely met, troubles well accepted or solved with God’s help, the knowledge that at home or in the world outside we are partners in a common effort, the well-understood fact that in God’s sight all…
My dog is a lithe, energetic, twenty-five pound beagle that walks with a graceful trot, chases squirrels, and loves belly rubs. But she was not always so fearless. She is a pack dog, mistreated by some heartless Virginia hunter, housed in a pen with a concrete floor for her first three years, tossed meager scraps of food for which she had to compete with the bigger dogs. And she comes from an anxious breed. So she breathes and eats apprehension. The first time I tried to pet her, she recoiled. When I began walking her, she pulled back to the…
1. Irrepressible Moneyball author Michael Lewis profiled new Mbird fave Daniel Kahneman for Vanity Fair in his recent piece, “The King of Human Error,” providing perhaps the clearest and best overview of the great social psychologist’s research yet. The anchoring effect makes for a particularly terrific addition to our ongoing catalog of human fallibility. But it’s the humility of the man himself which makes the deepest impression:
[Kahenman and his partner Amos Tversky] had a rule of thumb, [Kahneman] explains: they would study no specific example of human idiocy or irrationality unless they first detected it in themselves. “People thought we…
A particularly memorable section of “Bill’s Story,” in which Bill Wilson, primary author of The Big Book and co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, recounts what it was like to begin thinking about religious ideas afresh, in light of the significant internal resistance/baggage incurred by negative experiences he’d had with the church as a youth. The occasion of his reflection is a visit from an old drinking buddy who had appeared on Bill’s doorstep, sober and having “gotten religion.” From pages 9-12 of The Big Book:
He had come to pass his experience along to me – if I cared to have it.…
William Inge was an American playwright who wrote successful plays (and movies), such as Picnic, Bus Stop, The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, and Splendor in the Grass. He was influenced by the Christianity of his childhood, and kept hoping it would ‘work’ for him. It didn’t quite, but he understood what the Church ought to be saying and what it wasn’t saying.
His late novel My Son Is a Splendid Driver (1971) tells the story of a most respectable 62-year old woman who has, to her complete consternation, caught a sexually transmitted disease from her husband. It…
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