We are very proud to announce that our new publication Grace In Addiction: What The Church Can Learn From Alcoholics Anonymous is now available. We believe that it is our best material yet – many thanks to all who helped with it!
For a couple of previews, click here. And to order ($10), go here.
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15 responses to “NOW AVAILABLE! Grace In Addiction: What The Church Can Learn From Alcoholics Anonymous”
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This really is a great book.
I loved it. Buy multiple copies and hand them out!
Great book! A heartfelt thank you to the authors and the editor.
My favorite quote (may not be exact, it's from memory):
"I look the enemy in the eye every morning…and then I shave him."
Can't speak highly enough about this thing!
'That Thing'
(by That Thing)
I am very familiar with the work of AA. It really does work! It is PURE Law. Law, law, law , law. There is no grace there at all I am asserting. None. Zip.
I also must quickly add that God is truly pleased with this Law work. So pleased in fact that this is His work. He is the one providencing it.
AA is the purest example of truly God-pleasing earthly righteousness that I have ever seen which is: mortification + love.
Neither Mortification (the process of killing/dying) nor love have anything to do with Grace in proper christian meaning of that word.
Mortification is intentional "purpose-driven" self-discipline/self-restraint/ego-killing with the purpose of making us service-able to others. Pagans do this better than christians. Fact. AA is the proof. No God-as-Christ (aka "Grace") is necessary. None. Zip. Nada. So yes the christians can learn alot from AA.
Grace is not Mortification.
And then Love. AA can teach christians a thing or two about this too.
Teach the church these things? um… let´s think about that proposition just a minute…
So this book is saying then what? It is saying that the church can learn from AA how to effectively become a morality boot camp. This is really what AA offers. And as I said this IS all God, the Holy Spirit´s work. This is what we are saying in the book title. I assume the contents are true to the title.
Further, the great commission to the church is to teach all jesus has "commanded" us. So one could argue that the great commission is all about law boot camp right? or why not?
But on the other hand, "grace" implies, in the narrow meaning, which I assume this site is supposed to be all about, what God has done for us in Christ and what is given to us by God without any effort on our part.
So, in summary: that word "grace" would completely exclude every single thing AA is about and only about.
Now on the other, other hand, the Lutheran confessions say "Good works are necessary!" they also say "if one has faith, then Good Works must follow!" As a Lutheran, how do I sqare what I just wrote with what I wrote about AA?
My real question in all this is: How do the good folks at Mockingbird reconcile this all?
Frank–I am trying to get some understanding of the LCMS allergy to anything being called "grace" that does not explicitly and exclusively refer to and base itself entirely on "Jesus" and "the Cross". I believe this narrow understanding of "grace" is directly at odds with Jesus' own teaching. For example, Jesus told the parable of the lost sheep, Jesus told the parable of the prodigal son– NO JESUS THERE, NO CROSS THERE. Was Jesus telling us those parables to teach us about Law or about Grace? Sure they don't tell the whole story,and AA is not the whole story, but that does not mean that AA and Jesus' parables do not covey powerful truth about the nature of grace, which is most powerfully expressed, but not exclusively expressed, in Jesus and his Cross.
Frank,
You are so off the mark that your comments are simply beyond belief.
Have you actually read the Mockingbird booklet you are criticizing?
I hope you have, but if you haven't,
how can you write about this new publication with any authority or understanding?
Do you know what's actually in it, what it really says?
If this were an academic forum, I believe you would be disbarred for these comments.
Hide your head!
Wow, Frank. What an assertion!
Obviously I have some problems with what you write. While by no means the whole loaf, AA does present God as savior, doing for people what they cannot do for themselves – 100%. But that's almost beside the point here.
My wife and I would be happy to donate a copy of the booklet to you. What is your mailing address?
info@mockingbirdnyc.com
wow – can't believe the thread hijacking esp. without someone actually reading this. (BTW – I'm an LCMS guy)
From the AA Big Book – – –
"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance—that principle is contempt prior to investigation." —HERBERT SPENCER [Big Book, Appendix II, page 570, lines 16 & 19] "
Sorry Mr. T, did not mean to paint with so broad a brush re: LCMS. I should have said "some folks in LCMS" seem to have the allergy. And those hives are shared by many outside of LCMS as well 🙂
Michael,
Your logic is impecable if your logical premise is true that everything Jesus said was about grace and not law.
My premise is that Jesus spent alot of time talking about how our standards and acts of love don´t measure up. Yes this is law.
Jesus did not come to abolish the Law. He commands us, as God, to do it. Or die.
To quote a song I like: "Where´s the love?"
Thanks for the substantive objection rather than an ad homen attack! refreshing. especially since this topic seems to be about love eh?
dz.
Your reaction is entirely appropriate. The gospel should have us all clutching our pearls!
I would be really excited to receive the pamphlet. My email can be found by clicking on my name!
I took the liberty of assuming that the title of the pamphlet fully reflected it´s contents. If that assumtion represented license on my part and I am wrong, you cannot imagine the joy I will take in fully retracting my comments, although true, as being aimed in any way at this pamphlet.
I am a HUGE fan of Alcoholics Anonymous as should be plain from my post by the way!
Frank, Don't mean to "cross-examine" but, would you say that Jesus' parable of the lost sheep an prodigal son are about Law, not Grace? If so, could you please explain your reasoning?
paul,
I am obviously no academic. Don´t claim to be. I assume you do. If so, you can read the part of my post referring to "intellectuals".
If assuming that the title of the work reflects the contents of the work was taking uncharitable liberty, I am here waiting to joyfully know that what I said, although true about AA, cannot be aimed at your booklet.
I do hope that this is a forum where we can honestly debate truth claims without the need to go ad homen. If I am in the wrong place for this, let me know!
The Peace of our Lord be with you dear brother!