Explain the origins of the spiritual, not religious perspective of the 12 Steps.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The 12 steps have their origins in a Christian religious perspective. The Oxford Group devised their philosophy on a few sources, one of which was the text The Principles of Jesus (Speer, 1902). This is why the 12-step programs of AA/NA took on the mantra of spiritual, not religious. The 12 steps were originally written in 1939 by William Wilson, cofounder of AA, and revised by the earliest recovering members of that organization (Kurtz, 1979, 1992, 1996; Wilson, 1953). They were an attempt to provide insight into the recovery process as they had experienced it, or as they said, an effort to demonstrate “how it works” (AAWS, 1976, pp. 58–71; Forcehimes, 2004). Wilson (1953) and others were self-conscious about the variety of influences that affected their experiences. They understood that the Oxford Group had provided them with some type of spiritual origins, but they felt the need to break away from the Oxford Group’s overt religiosity (Kurtz, 1979). Thus, they proclaimed themselves “spiritual rather than religious,” believing that their experiences and the steps they offered provided a wide-open set of beliefs and practices that could complement any religion and accommodate those with no religious faith (AAWS, 1985; Kurtz, 2008). The general philosophy that guided the development of the recovery process was guided by (a) the personal experience of the earliest recovery members, (b) how they understood what had happened to them, and (c) how they communicated this experience to others (Kurtz, 1979, 1982; White & Kurtz, 2008).