Occurrences of the Word “God” and Related Words on Pages 1-164 of Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Ed.
Part 2: The 81 Occurrences of Capitalized Pronouns Referring to “God” on pages 1-164 of Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed. (corrected)
[** Bolding added for clarity **]
Chapter 1: “Bill’s Story”—Eleven (11) occurrences
p. 12 (1st): “. . . a Czar of the Heavens, however loving His sway might be.”[1]
p. 12 (2d): “. . . God is concerned with us humans when we want Him enough.”
p. 12 (3rd): “. . . God. There had to be a humble willingness to have Him with me …”
p. 12 (4th): “. . . God. . . . and He came.
p. 12 (5th): “. . . God. . . . But soon the sense of His presence . . .”
p. 13 (1st): “There I humbly offered myself to God, as I then understood Him, . . .”
p. 13 (2d): “. . . God, . . . to do with me as He would.”
p. 13 (3rd): “. . . God, . . . I placed myself unreservedly under His care and direction.”
p. 13 (4th): “. . . God, . . . I admitted for the first time . . . that without Him I was lost.”
p. 13 (5th): “. . . the new God-consciousness within. . . . I was to sit quietly when in doubt, asking only for direction and strength to meet my problems as He would have me.”
p. 14: “God comes to most men gradually, but His impact on me was sudden and profound.”
Chapter 2: “There Is a Solution”—One (1) occurrence
p. 25: “. . . our Creator . . . He has commenced to accomplish those things for us which we could never do by ourselves.”
Chapter 3: “More about Alcoholism”—No (0) occurrences
Chapter 4: “We Agnostics”—Fifteen (15) occurrences
p. 45: “. . . the word ‘God’ brought up a particular idea of Him . . .”
p. 46 (1st): “God. . . . to make the approach and to effect a contact with Him.”
p. 46 (2d): “. . . God does not make too hard terms with those who seek Him.”
p. 47: “. . . to commence spiritual growth, to effect our first conscious relation with God as we understood Him.”
p. 53 (1st): “God is everything or else He is nothing.”
p. 53 (2d): “God either is, or He isn’t.”
p. 55 (1st): “. . . some kind of God . . . Sometimes we had to search fearlessly, but He was there.”
p. 55 (2d): “. . . God . . . He was as much a fact as we were.”
p. 55 (3rd): “We found the Great Reality deep down within us. In the last analysis it is only there that He may be found.”
p. 56: “Our friend’s gorge rose as he bitterly cried out: ‘If there is a God, He certainly hasn’t done anything for me!’”
p. 57 (1st): “. . . God restored us all to our right minds. . . . He has come to all who have honestly sought Him.”
p. 57 (2d): “. . . God . . . He has come to all who have honestly sought Him.”
p. 57 (3rd): “. . . God . . . When we drew near to Him He disclosed Himself to us!”
p. 57 (4th): “. . . God . . . When we drew near to Him He disclosed Himself to us!”
p. 57 (5th): “. . . God . . . When we drew near to Him He disclosed Himself to us!”
Chapter 5: “How It Works”—Thirty-Six (36) occurrences
p. 59 (1st): “But there is One who has all power—that One is God. May you find Him now!”
p. 59 (2d): “God . . . We asked His protection and care with complete abandon.”
p. 59 (3rd): “3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.”[2]
[** Endnote 2 **]
p. 59 (4th): “7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.”
p. 59 (5th): “11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, . . .”
[** See Endnote 2 **]
p. 59 (6th): “11. . . . God as we understood Him, praying only for a knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.”
p. 60 (1st): “(c) That God could and would if He were sought.”
p. 60 (2d): “. . . Step Three, . . . we decided to turn our will and our life over to God as we understood Him.”
p. 62 (1st): “God makes that possible. And there often seems no way of entirely getting rid of self without His aid.”
p. 62 (2d): “God was going to be our Director. He is the Principal; . . .”
p. 62 (3rd): “God . . . we are His agents.”
p. 62 (4th): “God . . . He is the Father, and we are His children.”
p. 62 (5th): “God . . . we are His children.”
p. 63 (1st): “We had a new Employer. Being all powerful, He provided what we needed, if we kept close to Him and performed His work well.”
p. 63 (2d): “We had a new Employer. Being all powerful, He provided what we needed, if we kept close to Him and performed His work well.”
p. 63 (3rd): “We had a new Employer. Being all powerful, He provided what we needed, if we kept close to Him and performed His work well.”
p. 63 (4th): “We had a new Employer. Being all powerful . . . as we became conscious of His presence, we began to lose our fear of today, tomorrow or the hereafter. We were reborn.”
p. 63 (5th): “We were now at Step Three. Many of us said to our Maker, as we understood Him: ‘God, . . .”
p. 63 (6th): “. . . ‘God, I offer myself to Thee—to build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt.’”
p. 63 (7th): “. . . ‘God, I offer myself to Thee—to build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt.’”
p. 63 (8th): “‘God, . . . Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will.’”
p. 63 (9th): “‘God, . . . Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy Way of life.’”
p. 63 (10th): “‘God, . . . Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy Way of life.’”
p. 63 (11th): “‘God, . . . Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy Way of life.’”
p. 63 (12th): “‘God, . . . May I do Thy will always!’”
p. 63 (13th): “We thought well before taking this step making sure we were ready; that we could at last abandon ourselves utterly to Him.”
p. 67: “‘God save me from being angry. Thy will be done.’”
p. 68 (1st): “We trust infinite God rather than our finite selves. We are in the world to play the role He assigns.”
p. 68 (2d): “. . . infinite God . . . Just to the extent that we do as we think He would have us, . . .”
p. 68 (3rd): “. . . infinite God . . . and humbly rely on Him, . . .”
p. 68 (4th): “. . . infinite God . . . does He enable us to match calamity with serenity.”
p. 68 (5th): “We never apologize for God. Instead we let Him demonstrate through us, what He can do.”
p. 68 (6th): “We never apologize for God. Instead we let Him demonstrate through us, what He can do.”
p. 68 (7th): “We never apologize for God. . . . We ask Him to remove our fear . . .”
p. 68 (8th): “We never apologize for God. . . . We . . . direct our attention to what He would have us be.”
p. 71: “. . . God can remove whatever self-will has blocked you off from Him.”
Chapter 6: “Into Action”—Seven (7) occurrences
p. 75: “We thank God from the bottom of our heart that we know Him better.”
p. 76: “. . . God . . . Can He now take them all—every one?”
p. 85 (1st): “. . . the vision of God’s will . . . ‘How can I best serve Thee— . . .”
p. 85 (2d): “. . . the vision of God’s will . . . ‘Thy will (not mine) be done.’”
p. 85 (3rd): “Much has already been said about receiving strength, inspiration, and direction from Him who has all knowledge and power.”
p. 85 (4th): “If we have carefully followed directions, we have begun to sense the flow of His Spirit into us. To some extent we have become God-conscious.”
p. 88: “. . . humbly saying to ourselves many times each day ‘Thy will be done.’”
Chapter 7: “Working with Others”—No (0) occurrences
Chapter 8: “To Wives”—Two (2) occurrences
p. 116: “If God can solve the age-old riddle of alcoholism, He can solve your problems too.”
p. 120: “God has either removed your husband’s liquor problem or He has not.”
Chapter 9: “The Family Afterward”—Three (3) occurrences
p. 130 (1st): “. . . a growing consciousness of the power of God in our lives. We have come to believe He would like us to keep our heads with Him, . . .”
p. 130 (2d): “. . . a growing consciousness of the power of God in our lives. We have come to believe He would like us to keep our heads with Him, . . .”
p. 133: “God . . . if trouble comes, cheerfully capitalize it as an opportunity to demonstrate His omnipotence.”
Chapter 10: “To Employers”—No (0) occurrences
Chapter 11: “A Vision for You”—Six (6) occurrences
p. 158: “‘God ought to be able to do anything.’ Then he added, ‘He sure didn’t do much for me when I was trying to fight this booze racket alone.’”
p. 164 (1st): “God will determine that, so you must remember that your real reliance is always upon Him.”
p. 164 (2d): “God . . . He will show you how to create the fellowship you crave.”
p. 164 (3rd): “God will constantly disclose more to you and to us. Ask Him in your morning meditation what you can do each day for the man who is still sick.”
p. 164 (4th): “God . . . See to it that your relationship with Him is right, and great events will come to pass for you and countless others.”
p. 164 (5th): “Abandon yourself to God as you understand God. Admit your faults to Him and to your fellows.”
[1] [** Endnote 1 **] This occurrence of the capitalized pronoun “His”—referring to “a Czar of the Heavens”—is part of a four-paragraph, handwritten section of text that was inserted into the printer’s copy of Alcoholics Anonymous just before the first edition was published in April 1939. The four-paragraph section of text begins with the words “Despite the living example of my friend . . .” on page 12 of the fourth edition (2001) and ends with the words “Of course I would!” on page 12. This four-paragraph section of text was not present in the prepublication copy of Alcoholics Anonymous, better known as “the Multilith Edition” or “the Original Manuscript.” Please see: The Book That Started It All: The Original Working Manuscript of Alcoholics Anonymous (Center City, Minn.: Hazelden, 2010) for more details.
[2] [** Endnote 2 **] On pages 166-67 of the A.A. General Service Conference-approved book Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, A.A. cofounder Bill W. reported:
“Just before the manuscript was finished an event of great significance for our future took place. At the time it looked like just another battle over the book. The scene was Henry’s [i.e., Henry (Hank) P.’s] office in Newark, where most of the writing had been done. Present were Fitz, Henry, our grand little secretary Ruth, and myself. We were still arguing about the Twelve Steps. All this time I had refused to budge on these steps. I would not change a word of the original draft, in which, you will remember, I had consistently used the word ‘God,’ and in one place the expression ‘on our knees’ was used. Praying to God on one’s knees was still a big affront to Henry. He argued, he begged, he threatened. He quoted Jimmy [i.e., Jim (Jimmy) B.] to back him up. He was positive we would scare off alcoholics by the thousands when they read those Twelve Steps. Little by little both Fitz and Ruth came to see merit in his contentions. Though at first I would have none of it, we finally began to talk about the possibility of compromise. Who first suggested the compromise words I do not know . . . In Step Two we decided to describe God as a ‘Power greater than ourselves.’ In Steps Three and Eleven we inserted the words ‘God as we understood Him.’ From Step Seven we deleted the expression ‘on our knees.’ . . .
Such were the final concessions to those of little or no faith; this was the great contribution of our atheists and agnostics. . . .
God was certainly there in our Steps, but He was now expressed in terms that . . .” [Emphasis (i.e., bolding) added]
{Although the change in wording from “God” to “a Power greater than ourselves” in Step Two, and the change in wording from “God” to “God as we understood Him” in Step Three, had already been made by the time copies of the prepublication manuscript of Alcoholics Anonymous (better known as the “Multilith Edition” or the “Original Manuscript”) were sent around the country in mid-February 1939, Step Eleven still read “God” (without the modifying words “as we understood Him” following it) at that time.
[See The Book That Started It All: The Original Working Manuscript of Alcoholics Anonymous (Center City, MN: Hazelden, 2010), p. 59; and “The Original Manuscript of Alcoholics Anonymous”: http://www.silkworth.net/originalmanuscript/chapter5.html#howitworks; accessed 12/16/12.]}
Dick B. on Recovery Blog 