Soul Surgery Some Thoughts On Incisive Personal Work

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Victor C. Kitchen was a New York City advertising executive who wrote one of the Oxford Group's most important books. He also went to the same Oxford Group meetings as Bill Wilson, who later became the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. This is a book about A. A.'s roots in the Oxford Group, as seen through the pages of Kitchen's work. It explains how the key ideas, which the two movements shared, arose out of the evolution of the modern evangelical movement. The author begins with John Wesley's Aldersgate experience in 1738 and traces this understanding of the healing power of grace down to Kitchen's and Bill W's time, traversing en route the world of nineteenth century revivalism, the Keswick holiness movement, and the early twentieth century foreign missionary effort. The great theme, around which all of this is centered, is that of God's grace as the power to change human character itself. This book shows what faith and grace are really about. It shows how even faith mixed with doubt can lead us into true spiritual awakening, and it explains the basic nuts and bolts required to obtain a constant conscious contact with a God of our understanding. "Each century produces a small handful of great spiritual books. I believe strongly that Changed by Grace is going to prove one of the greatest of our present century. The best way to describe it is to say that it does for us today what William James' Varieties of Religious Experience did for the world of a hundred years ago."-John Barleycorn in The Waynedale News.

Dick B. is today regarded as the leading A.A. historian. He is a writer, Bible student, retired attorney, and active recovered member of the A.A. fellowship. He has brought to the history table: (1) His strong belief in the Creator, Christianity, and the Bible as the main source book for truth. (2) His long and fervent work with newcomers in helping them to overcome their alcoholism with the power of God. (3) His talents in writing and research that emerged from his work at the University of California where he received a Phi Beta Kappa key, his editorship of the Stanford Law Review, and his vigorous practice in writing and presenting legal briefs before many many courts. This mid-point treatise had been followed by and added up to 33 A.A. history titles so far. This book is foundational.

One of the earliest and most valuable discoveries by author Dick B. in his search for the facts about the early A.A. program, which had such great successes, was the many, varied, and important Christian and other books read, studied, and circulated by A.A. Cofounder Dr. Bob among early AAs and their families. These are of great importance and utility today if you are to be healed of alcoholism. They cover the Bible, Jesus Christ, prayer, healing, alcoholism, daily devotions, Quiet Time, the Oxford Group, Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker, conversion, and other relevant religious topics. Dick discovered the books in the homes of Dr. Bob's children, read and analyzed and categorized them, and placed them in this title. Other books were mentioned elsewhere as having been read and circulated by Dr. Bob, and are included.