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The Four Absolutes
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Their Source, Application, and Significance Honesty, Purity, Unselfishness, and Love

What Are These "Four Absolutes?"

You have to be around A.A. for quite a while before you hear much about the "Four Absolutes." Exceptions to that statement are those who read our Conference Approved history DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers, or Dr. Bob's last major speech, or are in the chain of sponsees beginning with Clarence Snyder, or come from the Akron area, or who have dipped their feet into A.A.'s Oxford Group origins, the role of Rev. Sam Shoemaker, and the notes made and shared by Dr. Bob's wife, Anne Smith.

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We'll provide a brief statement and documentation of the facts about the Absolutes. And these are long overdue because there have been many misunderstandings, misinterpretations, and confusing questions. Just take this example: Even those who ought to have known better sometimes say that the Four Absolutes constitute a distillation by Dr. Robert E. Speer of Jesus's teachings in the sermon on the mount.

But that is not so!

The "Four Absolutes" actually originated in a book by Dr. Robert E. Speer, titled "The Principles of Jesus." Speer laid down four principles which he believed represented the uncompromising moral principles taught by Jesus. Speer cited verses from the Bible for each proposition. And his four principles were thereafter most commonly called the "Four Standards."

I've heard several early Oxford Group activists use that term. I've seen it used often in Anne Smith's journal. And it pops up in some of the Oxford Group writings I've researched. On the other hand, Dr. Bob often said the "standards" were "yardsticks." But the term "absolutes" really came from Professor Henry B. Wright of Yale who popularized the expression "absolutes." He cited Speer's work. He dug up many verses from the Gospels and the Church Epistles that set forth these same principles. And Wright's immense influence on Dr. Frank Buchman, Founder of the Oxford Group, resulted in the adoption of the phrase "Four Absolutes." Bill Wilson referred to them by that name and even claimed they were incorporated into his Steps Six and Step Seven.

How Were They Used?

There's more misinformation than information about the application of the absolutes. As I have written so often, there were no Steps either in A.A. or in the Oxford Group during the four-year period when A.A. was being developed. But there was lots of literature then being read and circulated on the topic of the absolutes. I believe the first significant use of those moral standards occurred about 1919 in China, when Frank Buchman suggested to Sam Shoemaker that "sin" might be blocking Sam's relationship with God. Shoemaker wrote down the four absolutes-honesty, purity, unselfishness, and love-and then compared as "sins" those areas in his life which fell short of the standards. Shoemaker remarked: "My sins arose before me like tombstones;" and Sam then made a decision to surrender his life to God-a decision and event to which he referred every single year of his life thereafter in his own personal journals.

From at least that early point, Oxford Group people often made lists using the Four Absolutes as moral standards. They would write down the four standards. Then they would write down where they had fallen short of these standards. Then they would confess the shortcomings to another and go about forsaking the behavior, changing themselves, and making restitution for harms done-all based on surrendering their lives to God and receiving His guidance from the Bible, the Standards, prayer, listening to His Voice, and talking to each other.

Early AAs in Akron often incorporated a pledge in the prayers they made when they surrendered "upstairs" in the home of T. Henry Williams. In addition to accepting Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and asking God to take alcohol out of their lives, they would ask for help in living up to the four standards-concepts one old-timer called the "cardinal principles of Jesus Christ."

Bill Wilson early criticized the Four Absolutes as being too tough for alcoholics to swallow, just as he later criticized several other Oxford Group principles and practices. By contrast, Dr. Bob Smith consistently favored application of the Four Absolutes. So did his wife Anne, and the other leaders such as Henrietta Seiberling and T. Henry and Clarace Williams. Today, these absolutes have become all but forgotten except for the pockets I first mentioned.

They are also misinterpreted because observers haven't taken the time to learn their Biblical origins and their intended guidance and application. And I suggest the following path that will help. First, take the "standards" as the "yardsticks" for A.A.'s Fourth Step inventory (something which was actually done before there was a "Fourth Step" concept in 1939). Second, take the "standards" as the "yardsticks" for the "continued" personal inventory in the "Tenth Step" before the was a Tenth Step had been adopted in 1939. Third, consider the "principles" of the "Twelfth Step" before there was a Twelfth Step in 1939. Then look at the twenty-eight Oxford Group principles that impacted on A.A. and which Bill virtually codified in his Big Book "Steps" in 1939. Finally, look through the Big Book for its emphasis on honesty, unselfishness, and love. You can forget "purity" because that was probably the stickler for Wilson though it was the insistent subject of teaching in Akron and Cleveland A.A. If you take this study course, you have the application of these four ideas in pioneer A.A.

Disorders - Alcohol Addiction