Sam Shoemaker

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Sam Shoemaker, DD, STD (1893-1963), was an Episcopal priest who was instrumental in the Oxford Group and founding principles of Alcoholics Anonymous. Dr. Sam Moor Shoemaker was the rector of the Calvary Church in New York City, which was the United States headquarters of the Oxford Group. Bill Wilson attended Oxford Group meetings at the Calvary Church and Sam was instrumental in assisting Bill Wilson with the writing of the book Alcoholics Anonymous (nickname: The Big Book). Bill acknowledged this linkage when he wrote in the book, A.A. Comes of Age (page 39):

In 1917 Sam Shoemaker had been sent to China to start a branch of the YMCA and to teach at the Princeton-in-china Program. There, in 1918, feeling discouraged , he first met Frank Buchman who told him of the four absolutes, honesty, purity and unselfishness and love. Later Shoemaker would speak of the meeting as a major influence for the start of his ministry, that being the time when he decided to let go of self and let God guide his life ^[1]

Bill Wilson, in 1955, would later give credit to Sam Shoemaker whom he referred to as a co-founder of AA.

" It was from Sam Shoemaker, that we aborbed most of the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, steps that express the heart of AA's way of life. Sam Shoemaker had given us the concrete knowledge of what we could do about it, he passed on the spiritual keys by which we were liberated. The early AA got its ideas of self-examintation, acknowledgement of character defects, restitution for harm done, and working with others straight from the Oxford Group and directly from Sam Shoemaker, their former leader in America, and from nowhere else."

Rev. Shoemaker wrote over thirty books, at least half of which were circulating before A.A.’s 12 Steps were first published in the Big Book in 1939. Shoemaker's books were circulated in New York, Akron, and the Oxford Group.^[2]

1 Books by Shoemaker
2 Contribution
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Books by Shoemaker

A Young Man’s View of the Ministry, 1923
Beginning Your Ministry, 1963
By the Power of God, 1954
Calvary Church Yesterday and Today, 1936
Children of the Second Birth, 1927
Christ and This Crisis, 1943
Christ’s Words from the Cross, 1933
Confident Faith, 1932
Extraordinary Living for Ordinary Men, 1965
Freedom and Faith, 1949
God’s Control, 1939
How to Become a Christian, 1953
How You Can Find Happiness, 1947
How You Can Help Other People, 1946
If I Be Lifted Up, 1931 (with jacket)
Living Your Life Today, 1947
National Awakening, 1936
One Boy’s Influence, 1925
Realizing Religion, 1921
Religion That Works, 1928
Revive Thy Church, 1948
Sam Shoemaker at His Best, 1964
Steps of a Modern Disciple, 1972
The Church Alive, 1950
The Church Can Save the World, 1938
The Conversion of the Church, 1932
The Experiment of Faith, 1957
The Gospel According to You, 1934
They’re on the Way, 1951
Twice-Born Ministers, 1929
Under New Management, 1966
With the Holy Spirit and with Fire, 1960

[edit] Contribution

Shoemaker's contributions and service to Alcoholics Anonymous and as a minister of the Anglican Communion and Episcopal Church of America have had a worldwide affect. The philosophy that Shoemaker codified, in conjunction with Bill Wilson, is used in almost every country around the world to treat alcoholism.