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1 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 Hype for Bible Thumpers Aug 21, 2008
Bill Wilson was never friends or at home with any organized religion. He was a devout Spiritualist up until his end days. This is well documented. The 12 Steps were said to be written by automatic writing and scribed by spirit. This book is for those bible thumping wanna make Bill W. into what he was not - a Jesus loving Christian. Though he danced with a few zealots and Catholicism, in the end he returned to Spiritualism and there he stayed.
1 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 A New View of Bill Wilson's Early Years and Convictions about Conversions and Christ Apr 18, 2008
One of the most intimidating hurdles for a Christian to overcome in A.A. is the repeated, uninformed, incomplete presentation of Bill as some kind of atheist or agnostic who finally turned to a "higher power" that could be the A.A. Group. I am not one who studies Bill Wilson's later years after A.A. was founded, nor who relishes accounts of his shortcomings in marriage, LSD, spiritualism, and all the rest. For me the important question is this: Did the Creator really have a role in early A.A.? And over the years I have been reading Dick B.'s books and research results, I have become enlightened and warmed in my heart about how important the Creator and His son Jesus Christ were in early AAs. Though most don't know much about Dr. Bob, they seem to have the impression that he believed in God, was a Christian, studied the Bible, and strongly relied on prayer. That describes him properly. But the only way to find out the truth about Bill Wilson is not to look at his shortcomings, but to look at his early years and his growing conviction that the Great Physician, Jesus Christ had cured him of his alcohol problems. Probably not one in five hundred of today's A.A. people, or others, has any idea that Bill: (a) Learned of his grandfather Willie's conversion to Christ and was cured of alcoholism. (b) Grandfather Fayette Griffith urged Bill to read the Bible, enrolled him in Sunday school at the church next door, attended church with Bill. (c)That Bill himself studied the Bible, went to revivals and temperance meetings. (d) That Bill's grandparents on both sides were much involved in the little East Congregational Church between their houses. (e) That Bill's parents lived in a parsonage for a time, that they sang Christian songs together, that they talked of Grandpa Willie's conversion and cure quite often. (f) That Bill went on to Burr & Burton Academy in Vermont, attended daily chapel, and became president of the YMCA there. (g) That years later, Ebby Thacher related to Bill Ebby's own conversion to Christ at Calvary Rescue Mission. (h) That Bill went to the Mission, knelt at the altar, and handed his life over to Christ--as Lois herself phrased it. (h) That Dr. Silkworth had previously told Bill at Towns Hospital that the Great Physician (Jesus Christ) could cure him. (i) That Bill finally decided after his altar conversion to call on the Great Physician for help. (j) That Bill did call on the Great Physician and had his "hot flash" conversion experience--described in much the same language that his grandfather Willie had described his own mountain top convesion and cure. (k) That Bill wrote that he had been born again. (l) That Bill confirmed for himself the validity of conversion cures by studying the William James book the day of Bill's own conversion experience. (m) That Dr. Silkworth had confirmed to Bill that Bill had had a genuine conversion experience. (n) That Bill then went about trying to convert drunks--with no success. (o) That Bill's message was The Lord has cured me of this terrible disease (See Big Book, p. 191). (p) That Bill and Bob began leading people to Christ right after A.A. began? Does all this surprise you as much as it has me? Well, it's factual. Dick's new book relates it and documents it. And it's a testimony to an accurate story of Bill's convictions as he went to Akron, Ohio, and founded A.A. with Dr. Bob in the summer of 1935. What a great book. What a great history. What a great testimony. And what a great piece of research and writing for those who want to know the facts. Go for it.
5 of 7 found the following review helpful:
A Special Treat in this new biography of Bill W.'s Religious Background Nov 14, 2006
Through the years that I have been reading Dick B.'s A.A. history books, I have come to know the Akron pioneer founding crowd as friends and inspirations. I've also seen the importance that the Bible played in the whole A.A. picture--particularly the Book of James, the Sermon on the Mount, and 1 Corinthians 13. I was able to see the teachings of Rev. Sam Shoemaker and the life-changing program of the Oxford Group as the major sources for Bill Wilson's Big Book and Twelve Step language despite the Oxford Group disclaimers by so many AAs. But having gotten acquainted with the Akron Christians and the New York Christian clergy who played such a heavy role in A.A., I felt I knew the beliefs of Dr. Bob, his wife Anne, Henrietta Seiberling, T. Henry and Clarace Williams, Sam Shoemaker, Frank Buchman, Carl Jung, and William James. But I saw a whirlpool of confusion about what Bill Wilson really believed. Was he a Christian? Did he ever look at a Bible before he came to Akron? Did he embrace the things that Rev.Sam Shoemaker taught him? Did he even believe in God or in the acceptance of Jesus Christ as the way to a relationship with God?
If you read most historians and biographies, you'd be apt to chime in with the idea that Bill was an atheist or an agnostic or "spiritual but not religious" or wedded to some wierd "higher power" that came from the New Thought Movement. And evidently historian Dick B. had waited even longer than I did for an in depth look at the facts. Because the facts have been ignored or distorted. This new title--The Conversion of Bill W.--is a gem among gems. It leaves no stone unturned in the quest for Bill's real background and beliefs. It leaves the reader astonished at the news that Bill's grandfather Willie had a conversion much like that of Bill's in Towns Hospital, except that it happened years earlier and spelled salvation and freedom from drink for Willie. The door is opened to the little village of East Dorset, Vermont--to the founding membership in its East Congregational Church by the Wilsons and the sustaining membersip by Wilson's grandfather Fayette Griffith and Bill's mother. Was there Bible study? Yes. Was there church attendance? Yes. Did Bill attend Sunday school there? Yes. Did Bill himself study the Bible? Yes. Did Bill ever attend temperance and revival meetings such as those grandpa Willie had frequented? Yes. Did Bill then attend daily chapel at Burr and Burton Seminary in his years there? Yes. Were his first girl friend and later his wife the daughters of ministers? Yes. Did Bill have at least FIVE of what he called spiritual experiences in his life? Yes. Did Dr. William Silkworth tell Bill that he could be healed by Jesus Christ? Yes. Did Ebby Thacher tell Bill that he had been healed at the altar of Sam Shoemaker's Rescue Mission? Yes. Did Bill then go to the Mission and make a decision for Christ there? Yes. Did Bill soon proclaim that he had been born again? Yes. Did Bill call on the Great Physician for help at Towns Hospital? Yes. Did Bill state that after his hot flash experience there he never again doubted the existence of God? Yes. Did Bill's wife Lois and his doctor Silkworth conclude with Bill that he had been converted and had a conversion experience? Yes. And yet all these points involve the Bill Wilson whose beliefs and actions were unknown for years and which occurred before A.A. was a twinkle in Bill's eye. I like the thorough work in this book. I like the fact that it will shake many people into doing their own research and fact-finding instead of repeating undocumented statements about what A.A.'s founders were, what they believed, and what the early program was really like. This new biography is a treat you will enjoy.
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