Father Ed. The Story of Bill W.’s Spiritual Sponsor Dawn Eden Goldstein (Orbis Books), 408 Pages
The colliding of two important trends in America are imminent: one is demoralizing and one is remoralizing.
Addiction is a demoralizing trend. Not only are there the old demons of gambling, alcohol, and tobacco, but also newer demons such as the easily-mass-produced opioids or the dark seductions offered by the internet pose grave threats.
Remoralizing is the revival in faith-based understandings of social and cultural problems and their solutions. For example, we see a rise in interest in school choice and homeschooling; there is a religious component to both. There is also a renewed appreciation of Catholic social thought. This includes the recollection by Pope Leo XIII of Novarum, and even talk about post-liberal integralism.
Although we don’t know yet which moralizing will be stronger, there are plenty of signs that America is moving away from the “anything goes” attitude that has caused so much chaos and criminality as well as tragedy.
Dawn Eden Goldstein’s book Dad Ed: The Story Of Bill W.’s Spiritual Support is a good choice. It not only recollects an important historical figure, but also offers a tried and true solution. The “Bill W.” is Bill Wilson (1895-1971), founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A). “Father Ed,” is Edward Dowling (1898-1960). Wilson, Dowling’s friend and mentor for over 20 years, wrote that Dowling had “Ed” been the greatest human being he knew.
Wilson is the most well-known of the two. Wilson was the founder of A.A. in Akron, in 1935. He also led a self-help movement which continues to flourish, quietly, until today. A.A. can be described as therapy open to all. The style of Bill W., which is abbreviated after the last name, is appropriate for the anonymity of its members. A.A., on a deeper level is a pathstation to faith. A.A.’s website describes it as a “fellowship” that adheres to “spiritual principals.” The Twelve Steps, which are the heart of A.A.’s path to redemption and rehabilitation, make seven mentions of God or Him.
Dowling, a St. Louis resident for over 60 years, was first exposed to the Big Book-the Bible by A.A.-in 1939. A fellow priest who had suffered from alcoholism himself, pointed out the similarities between the Twelve Steps of St. Ignatius, the 16th-century founder, and the Religious Exercises. All Jesuits were familiar with the Exercises, a series of prayers and meditations. Dowling, a 1925 novitiate, had expressed his desire to study the Exercises more deeply. “The Exercises placed humility among the highest moral achievements–so fertile soil for Love.”
Dowling, who was a decade ahead of A.A., saw the exercises as “a set of principles that could easily be applied in all areas of life.” He looked forward to “popularizing these principles in these different fields.”
Goldstein examines the interplay between the Catholic Dowling and the Protestant Wilson in the pre-Vatican II era. She also focuses on the subtleties of mid-century America when ecumenicalism was not always a common practice. She explains that Protestant temperance literature often warned alcoholics about their sinfulness. The Big Book, on the other hand, was more explicitly “Catholic” and a “intense call for self-examination, conversion and trustful surrender before God’s transformative grace.”
Goldstein is an example of transformation. Born Jewish and once a writer for pop music, Goldstein converted to Catholicism after working in tabloid newspapers in New York City. She was the first woman to receive a doctorate of sacred theology at the University of St. Mary of the Lake, Mundelein, Illinois in 2016. This gives her the ability to explain how the sacred can coexist within –and even operate within-.
Dowling was able to see his own pain through the new lens of A.A. and Big Book. Although he was not an alcoholic himself, he struggled with depression and applied Twelve-Step principles. However, Dowling felt the need to look outside. Goldstein says that Dowling devoted much of his pastoral work after he met A.A. to adapting the Twelve Steps for people with any kind of problem. This included poverty, marriage counseling, and discrimination. Goldstein is not too concerned about Dowling’s use of the Twelve Steps for homosexuality.
Reading Father Ed takes you back to a time when Catholic influence was at its peak. When Hollywood produced church-centric films like Boys Town, The Song of Bernadette and Going My Way. And when Dowling’s St. Louis was a major hub due to another movie of the era, Meet Me in St. Louis. The appearances of figures such as Charles Lindbergh and Gerald P. Nye, Kennesaw Mountains Landis, Judy Garland, Fulton Sheen, and others are well contextualized. We also meet the descendants and friends of Dred Scott and Father William Bowdern who were both aided and supported by Dowling.
Dowling was an activist, for a short time with America First and longer-term championing labor rights. Ankylosing Spondylitis, an arthritis condition, was what slowed Dowling down and even made his life more difficult. Goldstein’s life is largely epistolary. Dowling has delved deep into Maryville University Library’s archives and the Jesuit Archives & Research Center to capture Dowling’s thoughts.
Dowling is brought to life by her academic hands. He is a man with an important mission. In fact, he has many, both practical and spiritual. Despite his close relationship with Wilson, Goldstein wrote that Dowling’s true purpose was not to sober up drunks. Dowling spoke one time to an A.A. group from Delaware.
The Alcoholics Anonymous plan is a comprehensive plan that can be used to help you adjust. . . . The founder of the A.A. Movement, Bill, had an alcoholism problem at the time it was founded. It works for many other things.
What are “other things?”? Dowling stated this in a 1944 article in The Queen’s Work. This was a defunct Jesuit publication.
If you are unable to stop chewing your nails, grumbling at your mother-in law, or are obsessed by any other deteriorating behavior, you can substitute alcohol for your vice in the twelve steps. Then you will see if it is possible to get the courage to even start the program. This program is great for those who suffer from loneliness, anxiety, or discouragement.
The cleric was able to see many perspectives. “In moving their treatment from the expensive clinical couch, to the low-cost cafe bar, from inexperienced professional, to the amateur expert. A.A. has democratized the concept of sanity.”
Despite his secular-sounding pitches, Dowling was never able to lose sight of his ultimate mission: To connect A.A. and Christianity.
A man called Peter wrote a letter to members of new groups he formed around 1900 years ago. Here’s one thing he said. “Be sober and watch your enemy, the Devil, like a roaring Lion, goes about seeking out whom he may devour.” Strong in faith. God keep you so.
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1 Peter 5:8-9 is the passage that does duty.
Six decades after Dowling’s passing, we can see that the roaring lions are still eating, perhaps even more hungry than ever. This is the bad news. The good news is that Americans are realizing that various social experiments–including decriminalized, even legalized, even assisted, drug use–have turned out catastrophically. While there is no consensus on what to do, there are some things we can do to change.
So Goldstein chose a time that is appropriate to recall the Twelve Steps. Step Four is where we “take a deep and honest moral inventory” of ourselves. It is a great one. There are also eleven others, each just as good.
