The Spiritual Vision of Frank Buchman

Notes

notes Abbreviations AOG-UK Archives of the Oxford Group and Moral Re-Armament, Dial House, Whitbourne, Worcestershire, United Kingdom FB-HTS Papers of Frank Buchman, Archives, Hartford Theological Seminary MRA-ACV Papers of Moral Re-Armament, Archives Cantonales Vaudoises, Switzerland MRA-LOC Records of Moral Re-Armament, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington D.C. Introduction 1. Buchman, “Chaos Against God,” 74–78. Buchman was contributing to a series of talks on the Validity of Religious Experience. 2. See, for example, Hamilton, MRA. 3. This statistic, which comes from Time and Tide, September 2–8, 1965, 1, includes both people who devoted their lives to full-time work with MRA and those who took time off from their jobs to join campaigns. 4. G. Williamson, Inside Buchmanism, 195. 5. Franz König, Cardinal Archbishop of Vienna, cited in Lean, Frank Buchman, 2; statement by Cardinal König, November 15, 1984, file 3, Lean references, AOG-UK. 6. Buchman received the Cross of the Chevalier of the Legion of Honour from France (1950); the Grand Cross of the German Order of Merit (1952); the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun, second class (1956); and the Legion of Honour with Gold Medal of the Philippines (1956). For details of others given to Buchman, see file 3.500.24, AOG-UK. See also Lean, Frank Buchman, 374, 392, 491. 7. Luttwak, “Franco-German Reconciliation,” 55. The Schuman Plan (1950) was a proposal to unite the iron and coal industries of France and West Germany under one authority. It became the basis for the European Coal and Steel Community (1952), which in turn laid the foundation for the European Economic Community (1958). 8. On the OG-AA connection, see B. [Burns], Oxford Group, and Mercadante, Victims and Sinners, chaps. 4, 5. On Faith at Work, see I. Harris, Breeze of the Spirit. For Buchman’s influence on Abram Vereide, founder of the Prayer Breakfast, see Grubb, Modern Viking, 51. 9. For example, Buchman is presented as an eccentric fascist sympathizer in Miller, Truman, esp. 364–68; Sharlet, Family, 127; and Ball, Guardsmen, 198–99. See also the depiction of Buchman in Denise Giardina’s novel about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Saints and Villains, 213–14. 10. Peter Howard to his wife, Doë, February 12, 1946, cited in Wolrige Gordon, Peter Howard, 199; Begbie, Life Changers, 24. 11. See Raven, “Theologian’s Appreciation,” in Spencer, Meaning of the Groups, 14. 168 Notes to Pages 4–10 12. Julian Thornton-Duesbery, cited in T. Spoerri, Dynamic out of Silence, 108. 13. Kraybill, “Transition,” 224; Jarlert, Oxford Group, 51. 14. T. Spoerri, Dynamic out of Silence, 136. For many years Spoerri was a professor of European literature at Zurich University. 15. Van Dusen, “Apostle,” 4; D. Belden, “Origins and Development,” 30–35. 16. Keene, “Doctrine of Guidance,” 120–21. 17. Hunter, World Changing, 2–3, 91–94; Lean, Frank Buchman, 532. 18. Lean, Frank Buchman, 1. 19. Jarlert, Oxford Group, 41. 20. R. Niebuhr, Christianity and Power Politics, 159–65; Driberg, MRA, 16. For a rebuttal of Driberg’s MRA, see Thornton-Duesbery, Open Secret of MRA. Driberg also argued that MRA was anti-Christian and antidemocratic. Mystery of Moral Re-Armament, 304–5. 21. Sack uses the term “bricolage” to describe Buchman’s method, arguing that he created his system from whatever ideas were at hand, in response to particular needs. Moral ReArmament , 3; Randall, “Life-Changing,” 37. 22. Kuling was a summer colony for foreigners in the hills above Kiukiang. The main records of this conference, which are in file 3.500.2, AOG-UK, consist of thirty-one transcripts of meetings or sessions, most of them featuring Buchman. An edited, but unpublished, version of these talks, titled “Where Personal Work Begins,” was produced in 1984 by Lawson Wood. file 3.500.2, AOG-UK. The main conference ran from August 5 to 14, 1918, while there were also preliminary meetings from August 1 to 3. Morris Martin, “Chronological Outline,” file 3, Lean references, AOG-UK. 23. Buchman, Remaking the World. 24. Buchman collaborated with others in constructing his speeches until 1938, but nevertheless worked on every word. Thereafter, he increasingly relied on others to compose the speeches. Martin began drafting Buchman’s letters in 1939, although not always the most personal ones. Morris Martin, e-mails to author, April 4, 2005, and August 2, 2005. 25. “Transcript,” Putney Heath House Party, 1922, file 3500.4, AOG-UK; Lawson Wood, “Verbatim Notes from Meetings,” 1937, file 3...