Twelve Step Spirituality/American Pragmatism

Although I have never formally belonged to a Twelve Step program, I have learned very much from people who are in recovery, and I finally wrote a book on it called Breathing Underwater: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps. I think the Twelve Step program represents the best of a unique American spirituality. There’s something in the American psyche that gets mistrustful and impatient with anything that’s too abstract, platonic, theoretical, or distant. For the American, it has to work. We call that pragmatism.

I know that people around the world make fun of Americans because we are so pragmatic. But I think it’s also what people admire about Americans. In international meetings, I often sit there just bored to death by the level of abstraction or beating around the bush. My fellow Americans and I just want to pull it down to earth and get to the point, thinking, “What works? Is this relevant? Does this theory mean anything? Does it change people? Does it change anything?"

What the Twelve Step program does for many people is make the Gospel believable, relevant, practical, and workable. So I will be referring to it in our courses at the Living School, as I already have over the years.

~ Richard Rohr, 2012
Adapted from Fr. Richard’s teachings on his lineage.