He is little known today, but in his time—the middle of the twentieth century—Frank Buchman was a big name in American and British religious circles. He and his religious movement—known at different times as the First Century Christian Fellowship, the Oxford Group, or Moral Re-Armament (MRA)—attracted the devotion of thousands and the attention of many more all over the world. Buchman and his colleagues worked to change the lives of individuals and nations in the decades before and after World War II. Historians of American religion should pay attention to the movement because it creatively combined classic American evangelicalism, popular psychology, media and celebrity culture, and a unique form of anti-politics. After giving rise to Alcoholics Anonymous and Up With People, it largely faded from public view after Buchman's death in 1961, and it has gotten little attention from scholars since.
Philip Boobbyer addresses that gap in this deeply researched volume. Boobbyer, a scholar of Russian intellectual history at the University of Kent, focuses on Buchman's unique spiritual practices, tracing their theological roots and their consequences for the life of his movement. Based on a close reading of Buchman's writings and speeches, he argues that Buchman's evangelical method was rooted in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit rather than in a systematic theology. Boobbyer nevertheless identifies a system in Buchman's thought.
Boobbyer's analysis of Buchman's spiritual vision is largely thematic rather than chronological, but he does outline the evangelist's biography, helpful for most readers, who are unfamiliar with his life and work. Born in 1878 into a German Lutheran family in Pennsylvania, Buchman served as a YMCA secretary at Penn State and a missionary in China before building an evangelical network of elite university students in the United States and Britain after World War I. By the early 1930s that network developed into the Oxford Group Movement, which aimed to change individuals and their societies by bringing them a vital religious experience. The movement turned its attention to national and international “renaissance” at the end of the decade, taking the name of Moral Re-Armament. MRA saw its task as helping Western countries win the ideological struggles of World War II and the Cold War by strengthening their morals and challenging their materialism. In recent decades MRA transformed into Initiatives of Change, a multinational network of individuals and groups with the mission of transforming society.
Among these reinventions and shifts in mission, Boobbyer sees a consistent spiritual vision running through Buchman's work. All of these organizations, he argues, focused on changing human beings—and through them, society—through spiritual experiences. Buchman called individuals to listen for God's guidance for their lives, evaluate their behavior by absolute moral standards, and share their experiences with each other. The result, he stated, would be a God-guided world without conflict. Early in his career, Buchman focused on the importance of a vital Christian experience, but over time his vision widened to include other religious traditions.
Boobbyer unpacks this vision through a close reading of virtually everything Buchman wrote or said—from books and formal speeches to informal letters. He also discusses almost every author that Buchman and his colleagues referred to in their writings, ranging from medieval mystics to William James. The result is a densely documented discussion of the broad influences Boobbyer sees on Buchman's work. The author does, however, acknowledge that Buchman was not “a reader”; it is not clear whether the evangelist's engagements with these texts went beyond the superficial.
This close reading results in a thoughtful case study, demonstrating how a variety of often disparate theologies and thinkers shaped a modern religious movement. Boobbyer's efforts will benefit scholars interested in Buchman's movements as well as those studying other individuals or groups. It should encourage such historians trace the networks of ideas and methods with equal care.
This history leaves the reader with several questions, however. Boobbyer presents Buchman's thought as a unified spiritual vision, while acknowledging that Buchman was not a systematic thinker and that much of his writing—especially his letters—was a reaction to particular pastoral concerns. Many of Buchman's speeches were made up of testimony—stories telling of changed lives—rather than formal teaching, he notes. The evangelist, he adds, was not a theologian, but had “theological assumptions.” When he identifies possible contradictions within Buchman's thought, Boobbyer notes the evangelist's “ability to live with paradox.” One wonders whether Boobbyer has identified a theological system where Buchman did not intend one.
This description of Buchman's thought and work as a coherent system results in a clear exposition of MRA, but this clarity may obscure some historical complexity. Boobbyer has presented a thematic narrative, helping his interpretive task, but that structure downplays the possibility of change over time. Texts from 1919 are discussed next to those from 1959, with little discussion of context. He also does not engage questions of authorship. Buchman saw his ministry as a team effort and collaborated closely with his closest colleagues. Samuel Shoemaker, an Episcopal priest, was his right hand through the 1930s; British journalist Peter Howard filled a similar role from the early 1940s until his own death in 1965. Both men were influenced by Buchman and influenced him in return. Both were experienced writers and most likely helped to shape his books and speeches. Their contributions to Buchman's spiritual vision deserve further investigation.
Finally, what is the impact of Buchman's spiritual vision beyond MRA and its descendants? Boobbyer does briefly link his ideas to the charismatic movement of the 1970s, but otherwise there are no connections to groups outside Buchman's organization. Buchman's focus on small group evangelism and on reaching out to elite groups contributed to the development of Campus Crusade and other evangelical groups of the post-war era. His focus on story-telling shaped recovery groups beyond Alcoholics Anonymous. A discussion of these connections would help readers understand Buchman's importance in the story of twenty-century religious life.
