The Spiritual Vision of Frank Buchman. By Philip Boobbyer. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2013. xii + 217 pp. $59.95 cloth.

Abstract

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)The Spiritual Vision of Frank Buchman . By Philip Boobbyer . University Park : Pennsylvania State University Press , 2013. xii + 217 pp. $59.95 cloth.Book Reviews and NotesHe 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. …