The peacefulness orison feels timeless . Just 25 Holy Scripture long , the humble and sincereprayeris a supplication for comfort , metier and soundness in a turbulent world :
Within Alcoholics Anonymous ( AA ) , the original 12 - tone recovery plan , the serenity prayer is nothing short of scripture . It ’s printed in every AA handbook , emboss on plaques in coming together halls , and recited day by day by individualsstruggling with addictionor at group meeting .
But who wrote the ataraxis prayer ? former attempt by AA toidentify its originsgenerated a long tilt of likely authors , includingSt . Francis of Assisi , Aristotle , Sophocles and ancient sages from Egypt to India .
The true source of the peacefulness prayer is n’t a household name like St. Francis or Aristotle , and he did n’t indite his famous verses in some ancient clapper . He was a German - American theologian and Christian ethician nominate Reinhold Niebuhr ( 1892 - 1971 ) , and he penned the original words of what became the serenity orison in 1932 . Then he promptly forgot them .
‘An American Conscience’
" Reinhold Niebuhr is the most influential person you ’ve never get wind of , " says Jeremy Sabella , a religion professor at Dartmouth University and author of " An American Conscience : The Reinhold Niebuhr Story . " " He was a combination of preacher , diary keeper , ethician , politician , an insanely prolific generator of more than 1,400 articles — cram all those thing into one soul and you have Reinhold . "
The historiographer Arthur Schlesinger , Jr.calledNiebuhr " the most influential American theologist of the 20th hundred " andMartin Luther King , Jr.saidNiebuhr was a valet of " great prophetical imagination " with " unswerving cultism to the saint of exemption and judge . " Barack ObamacitedNiebuhr as " one of my favourite philosophers . "
In 1932 , the same year that he conjured up the Word of the peace supplication as part of an otherwise leave sermon , Niebuhr wrote his turning point Word , " Moral Man and Immoral Society : A Study in Ethics and Politics . " The thesis of the book was that masses are mostly unspoiled on an individual level , but that we often discard our morals and principles when acting as larger groups . Sabella believes that both the book and the prayer were Niebuhr ’s reply to " a scummy point in history " that let in the Great Depression and the raise of fascism in Europe .
" He could sense all of this conflict rumbling underneath the open of the prison term , " says Sabella . " People are starve , they ca n’t find work , the entire outside monastic order is on the verge of crumbling . "
The Original Serenity Prayer
The translation of the tranquility appeal copied above is the one popularized by AA , which first chance the prayer in 1941 in a newspaper obituary and had no knowledge of its author . But the original text written by Niebuhr in 1932 was slenderly different :
Sabella believes that even small differences are significant . For one , Niebuhr ’s original asks for " grace , " not serenity , to accept the thing that can not be change . In Christian theology , God ’s grace is show through His flat love life for a sinful humankind . And in Niebuhr ’s original version , the grace being sought is theacceptancethat some things ca n’t be changed , not the heartsease itself .
" In a undivided judgment of conviction , he ’s wad grace , serenity , bravery , wisdom and join it to one of the central conundrums of life : What can we shape and what ca n’t we ? When do we push ahead and when do we just admit where we ’re at ? " says Sabella .
Also significant is that Niebuhr ’s original version asks for the courage to interchange the matter that " should " be changed , not the thing that " can " be change . Niebuhr ’s daughter , the literary editor and newspaper publisher Elisabeth Sifton , wrote a bookabout her father ’s prayer and believe that the original reading conk beyond asking what the soul " can " do to deal what society as a wholemustdo in the name of justice .
" There are certain thing in life that are moral imperative form and even if we ca n’t change them in our moment , we ’re still call to work for those change , " say Sabella . " What we see in the AA conceptualisation is the individualized edition of the supplication for when we ’re dealing with stuff and nonsense personally . Part of what we ’re seeing in Niebuhr ’s original variant of the orison is , what are we doing as a radical ? He was very interested with what human groups could carry through . "
When Niebuhr pen the serenity orison , he was a professor at the Union Theological Seminary in New York City and was also a mainstay on the university speak circuit . Sabella say that Niebuhr travel every weekend for decennium to give sermon in unlike college chapel , and that he would often " hammer out " a petition on the way to the gig .
" The placidity prayer , from what we can assemble , was just one out of in all probability one C of prayers that Niebuhr save to bulge out out his sermons , " says Sabella . " There ’s nothing to indicate that Niebuhr himself attend it as anything particularly special . "
In fact , the serenity prayer may have been lost to history if not for a woman nominate Winnifred Crane Wygal , a YWCA drawing card who studied under Niebuhr at the Union Theological Seminary .
Theearliest referenceto the serenity supplicant appears in Wygal ’s personal journal . On Oct. 31 , 1932 , she wrote : " R.N. says that ' moral will plus imagination are the two elements of which organized religion is combine . ' ' The victorious human being in the day of crisis is the mankind who has the serenity to accept what he can not aid and the courage to change what must be altered . ' "
While the quote is n’t an exact match for the three - part complex body part of the appeal , the sentiment is the same and it ’s attributed to " R.N. " for Reinhold Niebuhr . Throughout the 1930s , Wygal included retentive variant of Niebuhr ’s original appeal in her YWCA public lecture and articles . As a resultant , most of the other impress version of the heartsease entreaty were also from YWCA , like this1936 versionquoted by Mildred Pinkerton of the Syracuse YWCA :
By the early forties , versions of the serenity prayer were beloved enough to be included in publish obituaries , which is where the AA first found it in the New York Herald Tribune . " Never had we ensure so much A.A. in so few word , " Bill W. the co - beginner of AAsaid about the orison . In 1941 , some AA members decided to have it print up on cards that fellow members could carry in their wallets .
The prayer was also shipped oversea during World War II and used in devotionals for American servicemen . By 1950 , the serenity prayer had become so well - sleep together that people went searching for its author .
Niebuhr was fairly sure that he had save it , but was foggy on the details . He and his wife venture that it was write in 1942 or 1943 , and Niebuhr allow in that he could n’t call up the genesis of the theme in the prayer .
A 1950 event of the AA publication " Grapevine " cite Niebuhr as saying , " Of of course , [ the petition ] may have been spooking around for age , even centuries , but I do n’t cogitate so . I honestly do conceive that I write it myself . "
Fred Shapiro , a librarian at the Yale Law School , stirred up controversyin 2008 when he presented evidence that variation of the repose prayer were in circulation class before Niebuhr claimed to have authored it in 1942 . Shapiro is the editor in chief of the authoritative " Yale Book of Quotations " and has expose other far-famed attributions admit P.T. Barnum ’s " There ’s a mug expect every bit . "
In 2014 , however , Shapiroconfirmed Niebuhr ’s true authorshipafter tracking down Wygal ’s diary accounting entry and discovering that Niebuhr had actually written the entreaty in 1932 , not 1942 . The arguing is over and Niebuhr ’s modest entreaty still resonates .
" For a very long time in AA , I clung to the first line of the prayer ' with all the fervency with which the drowning seize life preserver . ' It was n’t hard for me to implore for tranquility , because serenity was what I had been looking for from a bottle and a glass , a pill , or whatever else seemed to declare oneself me a momentary escape cock from my own often crucify head,“wrote Tony on an AA UK website . " As I experienced some serenity in my life , being an alcoholic I by nature wanted more . So in times of stress , which were many , I beg for it . I prayed for enough placidity to get me through each day , without a drink and without succumbing completely to anxiety . And guess what ? It worked , it really did . "
HowStuffWorks earns a small affiliate mission when you purchase through link on our site .
