The Symbolism of Evil in the Big Book of AA

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) describes itself as a “fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism” (Alcoholics Anonymous, 2010). The fellowship has millions of members all ar...

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Autor principal: Kari Latvanen
Formato: article
Lenguaje:EN
Publicado: University of Calgary 2016
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Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/a85e7b394b8b454dab624986aa2208a5
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spelling oai:doaj.org-article:a85e7b394b8b454dab624986aa2208a52021-11-25T21:24:55ZThe Symbolism of Evil in the Big Book of AA10.11575/jah.v0i0.532911927-4416https://doaj.org/article/a85e7b394b8b454dab624986aa2208a52016-07-01T00:00:00Zhttps://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/jah/article/view/53291https://doaj.org/toc/1927-4416 Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) describes itself as a “fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism” (Alcoholics Anonymous, 2010). The fellowship has millions of members all around the world and the number of independent AA groups is counted in tens of thousands. In this article, I try to understand the recovery from alcoholism in the fellowship of AA as a meaning giving process where the alcoholic is invited to interpret the founding text of AA, Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More Than One Hundred Men Have Recovered from Alcoholism, and to appropriate the world that it opens in front of him. I focus on interpreting the symbolic language with which the Big Book of AA speaks of evil. I also explain how this symbolic language is related to recovery – i.e., how the alcoholic may find in the pages of the Big Book commonly shared symbols of stain, sin, and guilt which express his blind experience of evil. Kari LatvanenUniversity of CalgaryarticleHermeneuticsPaul RicoeursymbolismevilAlcoholics AnonymousrecoveryPhilosophy (General)B1-5802ENJournal of Applied Hermeneutics (2016)
institution DOAJ
collection DOAJ
language EN
topic Hermeneutics
Paul Ricoeur
symbolism
evil
Alcoholics Anonymous
recovery
Philosophy (General)
B1-5802
spellingShingle Hermeneutics
Paul Ricoeur
symbolism
evil
Alcoholics Anonymous
recovery
Philosophy (General)
B1-5802
Kari Latvanen
The Symbolism of Evil in the Big Book of AA
description Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) describes itself as a “fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism” (Alcoholics Anonymous, 2010). The fellowship has millions of members all around the world and the number of independent AA groups is counted in tens of thousands. In this article, I try to understand the recovery from alcoholism in the fellowship of AA as a meaning giving process where the alcoholic is invited to interpret the founding text of AA, Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More Than One Hundred Men Have Recovered from Alcoholism, and to appropriate the world that it opens in front of him. I focus on interpreting the symbolic language with which the Big Book of AA speaks of evil. I also explain how this symbolic language is related to recovery – i.e., how the alcoholic may find in the pages of the Big Book commonly shared symbols of stain, sin, and guilt which express his blind experience of evil.
format article
author Kari Latvanen
author_facet Kari Latvanen
author_sort Kari Latvanen
title The Symbolism of Evil in the Big Book of AA
title_short The Symbolism of Evil in the Big Book of AA
title_full The Symbolism of Evil in the Big Book of AA
title_fullStr The Symbolism of Evil in the Big Book of AA
title_full_unstemmed The Symbolism of Evil in the Big Book of AA
title_sort symbolism of evil in the big book of aa
publisher University of Calgary
publishDate 2016
url https://doaj.org/article/a85e7b394b8b454dab624986aa2208a5
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