If I Be Lifted Up by Samuel M. Shoemaker

If I Be Lifted Up by Samuel M. Shoemaker

This book was first published in 1931. 

To learn more about this book, you can read the Foreword here:

LIVING religion is likely to begin in an individualistic experience. Through the help of another, or alone, we first discover the inner world of the Spirit, and its tremendous power in regulating and enhancing ordinary life.

Then as time goes on, we grow reflective about our experience. We find that others have been in the same places and known the same truths. By comparison and contrast we correct and enrich our own experience through historic perspective. We come to see the validity of much that we once thought was purely formal. We come to attach more and more importance to those eternal and absolute verities of the Christian religion, which are not dependent upon our own fluctuating and uncertain moods. We become interested in theology, almost in spite of ourselves: because most of us are intellectually curious, and want at least to be intellectually honest. Theology is only the attempt to think systematically about the things man believes and discovers about God.

This book is about the Cross. It is in no sense a complete theology of the Cross-not even as complete a theology as I believe in myself, and could write if there were the time. Such books are for students with leisure: a busy parish minister can only deal with these great subjects briefly, and as they touch the daily life of his people. These sermons represent an attempt to approach the central meaning of the Cross along several confessedly incomplete avenues of approach. I think of them as a little circle of converging, but incompleted radii, all pointing toward (and therefore in a sense defining), but none of them finally touching, the real heart of the meaning of the Cross. Were any of us able at last to do this, we should unlock the mystery of life itself. Even Dr. Moberly, in his great book Atonement and Personality, begins by saying: "Atonement is a reality much too fundamental to human consciousness, to be capable of any ready explanation. Our explanations, at their best, are still always partial explanations. It is always more than our understanding of it." And so it is that one does not hesitate to add his own convictions to the many words that are written and said about the meaning of the Cross of Christ.

I shall be happy if they can stir only a few people, as the thoughts and experience behind them have stirred me, to high moments of intense and amazed wonder at the Cross, to intellectual glimpses which even in their inadequacy have about them the feel of truth and reality, and to adventures in practical redemptive daring toward others, by which alone the great body of men, who know and care nothing for " theology" have it translated for them into the language of life.

S. M. S., JR.

Calvary Rectory, New York City, Epiphany, 1931.

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Samuel Shoemaker was a prominent American Episcopal priest and a key figure in the Oxford Group movement, which later influenced the development of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and other Twelve Step programs. Born on December 27, 1893, in Baltimore, Maryland, Shoemaker was raised in a family with a strong Christian background.

Shoemaker studied at Princeton University and later attended Virginia Theological Seminary, where he was ordained as an Episcopal priest in 1917. He served in various parishes before becoming the rector of Calvary Church in New York City in 1925, where he remained for over twenty years.

In the early 1930s, Shoemaker became involved with the Oxford Group, an informal Christian fellowship founded by Frank Buchman. The Oxford Group emphasized spiritual principles such as honesty, purity, unselfishness, and love, and it sought to bring about personal transformation through spiritual practices such as self-examination, confession, and surrender to God's will.

Shoemaker's involvement with the Oxford Group profoundly influenced his ministry and preaching style. He became known for his dynamic sermons, which emphasized the need for individuals to experience a personal encounter with God and to live out their faith in practical ways.

One of Shoemaker's most significant contributions was his role in introducing the principles of the Oxford Group to Bill Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). Shoemaker and other members of the Oxford Group had a significant influence on the early development of AA, particularly in shaping its spiritual foundations and emphasis on personal transformation. Bill W. wrote: “Dr. Sam Shoemaker was one of A.A.’s indispensables. Had it not been for his ministry to us in our early time, our Fellowship would not be in existence today.”

Throughout his life, Shoemaker remained dedicated to ministry and spiritual renewal. He authored numerous books and articles on Christian spirituality, including "Realizing Religion." He also played a key role in the founding of the Spiritual Mobilization movement in the 1940s, which sought to promote spiritual values in American society.

Samuel Shoemaker passed away on October 31, 1963, leaving behind a legacy of spiritual insight and compassionate ministry. He is remembered as a pioneer in the field of Christian spirituality and as a guiding figure in the early history of Alcoholics Anonymous.

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This book is in very good condition with minor wear to the cover and spine. There is a name handwritten on the first page and pen markings in the margins throughout the book.

Please view all of the photos for the conditions.