God Calling by A.J. Russell - 25th Printing

God Calling edited by A.J. Russell

This is a 25th Printing from 1945. 

God Calling is a favorite daily reader for many members of AA. God Calling had a major influence on early AA member Richmond Walker, who is the author of the Twenty-Four Hours a Day book. Many of the daily readings in God Calling were used as the Daily Meditation in the Twenty-Four Hours a Day book.

Here is an excerpt from the book titled Making the Little Black Book: Inside the Working Manuscript of Twenty-Four Hours a Day with more of the story about God Calling’s influence on Walker:

The second major part of Twenty-Four Hours a Day is the Meditations for the Day following the A.A. Thoughts for the Day.

The source for these daily reflections is the meditation book God Calling! Its subtitle reads: The Power of Love and Joy That Restores Faith and Serenity in Our Troubled World. It was edited by A.J. Russell and published in 1932.

Russell wrote the preface to God Calling. He believed the "astonishing" claim of the "Two Listeners," the authors of the book, that the message they received had been given to them by the “Living Christ Himself" opening their eyes "to many things which they and this generation greatly need to know. As Christ speaks to them, the Two Listeners gain joy and courage to carry on through poverty and ill health, the daily challenges to their faith. Russell urges the reader to inhale the spirit of the book and “live your life in its intimacy with The Master."

The two women who composed the meditations elected to remain anonymous and go by the simple title “Two Listeners." It was Russell’s book For Sinners Only that had inspired one of the listeners to see if she and her friend, with whom she was living, could get guidance through sharing a quiet time. As the two of them entered into this process, one of them received messages that she claimed came from Christ. These were then written down by her companion every day, Essentially, the messages were "to love and laugh and be joy-bringers to the lives we contacted."

In comparing the readings from God Calling with the text in the meditations of Twenty-Four Hours a Day, it is clear that Walker had done much editing as well as omitting some of the meditations and substituting his own compositions. God Calling was a Christian meditation book, and Walker sought to edit the daily meditations for Twenty-Four Hours a Day so they would reach a more ecumenical audience. Because he had done so with much deliberation and forethought, it had been difficult for him to accept the conclusions of AA General Services about the books "religious overtones." In the foreword to the fortieth anniversary edition of Twenty-Four Hours a Day, Mel B. wrote that "Rich W. must have been convinced that the basic principles of God Calling supported and reinforced the AA program and thus could benefit recovering alcoholics. So Walker performed what could be called a ‘strategic translation' to make the God Calling meditations acceptable to recovering alcoholics."

This "strategic translation" actually took a variety of forms. For example, in some cases Walker did his editing simply by changing a word, by changing a phrase, or by rearranging the sentences in the text. He left the major portion of the meditation intact and simply adopted it as his own. In other instances, he surfed through the meditation identifying words, phrases, or passages to omit, change, or rearrange. Or he rearranged sentences within the text to suit his own purposes and free up his own message.

One of the primary reasons for much of the editing is clear: to eliminate the strongly Christological texts in the meditations. Evidence of this emerges early in Twenty-Four Hours a Day: In the meditation for January 4, he substitutes God for Christ, a change maintained throughout the book.

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God Calling presents the wisdom of Christianity in a daily devotional full of the time-tested words of counsel, comfort, encouragement, and wisdom that have inspired countless believers throughout the years.

“What man calls conversion is often only the discovery of the Great Friend. What man calls religion is the knowledge of the Great Friend. What man calls holiness is the imitation of the Great Friend.”

The words of that Great Friend are given daily presence in God Calling—made easily available for all, to ease and simplify the chaos and pain of our tension-filled world.

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 This book is in very good condition with some light wear. The white cover has a stain on the back cover. There is no writing and no markings in the book. The book contains its original dust jacket. The jacket has chipping and edge wear.

Please view all of the photos for the conditions.