Traces the history of Alcoholics Anonymous, examines the organization's philosophy, and explains how they help alcoholics recover

A.A.: The Story

Politics & Social Sciences

Kurtz, Ernest

Politics & Government

Harpercollins

From the authors of contemporary classic The Spirituality of Imperfection comes this long-awaited sequel. A great master once said, “The shortest distance between a human being and truth is a story.” In Experiencing Spirituality, Ernest Kurtz and Katherine Ketcham take readers on a journey through storytelling as a means of self-discovery. Recounting and interpreting great wisdom stories from all ages and all cultures, as well as telling many of their own, the authors shed light on such experiences as awe, wonder, humor, confusion, and forgiveness. In story after story, seekers look to those whose lives reveal a special quality—sometimes called spirituality—and ask the masters what they must do to attain that same quality. The answer is simple: “Come, follow me, and see how I live.” Experiencing Spirituality teaches through the example of human experience.

Experiencing Spirituality: Finding Meaning Through Storytelling

Self-Help

Ketcham, Katherine

Motivational

TarcherPerigee

A great master once said, “The shortest distance between a human being and truth is a story.” In Experiencing Spirituality, Ernest Kurtz and Katherine Ketcham take readers on a journey through storytelling as a means of self-discovery. Recounting and interpreting great wisdom stories from all ages and all cultures, as well as telling many of their own, the authors shed light on such experiences as awe, wonder, humor, confusion, and forgiveness. In story after story, seekers look to those whose lives reveal a special quality—sometimes called spirituality—and ask the masters what they must do to attain that same quality. The answer is simple: “Come, follow me, and see how I live.” Experiencing Spirituality teaches through the example of human experience.

Religion & Spirituality

Penguin Publishing Group

AA: The Story (A Revised Edition of 'Not-God')

Random House Value Publishing

I Am Not Perfect is a simple statement of profound truth, the first step toward understanding the human condition, for to deny your essential imperfection is to deny yourself and your own humanity. The spirituality of imperfection, steeped in the rich traditions of the Hebrew prophets and Greek thinkers, Buddhist sages and Christian disciples, is a message as timeless as it is timely. This insightful work draws on the wisdom stories of the ages to provide an extraordinary wellspring of hope and inspiration to anyone thirsting for spiritual growth and guidance in these troubled times. Who are we? Why so we so often fall short of our goals for ourselves and others? By seeking to understand our limitations and accept the inevitably of failure and pain, we being to ease the hurt and move toward a greater sense of serenity and self-awareness. The Spirituality Of Imperfection brings together stories from many spiritual and philosophical paths, weaving past traditions into a spirituality and a new way of thinking and living that works today. It speaks so anyone who yearns to find meaning within suffering. Beyond theory and technique, inside this remarkable book you will find a new way of thinking, a way of living that enables a truly human existence.

The Spirituality of Imperfection: Storytelling and the Search for Meaning

Personal Transformation

Bantam]

Shame &amp; Guilt explores the differences between these two painful but inevitable experiences. Both guilt and shame involve feeling "bad"-feeling bad about one's actions (or omissions) in the case of guilt; feeling bad about one's self in shame. The deep meaning of the word bad is "unable to fit": unable to fit into some external context in the case of guilt, unable to fit into one's own being in the case of shame. Human experience offers two different ways of discovering that one does not "fit," of feeling "bad." Each has to do with the boundaries of the human condition. But there are two kinds of boundaries, and it is important to recognize their difference, the difference between rules and goals. For though the human condition is bounded, recognizing that reality can be either a choking, tightening experience or it can lead to the discovery of a new freedom. True, shame's negative side points up failure and falling short, but shame also entails something positive: insight into the reality of the human condition. The experience of shame lays bare the essential paradox that inheres in being human: to be human is to be caught in a contradictory tension between the pull to the unlimited, the more-than-human, and the drag of the merely limited, the less-than-human. Shame's healing is to be found in the discovery of how that paradox can be lived creatively in ways that find other human beings to be not the problem in shame, but its solution.

Shame & Guilt (Hindsfoot Foundation Series on Treatment and Recovery)

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Mental Health

iUniverse

Ernest Kurtz has been the outstanding thinker of the A.A. tradition's second generation, the one who played a constant leadership role in pushing the movement towards the highest professional standards of history writing and supplied some of its most influential interpretive concepts. His ideas are vitally important for anyone who wishes to understand A.A. history during the period following Bill Wilson's death in 1971.As a Ph.D. student at Harvard University in the 1970's, he was the first researcher to be granted full access to the archives of Alcoholics Anonymous. The book that resulted, Not-God: A History of Alcoholics Anonymous (1979), is still the classic work on early A.A. history. His book on the spiritual life-Ernest Kurtz and Katherine Ketcham, The Spirituality of Imperfection: Modern Wisdom from Classic Stories (1992)-is equally well known, and has also been an enduring best seller through the years since it appeared. His work on Shame &amp; Guilt (orig. pub. 1981, rev. ed. 2007) has given a whole new depth to the discussion of those two vital recovery issues.This present book, containing twelve key articles written by Kurtz between 1982 and 1996, gives us a fourth volume from his hand, displaying the impressive range and breadth of his thought on alcoholism, addiction, and spirituality."Here under one cover is Kurtz at his best: historian, gadfly, teacher, interpreter, and master storyteller This is must reading for any student of Alcoholics Anonymous and the evolution of spirituality in America."-William L. White, author of Slaying the Dragon: The History of Addiction Treatment and Recovery in America

The Collected Ernie Kurtz

Addiction & Recovery

A fascinating, account of the discovery and program of Alcoholics Anonymous, Not God contains anecdotes and excerpts from the diaries, correspondence, and occasional memoirs of AA's early figures. The most complete history of A.A. ever written. Not God contains anecdotes and excerpts from the diaries, correspondence, and occasional memoirs of A.A.'s early figures. A fascinating, fast-moving, and authoritative account of the discovery and development of the program and fellowship that we know today as Alcoholics Anonymous.

Not God: A History of Alcoholics Anonymous

Hazelden Publishing

This was the first non-technical book to discuss the differentiation of shame from guilt and to apply that distinction to alcoholics and addicts. 
Sections include: Discovering and Recognizing Shame; Confronting Shame; The Healingr of Shame.

Shame and Guilt: Characteristics of the Dependency Cycle

Hazelden

I am not perfect is a simple  statement of profound truth, the first step toward  understanding the human condition, for to deny your essential imperfection is to deny yourself and  your own humanity. The spirituality of imperfection, steeped in the rich traditions of the Hebrew  prophets and Greek thinkers, Buddhist sages and Christian disciples, is a message as timeless as it is  timely. This insightful work draws on the wisdom stories of the ages to provide an extraordinary  wellspring of hope and inspiration to anyone thirsting for spiritual growth and guidance in these troubled times.    Who are we? Why so we so often fall short of our goals for ourselves and others? By seeking to understand our limitations and accept the inevitably of failure and pain, we being to ease the hurt and move toward a greater sense of serenity and self-awareness. The Spirituality Of Imperfection brings together stories from many spiritual and philosophical paths, weaving past traditions into a spirituality and a new way of thinking and living that works today. It speaks so anyone who yearns to find meaning within suffering. Beyond theory and technique, inside this remarkable book you will find a new way of thinking, a way of living that enables a truly human existence.

Tantor Audio

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Kurtz, Ernest. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Kurtz, Ernest

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Kurtz, Ernest. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

A.A.: The Story

Experiencing Spirituality: Finding Meaning Through Storytelling

Experiencing Spirituality: Finding Meaning Through Storytelling

AA: The Story (A Revised Edition of 'Not-God')

The Spirituality of Imperfection: Storytelling and the Search for Meaning

Shame & Guilt (Hindsfoot Foundation Series on Treatment and Recovery)

The Collected Ernie Kurtz

Not God: A History of Alcoholics Anonymous

Shame and Guilt: Characteristics of the Dependency Cycle

The Spirituality of Imperfection: Storytelling and the Search for Meaning