Serenity Prayer in Yale Alumni Magazine

[Baker, John]

        Thanks, Fred.  What the citations show is that the Serenity
Prayer's initial dissemination did not result from preaching around the
country generally and is unlikely to have come from use at a seminary.
It must have been in some medium targeted at prominently placed women.
Of course, it's possible that Niebuhr spoke before such a group of
women, perhaps at a YWCA meeting, or that one of his students who heard
it at the seminary did so.


John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Shapiro, Fred
Sent: Monday, July 14, 2008 9:03 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Serenity Prayer in Yale Alumni Magazine

Sorry, it was really John Baker's analysis that I love (yours is good
too, Doug!)

Fred



________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Shapiro, Fred [fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU]
Sent: Monday, July 14, 2008 8:52 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Serenity Prayer in Yale Alumni Magazine

Doug,

I love your analysis.  Niebuhr's daughter, however, would say that his
preaching around the country had a wide influence, and that his students
at Union Theological Seminary could have heard him use the SP and could
have disseminated it nationwide.  She also says that he had specific
contacts in YWCA circles.

Fred Shapiro



________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Douglas G. Wilson [douglas at NB.NET]
Sent: Sunday, July 13, 2008 11:09 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Serenity Prayer in Yale Alumni Magazine

>         I think it's also significant that the early citations are all

> to women, none of whom were clergymen but many of whom (and especially

> the earliest) were associated with eleemosynary or educational
> institutions.  Consider these datings:
>
>                 1936            Syracuse YWCA executive secretary
>                 1938            superintendent of the Newington Home
for
> Crippled Children
>                 1939            home counselor of Oklahoma City's
public
> schools
>                 1940            Middlesex, Mass. women's club
(speaker's
> status unspecified)
>                 1941            book with two female authors
>                 1941            Texas state home demonstration agent
>                 1941            visiting professor at Pennsylvania
State
> College
>
>         So seven out of seven of the early citations came from women.
> For this period, that's not typical.  None of these refer in any way
> to a clergyman.  These considerations argue against (though they
> certainly do not disprove) an origin with Niebuhr or any other
> clergyman; they argue so strongly against propagation through a
> conventional church sermon that I think that vector all but disproved.

> The initial propagation, if not necessarily the origin, must have come

> from some source to which a YWCA executive secretary, a superintendent

> of a home for crippled children, and a highly placed home counselor
> would have had access.  Plausible candidates include some sort of
> conference, specialized publication, or traveling speaker.
Some vector candidates IMHO:

(1) Radio program (probably 'inspirational'-themed, whether overtly
religious or not);

(2) Magazine (ditto);

(3) Embroidery pattern, wall motto, calendar, tchotchke of some sort
(ditto).

Any of these easily could have had a predominantly female target
population.

-- Doug Wilson

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