Serenity Prayer in Yale Alumni Magazine

[Laurence Horn]

At 2:26 PM -0400 7/14/08, Baker, John wrote:
>         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

Indeed, that would seem highly plausible--except for the fact that
these presumably highly moral and ethical students and YWCA officers
evidently all failed to give Neibuhr credit...

L

>
>
>-----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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