"[The] Spirit hitches the world to a new dimension of life and thought" (Frank Buchman, 1955)
It is easy to think that Frank Buchman’s primary aim was to patch up a broken world. It is certainly true that he wanted to find answers to war and social conflict—he was a practical person with an instinct for problem-solving. But time and again his speeches point to his having a deeper underlying aim: he believed that humankind could discover a new way of living and thinking. On the eve of the Second World War, for example, we find him talking of the need for a "whole new philosophy of living" and a "whole new philosophy of responsible thinking"; and post-war, in a speech called "The electronics of the Spirit" (1955), he suggested that the Spirit of God was working to open up a new phase in the life of humanity; the Spirit "hitches" the world to a "new dimension of life and thought", he said. In short, he wanted not only to find solutions to pressing global problems, but also to rethink assumptions about how the world should be run.
What did Buchman have in mind? A clue can perhaps be found in a book he read when he was in China in 1916-17, The Secret of Inspiration by South African writer Andrew Murray—an influential figure in the YMCA circles Buchman moved in. Buchman’s reading this short work, which is an anthology of quotations from the English 18th century mystic William Law, played an important role in making the experience of God’s "guidance" a formative element in his life. One of the key points of the book is the idea that people could be constantly open to receiving spiritual inspiration. "Perpetual inspiration", Law writes, is as necessary to a life of goodness, holiness and happiness as is constant breathing to the life of the body. "Desire nothing but that every moment of your life be given to God," he declares, noting that God’s very nature could be defined as a "will to all goodness". Law’s thought here, I would suggest, encapsulates a key aspect of what Buchman was aiming for: Buchman believed that people could be constantly "listening" for a deeper or higher wisdom.
It is well-known that Buchman promoted the so-called "morning quiet time", a practice he first adopted while working as a college chaplain in Pennsylvania before the First World War. He once formulated a sentence for describing the different phases that could be a feature of any quiet time: "Out of self, into Christ, out to others, out to the world." His talk here of moving "out" of self and "into" Christ points to a belief that people could be released from self-preoccupation into what we might call a different inner environment: a place where their energy and motivations would be refreshed by the loving spiritual reality called God. But Buchman did not believe that "silence" was something only for the quiet time itself. In a deeper sense, he thought prayerful listening could engender a reorientation of outlook informing all the activities of a person’s day. A constant openness of heart and spirit was possible.
In his speech, "Ideas are God’s weapons for a new world" (1957), Buchman talked of the possibility of constant inner listening: "Man has the capacity to receive ideas from God. When men act on these ideas, they find new direction for themselves and their nations. Now I believe that we should so live that God can speak to us at any hour of the day or night." He believed that it was important to maintain this constant connection with God because he thought God’s Spirit was always fresh and new: a relationship with the Creator is a living and growing thing, and day by day, even moment by moment, new opportunities are being revealed for serving humanity, and new ways of expressing eternal truths.
Listening for inspiration, in Buchman’s mind, also involved being alert to the best wisdom of humanity coming from all sections of society and different cultures and traditions. An openness of heart, and a new spirit, were needed for drawing out and combining the best in everyone and thus stretching humanity to achieving its highest goals. For example, speaking in 1940 about the United States, he remarked that on top of energy, resources and people, the country needed a "new spirit" if it was to fulfil its destiny—"a spirit above party, class, race, point of view or personal advantage". It was a point he made in different ways about many countries. A better world needed the "combined wisdom of God and man", he once observed. There was here a vision for democracy as a means of drawing out and mobilising the best qualities in everyone: for what, after 1945, Buchman sometimes called "inspired democracy".
Some observers remarked that there was a "listening" quality in Buchman’s own manner and interactions with people. The English journalist A. J. Russell, author of For Sinners Only (1932)—an influential book about the Oxford Group—wrote of him: "It is impossible to understand Frank at all unless he is thought of as always in God’s presence, listening for direction and accepting [spiritual] power." A couple of decades later, one of Buchman’s aides, the Englishman Jim Baynard-Smith, noticed that Buchman often seemed to be seeking inspiration, even in the busy environment of cocktail parties and receptions: "[He was] wakeful, like the bird on the bough ... listening to catch the faintest whisper of God. Then, like the sail filling, he was off on a fresh tack, mind and body bending to the prevailing breeze of guidance, full-running, free."
To say all this should not be taken to mean that Buchman had a uniquely special line to God and was therefore always right on every issue. But it does tell us something about the kind of life he aspired after, and what he believed humanity was capable of. Buchman wanted to demonstrate the possibility of a different way of "being" in the world which would flow into a more effective and creative way of "doing" things; and he wanted to make this accessible to people of all faiths and backgrounds. His advocacy of "absolute moral standards" can be understood in this light: he thought moral disciplines essential for enabling people to remain spiritually grounded and open-hearted, and for their retaining a sense of social responsibility. Unselfishness and moral integrity were vital for the stability and viability of free societies, he believed.
It should be said that Buchman was far from alone in having these interests and insights. Law, who, like Buchman, was influenced by Lutheran mysticism, was clearly an advocate for a similar approach. But contemplatives down the ages, as well as in the modern era, have often been fascinated by the question of how to retain spiritual sensitivity in the hurly-burly of everyday life. Over the last century in the US, for example, men like Thomas Merton, Thomas Keating and Richard Rohr have in their different ways reflected on this subject—all of them, interestingly, people appreciative of non-Christian as well as Christian spirituality. There is here an American contemplative tradition that is in dialogue with the whole world. Buchman can be seen as belonging to this, even if in his life he was more actively engaged with social and political issues than these other figures.
NOTE: Frank Buchman's speeches can be found in Remaking the World (London, 1961)
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