However, there is much more to a philosophy than just what ends you value achieving. There’s also that little detail of how one is advised to go about attaining that goal. And this “little” detail isn’t really that little at all – but is the bulk of any philosophy. Yet it is this that is being ignored by anyone who thinks that the Serenity Prayer is an expression of the same ideals as Stoicism.
The very opening words of the Serenity Prayer are “God, grant me”. This is an expression of a mindset that believes that these ideals are to be achieved by petitioning a Higher Power for them. A Stoic would begin it with different words. The exact words would a Stoic would use might differ based on whether it is a polytheistic Stoic (as the original Stoics were) or a monotheistic, atheistic, or other kind of Stoic (all of which are compatible with the essence of Stoicism as well). But for the clearest comparison, the words a monotheistic Stoic would use are: “Thank you, God, for having granted me the faculties by which I may cultivate”. This is because as Stoics, we believe that we are already granted by Providence (be it God, multiple Gods, or the Genetic Lottery) the faculties, reason being central above them, by which we may ourselves attain the virtues expressed in the Serenity Prayer. Attaining these virtues isn’t about asking a Higher Power to grant us something more. It is about making use of what the Higher Power has already given us – and therefore the only thing we need express to Providence for this is thanks.
If you think I am reading more into these words than what is really intended, then you might want to take a look at the actual Twelve Steps of the AA program that the Serenity Prayer is associated with. In the very first step, the AA person is told to admit powerless. A beginner Stoic, on the other hand, is taught the opposite – that they do indeed have the power in the form of the necessary faculties, even if they have failed to tap that power, even if they haven’t yet learned how to tap that power.
Then, several of the other steps make it clear that the AA approach isn’t about using the faculties that the Higher Power has already given us to straighten ourselves out, but rather, about asking the Higher Power to swoop in and itself straighten ourselves out. This is most abundantly clear in the Seventh Step, where the AA person is instructed to ask the Higher Power to come in and remove their shortcomings.
There are other steps too which on the surface may seem a bit more consistent with Stoicism – but which on closer examination are not consistent either. Even with regards to Step 4 which reads, “Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves,” – familiarity with how AA and similar twelve-step programs works makes it clear that this is not referring to the kind of rationally examination of conscience that is part of Stoic askesis, but rather, something full of foregone conclusions – and altogether not a rational approach at all. Having spent a while in AA myself before I realized it wasn’t working for me, I could go into great details of how Step Four is nowhere near as similar to Stoic Examination of Conscience as it may seem in the wording of the step – but that is a matter for another article.
The point is that as much as someone who overlooks the opening words of the Serenity Prayer might be an expression of the same views as Stoicism – it is very important to avoid overlooking those opening words, and they reveal that there is a day and night difference between Stoic ideals and what is expressed in the Serenity Prayer, just as there is a day and night difference between Stoicism and the 12-step system that the Serenity Prayer is so closely associated with.
Of course, if you have a drinking problem, and want a program to help you that is compatible with Stoicism, it is available – but not from the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous. Though I’m not a treatment professional, and therefore can not recommend anything in any professional capacity — I can say that I personally had good experience with a group known as “HAMS: Harm Reduction for Alcohol“. It’s where I finally turned to for help after having faced the fact the AA just wasn’t helping me – and that my failure to find relief from the AA program wasn’t for lack of sincere effort on my part or any lack of faithfulness to the stepwork. Unlike AA, it doesn’t have local groups in virtually every town – but in case you aren’t near a local meeting that you can attend, they have excellent online support (which is what I used). And as for their compatibility with Stoicism — well – they host on their web-site what is to this very day my favorite, go-to copy of the Enchiridion of Epictetus.
