Stoic philosophy and AA: The enduring wisdom of the serenity prayer

Morgan Rempel's essay provides a valuable "moral inventory" of Twelve Step spirituality by comparing its principle insights, expressed in the Serenity Prayer, to those offered us by the ancient proponents and practitioners of Stoicism. Rempel argues that both the Twelve Steps and Stoicism summon us to face very difficult, painful truths about what we can and cannot control. But doing so can creatively transform our most fundamental attitudes and hence our way of responding to life as a whole.