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Father Ed : The Story of Bill W.’s Spiritual Sponsor
Father Ed is the first biography of Father Edward Dowling, SJ, whose guidance transformed Alcoholics Anonymous founder Bill Wilson's life and deepened the spirituality of the twelve-step movement. Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill Wilson has one of the greatest legacies of any person of modern times. Time magazine placed him at No. 20 on its list of the most important people of the 20th century. But whenever Wilson himself had the opportunity to name the greatest human being he had ever met, he had but one Father Edward Dowling, SJ Jesuit Father Ed Dowling (1898-1960) rescued Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill Wilson from debilitating depression and gave him the spiritual guidance he needed to bring AA to international prominence. Although not an alcoholic himself, he came to devote his ministry to helping people in recovery--not only alcoholics but also people in troubled marriages (as a co-founder of the Cana Conference) and those suffering from nervous disorders (as an early champion of Recovery, Inc., now known as Recovery International). But he was also a champion of civil rights and other social-justice issues, and his pastoral interests presaged the priorities of the Church under Pope Francis.
- GenresNonfictionBiography
407 pages, Hardcover
Published April 24, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
April 17, 2023
The Story of a Prophetic Priest who Shaped AA and Helped So Many Find Hope
I'm updating this review with a link to the online-magazine interview with Dawn Eden Goldstein about her book
As a lifelong journalist myself, I’m naturally drawn to a biography that suggests a journalist’s vocation attuned him to become a living saint. Dawn Eden Goldstein argues such a cause in her new biography of Father Ed Dowling, the reporter-turned-Jesuit who befriended Alcoholics Anonymous founder Bill W. The holy virtues shared by “Father Ed” made such an impact in so many lives that Goldstein hopes to see a grassroots cause for his canonization emerge—and she even explains to readers how they can help, at the end of her book.
As Goldstein explains in her book, his painfully severe case of ankylosing spondylitis emerged in his early 20s, when he was a successful journalist pursuing Jesuit studies. Over the decades, the spinal condition caused sometimes excruciating back pain and difficulty standing and walking—to the point that his slouching posture sometimes led others to mistake him for a disheveled street person.
The first time Father Ed went to meet Bill W in New York City, he initially was mistaken for “a bum” by a friend of Bill’s who first spotted him. The friend was unsure whether to bring him into Bill’s room, but Bill always was welcoming. So, Father Ed slowly shuffled up a flight of stairs to Bill’s room and that meeting turned out to be a spiritual turning point in both of their lives. However, in that famous encounter, Bill only realized Father Ed was a priest after Father Ed took off his overcoat and Bill could see his priest’s collar underneath. That dramatic scene is reenacted by actors in the widely praised 2012 documentary film, Bill W.
Father Ed was not an alcoholic, but his own chronic pain was part of what drove him to help other suffering men and women. In Catholic terms, Father Ed found that his “vocation” to the priesthood included a vision of how much troubled lay people need help and, in turn, can provide help to each other. Father Ed was convinced that the spiritual callings of lay people are as valuable as any formal vocation to sacred orders—and he began preaching this message even before he discovered Alcoholics Anonymous and met Bill W. While that concept of a powerful spiritual calling within every life is common today, that truth was not fully embraced by the worldwide Catholic church until the Second Vatican Council and the declaration known as Lumen gentium often translated as “Light of the World.”
As I began to read Goldstein’s biography, I was surprised that I was not already familiar with Father Ed. Now, I realize that this lack of awareness is a result of Father Ed’s own selflessness. Bill W himself frequently complained about the way that his supposedly “anonymous” life had become a global icon for the 12-step movement.
For many reasons, Father Ed also became famous, especially among the vast communities of people he assisted. Not only did he help to shape and spread the message of Alcoholics Anonymous, but he also founded a movement of “cana conferences” to help married couples that continues today in various forms—and he was a major supporter of what is today known as Recovery International, founded by psychiatrist Abraham Low. His tireless work with those movements also is covered in Goldstein’s book.
However, throughout all of this work, Father Ed spent little time in shaping his own public image. He certainly wrote and spoke and taught widely, but his focus always was on the movements he was shaping. While admirable during his lifetime, that led to challenges in tracking down an accurate accounting of his life, Goldstein found.
Throughout all of this work, Father Ed spent little time in shaping his own public image. He certainly wrote and spoke and taught widely, but his focus always was on the movements he was shaping. While admirable during his lifetime, that led to challenges in tracking down an accurate accounting of his life, Goldstein found.
As a Catholic scholar herself, now, Goldstein understands the significance of this new biography. The idea of pursuing canonization for Father Ed would be impossible without a thoroughly researched biography like this one. Factual errors about Father Ed’s life abound in public records today, including the Wikipedia page about him that is current as of this review, April 14, 2023. Presumably, with the release of her book, some well-meaning Wikipedia editor will fix up his page.
Writing this review for folks I now know on Wikipedia, I want to conclude with a personal note about the book: As a journalist who has specialized in covering religious diversity for many decades now, I’ve read countless biographies of inspirational men and women. Many of those books, especially comprehensive biographies like this one, can be slow going. If you don’t already recognize Goldstein’s name as a famous journalist, check her out on Wikipedia and you’ll learn about her amazingly diverse career. As a journalist, she knows how to carefully conduct research and, then, she knows how to tell that story!
I found Father Ed to be a compelling, page-turning story as well as a revelation into the history of how Alcoholics Anonymous changed the world.
I'm updating this review with a link to the online-magazine interview with Dawn Eden Goldstein about her book
As a lifelong journalist myself, I’m naturally drawn to a biography that suggests a journalist’s vocation attuned him to become a living saint. Dawn Eden Goldstein argues such a cause in her new biography of Father Ed Dowling, the reporter-turned-Jesuit who befriended Alcoholics Anonymous founder Bill W. The holy virtues shared by “Father Ed” made such an impact in so many lives that Goldstein hopes to see a grassroots cause for his canonization emerge—and she even explains to readers how they can help, at the end of her book.
As Goldstein explains in her book, his painfully severe case of ankylosing spondylitis emerged in his early 20s, when he was a successful journalist pursuing Jesuit studies. Over the decades, the spinal condition caused sometimes excruciating back pain and difficulty standing and walking—to the point that his slouching posture sometimes led others to mistake him for a disheveled street person.
The first time Father Ed went to meet Bill W in New York City, he initially was mistaken for “a bum” by a friend of Bill’s who first spotted him. The friend was unsure whether to bring him into Bill’s room, but Bill always was welcoming. So, Father Ed slowly shuffled up a flight of stairs to Bill’s room and that meeting turned out to be a spiritual turning point in both of their lives. However, in that famous encounter, Bill only realized Father Ed was a priest after Father Ed took off his overcoat and Bill could see his priest’s collar underneath. That dramatic scene is reenacted by actors in the widely praised 2012 documentary film, Bill W.
Father Ed was not an alcoholic, but his own chronic pain was part of what drove him to help other suffering men and women. In Catholic terms, Father Ed found that his “vocation” to the priesthood included a vision of how much troubled lay people need help and, in turn, can provide help to each other. Father Ed was convinced that the spiritual callings of lay people are as valuable as any formal vocation to sacred orders—and he began preaching this message even before he discovered Alcoholics Anonymous and met Bill W. While that concept of a powerful spiritual calling within every life is common today, that truth was not fully embraced by the worldwide Catholic church until the Second Vatican Council and the declaration known as Lumen gentium often translated as “Light of the World.”
As I began to read Goldstein’s biography, I was surprised that I was not already familiar with Father Ed. Now, I realize that this lack of awareness is a result of Father Ed’s own selflessness. Bill W himself frequently complained about the way that his supposedly “anonymous” life had become a global icon for the 12-step movement.
For many reasons, Father Ed also became famous, especially among the vast communities of people he assisted. Not only did he help to shape and spread the message of Alcoholics Anonymous, but he also founded a movement of “cana conferences” to help married couples that continues today in various forms—and he was a major supporter of what is today known as Recovery International, founded by psychiatrist Abraham Low. His tireless work with those movements also is covered in Goldstein’s book.
However, throughout all of this work, Father Ed spent little time in shaping his own public image. He certainly wrote and spoke and taught widely, but his focus always was on the movements he was shaping. While admirable during his lifetime, that led to challenges in tracking down an accurate accounting of his life, Goldstein found.
Throughout all of this work, Father Ed spent little time in shaping his own public image. He certainly wrote and spoke and taught widely, but his focus always was on the movements he was shaping. While admirable during his lifetime, that led to challenges in tracking down an accurate accounting of his life, Goldstein found.
As a Catholic scholar herself, now, Goldstein understands the significance of this new biography. The idea of pursuing canonization for Father Ed would be impossible without a thoroughly researched biography like this one. Factual errors about Father Ed’s life abound in public records today, including the Wikipedia page about him that is current as of this review, April 14, 2023. Presumably, with the release of her book, some well-meaning Wikipedia editor will fix up his page.
Writing this review for folks I now know on Wikipedia, I want to conclude with a personal note about the book: As a journalist who has specialized in covering religious diversity for many decades now, I’ve read countless biographies of inspirational men and women. Many of those books, especially comprehensive biographies like this one, can be slow going. If you don’t already recognize Goldstein’s name as a famous journalist, check her out on Wikipedia and you’ll learn about her amazingly diverse career. As a journalist, she knows how to carefully conduct research and, then, she knows how to tell that story!
I found Father Ed to be a compelling, page-turning story as well as a revelation into the history of how Alcoholics Anonymous changed the world.
December 12, 2023
Wonderful writing, wonderful biography about a wonderful man. A trinity of wonderfuls. I didn't know Father Ed was also responsible for the Cana Conferences. Actually didn't know much about him at all. It was great to meet him through Dawn's biography and hopeful of someday meeting him in person in eternity.
December 17, 2022
"Where do you start? Well, I believe there's something to be said about starting at the nearest manifestation of God. Who is God nearest to me?"
- Edward Dowling, SJ
Dawn Eden Goldstein has written a beautiful, insightful, and deeply moving account of Fr. Ed Dowling's remarkably faithful and extraordinarily active life.
Goldstein does a particularly eloquent job of describing how Dowling's own doubts and burdens, and also his holy ambitions, made him such an important and influential figure in the early years of AA, and the wide array of other groups that were shaped by the Twelve Steps. I was fascinated by the parallels that Dowling and others saw between the Twelve Steps and The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola. It's no surprise that, like his Episcopalian contemporary and friend the Rev. Sam Shoemaker, Dowling believed the Twelve Steps to be divinely inspired. In so many ways, Dowling was ahead of his time, especially with his early and bold commitment to civil rights and ecumenical and interfaith work.
Goldstein presents us with Dowling's full, complex, and most of all, holy life. He was a priest who "smelled like the sheep," enjoying nothing more than meeting with countless numbers of people one-on-one, coming up with new ways of helping those in need, and, most of all, doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly (and often painfully) with his God.
"Father Ed" is highly recommended for anyone looking to be inspired and challenged by holiness, and for all those interested in the early days of AA and the Twelve Steps, Ignatian Spirituality, and the history of the American Church in the 20th Century.
- Edward Dowling, SJ
Dawn Eden Goldstein has written a beautiful, insightful, and deeply moving account of Fr. Ed Dowling's remarkably faithful and extraordinarily active life.
Goldstein does a particularly eloquent job of describing how Dowling's own doubts and burdens, and also his holy ambitions, made him such an important and influential figure in the early years of AA, and the wide array of other groups that were shaped by the Twelve Steps. I was fascinated by the parallels that Dowling and others saw between the Twelve Steps and The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola. It's no surprise that, like his Episcopalian contemporary and friend the Rev. Sam Shoemaker, Dowling believed the Twelve Steps to be divinely inspired. In so many ways, Dowling was ahead of his time, especially with his early and bold commitment to civil rights and ecumenical and interfaith work.
Goldstein presents us with Dowling's full, complex, and most of all, holy life. He was a priest who "smelled like the sheep," enjoying nothing more than meeting with countless numbers of people one-on-one, coming up with new ways of helping those in need, and, most of all, doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly (and often painfully) with his God.
"Father Ed" is highly recommended for anyone looking to be inspired and challenged by holiness, and for all those interested in the early days of AA and the Twelve Steps, Ignatian Spirituality, and the history of the American Church in the 20th Century.
August 14, 2023
What a profound biography about the power of one person being a friend to another by living through the power of their faith and conviction. The humanity of Fr. Ed pours off the pages. Fr. Ed’s ability to see the other person and walk with them inspires one to embrace those actions in their own life. Dr. Goldstein also helps the reader grasp the theological drive of Fr. Ed and his relationship to teachings that would receive fuller expression at Vatican II. Only issue I have with the book is the need to have more about his Irish identity to grasp his political preview but one biographer can only do so much. This is a great book that Dr. Goldstein wrote. It is well worth your time reading it. I would recommend this text to all clergy.
August 1, 2024
I had never heard of Fr. Ed Dowling before reading this book. After finishing it, I cannot believe he is not more well known. Dowling radiated compassion and mercy in everything that he did. Drawing on his own spiritual suffering in his novitiate, and his physical suffering as an older adult, he dedicated his life to serving people with problems, namely, alcoholics. His gentle heart and understanding spirit has left an unmeasurable impact on A.A. and other programs dedicated to the alleviation of suffering. He was a beacon of light for so many, and I will use his wisdom as a guide going forward.
This is an incredibly touching story. Please read and share!
This is an incredibly touching story. Please read and share!
April 24, 2025
Around halfway through, I began to feel like I was reading more of a hagiography than a biography, a suspicion confirmed when I reached the end of the acknowledgments, and the author offered her substantial research towards any cause for Father Ed's canonization. Nonetheless, it was a fascinating read, especially about Dowling's experience in formation and how he understood the Jesuit charism and spirituality of Ignatius. I would have loved a little to learn more about The Queen's Work and its the Summer School for Catholic Action.
April 5, 2023
very readable, well-researched and documented. Fr. Ed was an amazing person whom I knew nothing about up until now - and the connection with Bill W and Alcoholic's Anonymous was fascinating. The major thrust of the book, however, is not about Bill W, but just an excellent biography of the priest. Fully footnoted, and hallelujah a wonderful INDEX.
November 28, 2023
4.5 out of 5 for modern biographies.
Mrs. Goldstein deftly weaves Father Dowling’s love for the addict and the downtrodden with the intimate details of a man who struggled with his own vocation and spiritual life. I also loved the connection between the Twelve Steps and St. Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises.
I recommend this biography of a loving, saintly, priest.
Mrs. Goldstein deftly weaves Father Dowling’s love for the addict and the downtrodden with the intimate details of a man who struggled with his own vocation and spiritual life. I also loved the connection between the Twelve Steps and St. Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises.
I recommend this biography of a loving, saintly, priest.
October 9, 2023
Wonderful book about a wonderful man. I am sure a challenge to track down enough information to write a biography that captures the person, but Dawn did a great job. For any Catholics in recovery, or anyone interested in relationships with Bill W., you will not be disappointed.
July 22, 2025
excellent, a man a life of service to others
April 4, 2023
I really liked this book. It was much more in-depth than the book published by Hazelden. She did a good job researching his life and his work, and you got insight into the heart of this priest. He was a role model for giving advice/helping others/making a difference in people's lives. Loved by many. Dawn Eden Goldstein did a good job in bringing him to life.
May 10, 2023
An afterthought
I read the book after seeing it advertised in two magazines. I am familiar with AA and the great work accomplished by those who work the program. I had no idea that a priest could have so much support and influence on troubled people who had been addicted to alcohol. His life was totally supportive of so many. An interesting thing in the book was reference to some old Catholic rules that thankfully no longer exist. One regarding black people, and the other regarding those who were divorced. Gratefully those items have been properly dealt with.
I read the book after seeing it advertised in two magazines. I am familiar with AA and the great work accomplished by those who work the program. I had no idea that a priest could have so much support and influence on troubled people who had been addicted to alcohol. His life was totally supportive of so many. An interesting thing in the book was reference to some old Catholic rules that thankfully no longer exist. One regarding black people, and the other regarding those who were divorced. Gratefully those items have been properly dealt with.
Read
March 20, 2023what an extraordinary man
Fr. Ed is such a relatable person you can’t help feeling that he would be your friend in another time. His work, not only with AA, is historically significant but more importantly inspiring. His understanding of the applicability of the 12 Steps extend far beyond alcohol making this book of interest to all.
Fr. Ed is such a relatable person you can’t help feeling that he would be your friend in another time. His work, not only with AA, is historically significant but more importantly inspiring. His understanding of the applicability of the 12 Steps extend far beyond alcohol making this book of interest to all.
September 19, 2023
I was engaged with the details and invested in the story of a holy man. A familiarity with AA and things Catholic might be necessary since it is the details! But most astounding to me was this sense that the AA program works across the spectrum of human experience.
October 31, 2024
I thought this book was very engaging drawing as it does on letters and personal reminiscing and gave me an excellent understanding of Father Ed and his contributions to AA as well as so many other groups.
August 31, 2023
I have written often on how AA's 12 Steps are aligned with St Ignatius Loyola's Spiritual Exercises. Good to read more on Fr ED, the St Louis Jesuit who became Bill W's Spiritual Director.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews