{"id":5492,"date":"2015-03-03T14:22:04","date_gmt":"2015-03-03T18:22:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/?p=5492"},"modified":"2022-03-23T14:54:04","modified_gmt":"2022-03-23T18:54:04","slug":"prayer-provenance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/prayer-provenance\/","title":{"rendered":"Prayer Provenance"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sarah<\/a>\u201cGod, grant me the serenity \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been spoken by millions seeking inspiration and solace, just twenty-six words that form the backbone of many 12-step programs, including Alcoholics Anonymous. It was chosen by World Almanac as one of the \u201c10 Most Memorable American Quotes\u201d of the 20th Century:<\/p>\n

\u201cGod, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

So when Fred Shapiro, a law librarian at Yale University, called into question the authorship of the Serenity Prayer it caused a bit of a stir. Sarah Guzy \u201910<\/strong> found herself playing an important role in Shapiro\u2019s quest to find who actually wrote one of the world\u2019s most recognizable prayers.<\/p>\n

In 2008, Shapiro published a story in Yale\u2019s alumni magazine. He argued that Reinhold Niebuhr, a towering American theologian who is widely credited with authoring the prayer, may not actually have written it. Shapiro cited newspaper articles and a book in which versions of the prayer (written by women) were seen as far back as 1936. Niebuhr\u2019s daughter, Elisabeth Sifton, had written a book in 2003 in which she said her father was the original author of the prayer, first using it in 1943.<\/p>\n

In the years that followed his article Shapiro spent more time investigating the prayer\u2019s origin. That\u2019s where Guzy, a graduate student studying religion at Harvard University\u2019s Divinity School and staffer at the school\u2019s famous Schlesinger Library, entered the exploration. Shapiro needed someone to look through the diaries of Winnifred Crane Wygal, who knew Niebuhr and had a version of the prayer attributed to her in a 1933 Santa Cruz Sentinel<\/em> newspaper article.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t sure what was going to happen,\u201d Guzy says, adding she spent 20 hours going through the diaries. \u201cI was worried there would be nothing to shed light on the prayer\u2019s provenance, but there was something. In fact the diaries were the key to answering the question. The toughest part? Trying to read Wygal\u2019s handwriting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shapiro wrote of Guzy\u2019s findings: \u201cSchlesinger\u2019s staffer, Sarah Guzy, struck gold when she read Wygal\u2019s diary entry for Oct. 31, 1932. Wygal wrote there: \u2018R.N. says that \u2018moral will plus imagination are the two elements of which faith is compounded. The victorious man in the day of crisis is the man who has the serenity to accept what he cannot help and the courage to change what must be altered.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Although not a mirror image of the prayer we know today, the basic elements were there, according to Shapiro. Niebuhr was the author after all, he wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really surprised about the buzz,\u201d Guzy says. \u201cBeing in divinity school, it\u2019s nice of him to mention me. I wasn\u2019t expecting that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shapiro recanted his doubts about Niebuhr in a story that spread widely, winding up in the Washington Post<\/em>, Chronicle of Higher Education<\/em>, and the Huffington Post<\/em>, among others. Guzy\u2019s efforts were cited in each of those stories.<\/p>\n

And what of Sarah Guzy\u2019s \u201cprovenance,\u201d so to speak. If it wasn\u2019t for one of her K professors, Guzy might never have been asked to go through those diaries.<\/p>\n

An art history and religion double major at the College, Guzy\u2019s academic trajectory was altered profoundly when she began taking classes with Assistant Professor of Religion Shreena Gandhi<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe brought interesting frameworks of racial and gender issues to class. It was the first time I had really encountered them,\u201d Guzy says. \u201cIt was so exciting, so different than other religion classes. I really connected with her. I never intended to study religion, but I loved the classes. K encourages that exploration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guzy studied abroad in Bonn, Germany, and after graduation spent a year in Costa Rica, working in international education, an endeavor helped along by her work at the College\u2019s Center for International Programs. When she returned home, she wondered what she should do next. Gandhi offered some advice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018Why not look at Harvard?\u2019\u201d says Gandhi, who earned her master\u2019s degree in religion there. \u201cSarah had the interest and the intellect. Her experience and her writing and ideas are what got her in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guzy\u2019s time in the Schlesinger Library has been nothing short of inspiring, she says. The library, home of the nation\u2019s largest collection of documents and materials detailing women\u2019s lives and contributions to American society, is a treasure trove of letters, telegrams, diaries, books, objects and plenty of interesting people.<\/p>\n

In her time there, she has unpacked Julia Child\u2019s silver soup ladle and soup tureen from Tiffany, scanned letters from Sigmund Freud, ate birthday cake with Judy Chicago, chatted-up Gayle Rubin, and read from the original papers of Adrienne Rich, a poet she first encountered at K. She even received a scan order for a telegram written by a K professor in the 1970s, she says.<\/p>\n

Guzy applied to K \u201cbecause the college had a funny name,\u201d she says, and was included in the book: \u201cColleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About Colleges.\u201d<\/p>\n

A native of Evanston, Ill., she came to K with her mom, almost on a whim. They just showed up\u2013no campus tour scheduled, no professors or admissions officials lined up to talk with. A few K students approached the two and asked if they needed directions, then wound up taking them on a two-hour tour of the College, Guzy says.<\/p>\n

That friendly openness impressed her immediately.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are similar schools that look the same on paper. But at K the feeling on campus was markedly different,\u201d she says. \u201cI was sold the minute I stepped on campus.\u201d<\/p>\n

That inclusive spirit extended to many of her other professors, she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was an encouragement to connect with your professors,\u201d she says. \u201cWe would go to dinner;I would dog sit for them. I still maintain a lot of relationships. The environment there fosters the ability for making meaningful bonds because the professors care about the students, not just their research.\u201d<\/p>\n

She adds, \u201cThere\u2019s a sense of the importance of the student. Faculty (at K) are so much more approachable than even those at Harvard, many of whom are focused on their personal brand. It\u2019s not like that at K\u2013it\u2019s about relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also another source of her admiration for the College: the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership. While a student Guzy participated in the search for the center\u2019s first executive director.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very proud of K. The (Arcus) center is an amazing thing,\u201d she says. \u201cIt speaks to K\u2019s commitment to giving voice to those not given voice in society generally and in institutions of higher education specifically.\u201d<\/p>\n

The College was also the place where Guzy was first broadly exposed to issues of inequality related to gender, socioeconomic status, race and sexuality, matters she learned about extensively in Gandhi\u2019s classes. It\u2019s no surprise, then, that Guzy\u2019s academic research revolves around gender dynamics in colonialism, and how women exerted their influence in patriarchal societies, through witchcraft in Africa and Latin America, or voodoo in New Orleans.<\/p>\n

\u201cSarah has always been an outspoken feminist, and outspoken on social justice issues broadly,\u201d Gandhi says. \u201cShe\u2019s interested in how things work. You start seeing inequity and oppression and begin to develop ideas on how to solve it. She always had that passion, and now it\u2019s blossoming in her. I\u2019m super proud of her.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the future, Guzy says she has no plans to pursue additional academic endeavors after earning her master\u2019s degree. She wants to get to work.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a huge trend in sending students abroad, but with not a lot of preparation and training to be culturally sensitive,\u201d she says. \u201cThe more attuned to other cultures you are, the more the student gets out of the experience, and the more those in the host nation understand us as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Text by Chris Killian. Photo courtesy of Sara Guzy.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cGod, grant me the serenity \u2026\u201d It\u2019s been spoken by millions seeking inspiration and solace, just twenty-six words that form the backbone of many 12-step programs, including Alcoholics Anonymous. It was chosen by World Almanac as one of the \u201c10 Most Memorable American Quotes\u201d of the 20th Century: \u201cGod, grant me the serenity to accept […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5495,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[232],"tags":[31,44,37,20],"post_formats":[],"class_list":["post-5492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","tag-alumni","tag-humanities","tag-research","tag-social-justice"],"yoast_head":"\r\nPrayer Provenance - News and Events<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u201cGod, grant me the serenity \u2026\u201d It\u2019s been spoken by millions seeking inspiration and solace, just twenty-six words that form the backbone of many 12-step\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" 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aria-label=\"archive of category Alumni\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/category\/alumni\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Alumni<\/a>","tags_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/tag\/alumni\/\" rel=\"tag\">alumni<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/tag\/humanities\/\" rel=\"tag\">humanities<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/tag\/research\/\" rel=\"tag\">research<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/tag\/social-justice\/\" rel=\"tag\">social justice<\/a>","social_share_info":"<a data-share=\"facebook\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/prayer-provenance\/\" class=\"pl-facebook-share social-share-default pl-social-share\" target=\"_blank\"><i class=\"fab fa-facebook-f\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/a><a data-share=\"twitter\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/prayer-provenance\/\" class=\"pl-twiiter-share social-share-default pl-social-share\" target=\"_blank\"><i class=\"fab fa-twitter\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/a><a data-share=\"linkedin\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/shareArticle?url=https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/prayer-provenance\/\" class=\"pl-linkedin-share social-share-default pl-social-share\" target=\"_blank\"><i class=\"fab fa-linkedin-in\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/a>","wordExcerpt_info":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2015\/03\/arahGuzy.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-5494 size-full\" src=\"\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2015\/03\/arahGuzy.jpg\" alt=\"Sarah Guzy\" width=\"300\" height=\"273\" \/><\/a>\u201cGod, grant me the serenity \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s been spoken by millions seeking inspiration and solace, just twenty-six words that form the backbone of many 12-step programs, including Alcoholics Anonymous. It was chosen by World Almanac as one of the \u201c10 Most Memorable American Quotes\u201d of the 20th Century:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGod, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So when Fred Shapiro, a law librarian at Yale University, called into question the authorship of the Serenity Prayer it caused a bit of a stir. <strong>Sarah Guzy \u201910<\/strong> found herself playing an important role in Shapiro\u2019s quest to find who actually wrote one of the world\u2019s most recognizable prayers.<\/p>\n<p>In 2008, Shapiro published a story in Yale\u2019s alumni magazine. He argued that Reinhold Niebuhr, a towering American theologian who is widely credited with authoring the prayer, may not actually have written it. Shapiro cited newspaper articles and a book in which versions of the prayer (written by women) were seen as far back as 1936. Niebuhr\u2019s daughter, Elisabeth Sifton, had written a book in 2003 in which she said her father was the original author of the prayer, first using it in 1943.<\/p>\n<p>In the years that followed his article Shapiro spent more time investigating the prayer\u2019s origin. That\u2019s where Guzy, a graduate student studying religion at Harvard University\u2019s Divinity School and staffer at the school\u2019s famous Schlesinger Library, entered the exploration. Shapiro needed someone to look through the diaries of Winnifred Crane Wygal, who knew Niebuhr and had a version of the prayer attributed to her in a 1933 <em>Santa Cruz Sentinel<\/em> newspaper article.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wasn\u2019t sure what was going to happen,\u201d Guzy says, adding she spent 20 hours going through the diaries. \u201cI was worried there would be nothing to shed light on the prayer\u2019s provenance, but there was something. In fact the diaries were the key to answering the question. The toughest part? Trying to read Wygal\u2019s handwriting.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Shapiro wrote of Guzy\u2019s findings: \u201cSchlesinger\u2019s staffer, Sarah Guzy, struck gold when she read Wygal\u2019s diary entry for Oct. 31, 1932. Wygal wrote there: \u2018R.N. says that \u2018moral will plus imagination are the two elements of which faith is compounded. The victorious man in the day of crisis is the man who has the serenity to accept what he cannot help and the courage to change what must be altered.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Although not a mirror image of the prayer we know today, the basic elements were there, according to Shapiro. Niebuhr was the author after all, he wrote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was really surprised about the buzz,\u201d Guzy says. \u201cBeing in divinity school, it\u2019s nice of him to mention me. I wasn\u2019t expecting that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Shapiro recanted his doubts about Niebuhr in a story that spread widely, winding up in the <em>Washington Post<\/em>, <em>Chronicle of Higher Education<\/em>, and the <em>Huffington Post<\/em>, among others. Guzy\u2019s efforts were cited in each of those stories.<\/p>\n<p>And what of Sarah Guzy\u2019s \u201cprovenance,\u201d so to speak. If it wasn\u2019t for one of her K professors, Guzy might never have been asked to go through those diaries.<\/p>\n<p>An art history and religion double major at the College, Guzy\u2019s academic trajectory was altered profoundly when she began taking classes with Assistant Professor of Religion <strong>Shreena Gandhi<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe brought interesting frameworks of racial and gender issues to class. It was the first time I had really encountered them,\u201d Guzy says. \u201cIt was so exciting, so different than other religion classes. I really connected with her. I never intended to study religion, but I loved the classes. K encourages that exploration.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Guzy studied abroad in Bonn, Germany, and after graduation spent a year in Costa Rica, working in international education, an endeavor helped along by her work at the College\u2019s Center for International Programs. When she returned home, she wondered what she should do next. Gandhi offered some advice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI said, \u2018Why not look at Harvard?\u2019\u201d says Gandhi, who earned her master\u2019s degree in religion there. \u201cSarah had the interest and the intellect. Her experience and her writing and ideas are what got her in.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Guzy\u2019s time in the Schlesinger Library has been nothing short of inspiring, she says. The library, home of the nation\u2019s largest collection of documents and materials detailing women\u2019s lives and contributions to American society, is a treasure trove of letters, telegrams, diaries, books, objects and plenty of interesting people.<\/p>\n<p>In her time there, she has unpacked Julia Child\u2019s silver soup ladle and soup tureen from Tiffany, scanned letters from Sigmund Freud, ate birthday cake with Judy Chicago, chatted-up Gayle Rubin, and read from the original papers of Adrienne Rich, a poet she first encountered at K. She even received a scan order for a telegram written by a K professor in the 1970s, she says.<\/p>\n<p>Guzy applied to K \u201cbecause the college had a funny name,\u201d she says, and was included in the book: \u201cColleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About Colleges.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A native of Evanston, Ill., she came to K with her mom, almost on a whim. They just showed up\u2013no campus tour scheduled, no professors or admissions officials lined up to talk with. A few K students approached the two and asked if they needed directions, then wound up taking them on a two-hour tour of the College, Guzy says.<\/p>\n<p>That friendly openness impressed her immediately.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are similar schools that look the same on paper. But at K the feeling on campus was markedly different,\u201d she says. \u201cI was sold the minute I stepped on campus.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That inclusive spirit extended to many of her other professors, she says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere was an encouragement to connect with your professors,\u201d she says. \u201cWe would go to dinner;I would dog sit for them. I still maintain a lot of relationships. The environment there fosters the ability for making meaningful bonds because the professors care about the students, not just their research.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She adds, \u201cThere\u2019s a sense of the importance of the student. Faculty (at K) are so much more approachable than even those at Harvard, many of whom are focused on their personal brand. It\u2019s not like that at K\u2013it\u2019s about relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s also another source of her admiration for the College: the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership. While a student Guzy participated in the search for the center\u2019s first executive director.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m very proud of K. The (Arcus) center is an amazing thing,\u201d she says. \u201cIt speaks to K\u2019s commitment to giving voice to those not given voice in society generally and in institutions of higher education specifically.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The College was also the place where Guzy was first broadly exposed to issues of inequality related to gender, socioeconomic status, race and sexuality, matters she learned about extensively in Gandhi\u2019s classes. It\u2019s no surprise, then, that Guzy\u2019s academic research revolves around gender dynamics in colonialism, and how women exerted their influence in patriarchal societies, through witchcraft in Africa and Latin America, or voodoo in New Orleans.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSarah has always been an outspoken feminist, and outspoken on social justice issues broadly,\u201d Gandhi says. \u201cShe\u2019s interested in how things work. You start seeing inequity and oppression and begin to develop ideas on how to solve it. She always had that passion, and now it\u2019s blossoming in her. I\u2019m super proud of her.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As for the future, Guzy says she has no plans to pursue additional academic endeavors after earning her master\u2019s degree. She wants to get to work.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a huge trend in sending students abroad, but with not a lot of preparation and training to be culturally sensitive,\u201d she says. \u201cThe more attuned to other cultures you are, the more the student gets out of the experience, and the more those in the host nation understand us as well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Text by Chris Killian. Photo courtesy of Sara Guzy.<\/em><\/p>\n","comment_info":"No Comments","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5492"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9426,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5492\/revisions\/9426"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5492"},{"taxonomy":"post_format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_formats?post=5492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}