Book Review

I have a friend who has written an important book.  Bob Davis' book The Mason's Words should be required reading for every Mason. Every Masonic Leader should read it and ponder it and see what it means for our Fraternity.

I have read many Masonic Books but I have never found one which ties the history of the ritual and the story of Freemasonry together so beautifully.

 Freemasonry as we practice it in the United States evolved from the Scottish Freemasons through the English to the Masons of the early Colonial times who brought it with them when they colonized the country.  In England it was William Preston who brought the teachings together unifying them into a ritualistic system of teaching and philosophy.  Davis takes us through these steps so that we can see how the ritual was developed.  He then shows how it spread in the United States through the Provincial Grand Lodge System and how, after the Revolutionary War, it was reconstituted as a Grand Lodge System with each state developing its own methods and rituals.

Codified in our country by Thomas Smith Webb, the "Father" of Freemasonry in this country; Webb and those he taught were responsible for spreading a uniform teaching. Men taught by Webb who were in turn teachers of "roving Ritualists" who travelled the country spreading the Mason's Words. It was unified to a degree by the Baltimore Convention into the fraternal system as we practice it today.

Davis, who is the Registrar of the Guthrie Oklahoma Scottish Rite is a 33rd degree mason who holds the rank of Grand Cross. His Masonic experience places him in the highest ranks of our fraternity and yet, when you meet him you see a true exemplar of the fraternity that "meets upon the level."  He has a deep and abiding love for our society and understands it purpose for existing in the modern world. He sees the problems which it faces and the discerning reader will be able to see pathways which need to be taken to strengthen and improve our fraternity.

Davis has spoken of Freemasonry as "a rite of manhood that connects young males to the collective masculine soul; to the spirit of being a man; and to the community of men. It is the traditional organizational venue for male role modeling and male to male communication."  (Understanding Manhood in America: Freemasonry's Enduring Path to the Mature Masculine - Robert G. Davis).

He suggests that our system has become "one-dimensional" with too much emphasis on memorizing words and says that "Perhaps it is time to recreate in our own time the indispensable intellectual component of Masonic dialogue which enabled the completion of Masonic philosophy by the end of the eighteenth century."

There is much in this book to be learned about our history and our ritual and our direction for the future.  Robert Davis has written an important Masonic Book which will open pathways of learning and thought for anyone interested in Freemasonry.  I salute him with a Toast!