There will be much to test me and to make weak my strength before the year ends. His words speak for themselves. Howard Thurman, Jesus and the Disinherited (Beacon Press: 1976), 1-3. Read with your heart wide open: The goal of life is God! Life is like a river. Howard Thurman was a mid-20th century theologian, writer, activist, and mystic who had a profound influence on the leaders of the Civil Rights movement. In the documentary, the story of Thurman’s life is narrated by the leaders of the movement. —Howard Thurman (Wednesday), What does our religion say to the poor, the disinherited, the dispossessed? She had been a student at Spelman and graduated from Oberlin with a degree in music in 1926 and shortly thereafter toured the country as part of a quartet. Howard Thurman, Jesus and the Disinherited (Beacon Press: 1976), 3-5. A Subtle Peril Wednesday, July 24, 2019. Cleage may be an extreme example but African American denominations rarely prioritize integration over community-building. In Thurman, Doblmeier has found yet another hero that lets him tell a story he is fond of telling. It was a crystalizing moment for Thurman’s commitment to non-violent passive resistance. “A Strange Freedom: The Best of Howard Thurman on Religious Experience and Public Life”, p.143, Beacon Press 13 Copy quote. [and] served as spiritual advisor to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement of the 1960s, and thus played a critical role as a “behind the scenes” leader in the development of an alternative to violence in the dismantling of racial injustice in America. It is exceedingly difficult to hold oneself free from a certain contempt for those whose predicament makes moral appeal for defense and succor. Dr. Howard Thurman, 80, a leading clergyman, educator and mystic who believed that the central role of religion was to bring people together and promote harmony in … —Howard Thurman (Monday), Faith teaches us that God is. . The overriding question of Thurman’s career was how to “manage the carking fear of the white man’s power and not be defeated by our own rage and hatred,” as he put it in his autobiography. Follow him on Twitter: @genezubovich. “Many and varied are the interpretations dealing with the teachings and the life of Jesus of Nazareth,” the book begins. . “Howard Thurman: Good News for the Disinherited,” in Modern Spiritual Masters: Writings on Contemplation and Compassion, ed. LAWTON: Howard Thurman was born at the turn of the last century in segregated Daytona, Florida. The delegation was invited to a private meeting with Mohandas Gandhi, who speculated that it would be African Americans who would bring the non-violent protest he was pioneering in India to the United States. but that is not my question. Aug 23, 2020 Bill rated it really liked it. I know what the newspapers say . . This is a matter of tremendous significance, for it reveals to what extent a religion that was born of a people acquainted with persecution and suffering has become the cornerstone of a civilization and of nations whose very position in modern life has too often been secured by a ruthless use of power applied to weak and defenseless peoples. I work at preparing my mind, my spirit for the moment when God comes to Himself in me. . Wherever one Christian met or dealt with another Christian, there would be a socially redemptive encounter. By focusing on the struggle against segregation in the South, the film also loses track of what historian Thomas Sugrue calls the “forgotten struggle for civil rights in the North.” Thurman spent many decades in San Francisco and Boston but his legacy in these places is left undiscussed. In it I hear His Voice in my own tongue and in accordance with the grain in my own wood. Howard Thurman, in full Howard Washington Thurman, (born Nov. 18, 1899, Daytona Beach, Fla., U.S.—died April 10, 1981, San Francisco, Calif.), American Baptist preacher and theologian, the first African American dean of chapel at a traditionally white American university, and a founder of the first interracial interfaith congregation in the United States. God reveals His Presence out of the mystery of Being. —Howard Thurman . Find some uninterrupted time to reflect on Ruth King’s questions below. What are you doing over here? When Jesus prayed, he was conscious that, in his prayer, he met the Presence, and this consciousness was far more important and significant than the answering of his prayer. In what ways were/are your views similar or different? . For people of color whose ancestors and they themselves have experienced oppression, this exploration can be quite painful. The book raised challenging questions about a religion that was largely segregated by race. Howard Thurman: The Mystic as Prophet, by Luther E. Smith, Jr., is the most comprehensive and in depth analysis on Howard Thurman. To be a human being, then, is to be essentially alive in a living world. “There was a contagion which came to us as little children that the creator of existence also created me,” Thurman recounts in the film’s archival footage in his characteristically slow cadence and his deep voice. At no point is this fact more clearly demonstrated than in an individual’s growing knowledge of God. In 1949, he published his most important book, Jesus and the Disinherited. Howard Thurman. Each Saturday we offer an invitation to contemplative practice. Howard Thurman was a mid-20th century theologian, writer, activist, and mystic who had a profound influence on the leaders of the Civil Rights movement. Faith teaches us that God is. It has long been a matter of serious moment that for decades we have studied the various peoples of the world and those who live as our neighbors as objects of missionary endeavor and enterprise without being at all willing to treat them either as brothers or as human beings. By continuing to browse our site you agree to our use of cookies and our Privacy Policy. His first pastorate was in Oberlin, Ohio. . Sunday, July 21, 2019. He understood his role as counseling others about how best to protect activists’ spiritual and psychological well-being from the onslaught of fists, water hoses, police dogs, and batons that they regularly faced. The source of life is God. Thurman had been interested in mysticism since at least 1929, when he spent a semester at Haverford College, where he studied with the Quaker mystic Rufus Jones. Thurman’s tenure at Oberlin was short-lived due to a chance encounter with the ideas of the man who was to be his greatest spiritual mentor. If this were all, in and of itself, it would be important surely. The source of life is God! Thurman spent the spring semester of 1929 studying at Haverford College with Rufus Jones, a Quaker mystic and leader of the pacifist, interracial Fellowship of … It is my intention to use this volume as a supplementary textbook for introduction to religion classes.--Dr Lawrence Edward … . Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. “I am a Hindu. Howard Thurman. In that glorious and transcendent moment, it may easily seem to me that all there is, is God. It is obvious that, in the last analysis, proof of the existence of God is quite impossible. The influence of Howard Thurman Born in 1899, Thurman … . Luther E. Smith, Jr. (Orbis: 2006), 43. Deep River, my home is over Jordan— All disciplines of this character are meant to “ready” the mind, the emotions, the spirit. He soon married his first wife, Katie Kelley, who died of tuberculosis in 1930. Sign up to receive our newsletter and occasional announcements. “Thurman is a significant figure in ecumenical movements,” says Thurman scholar, Luther E. Smith of Emory University and author of Howard Thurman: The Mystic as Prophet. . “He speaks to what it means to have a community of Christians, Muslims and Buddhists living in the same community and finding ways to be tolerant of all religious views. It was one of the first (and, to this day, one of the few) self-consciously integrated churches in the country. . See Sunday’s meditation for my introduction to Howard Thurman. Howard Thurman, a mystic, was a mentor to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In Backs Against the Wall, it is Thurman’s contribution to the civil rights movement—a movement which he influenced but from a distance—that forms the major story line and the denouement of his life’s work. [He] had the prophetic ability to make a connection between the silence and scrutiny of one’s inner life and the work for social justice. Howard Thurman: Essential Writings, ed. What do you believe such feelings keep you from knowing? [fullness] in the life of the individual. The audio available on this site has been transcribed so that listeners can follow along as Thurman speaks and jump ahead to specific sections of the audio. The religious experience is always current, always fresh. While at a church conference, he casually picked up a secondhand copy of Finding the Trail of Life, by the Quaker philosopher-mystic Rufus Jones. Then and only then can the movement toward moral flourishing begin. See All. An Ozarks Native Crosses the Show Me State. God is the guarantor of all [our] values, the ultimate meaning—the timeless frame of reference. The rhythm of his sermons was slow, with long pauses. The source of life is God! “The men who bought the slaves were Christians. This book becomes the primary documentary history of a seminal African-American religious thinker of the twentieth century. After you’ve held these with an open heart, you may wish to do some research with an open mind. This collection of fifty-four of his most well-known meditations features his thoughts on prayer, community, and the joys and rituals of life. [2] Jacquelyn Smith-Crooks and Lerita Coleman Brown, “Howard Thurman: Contemplative and Social Activist,” Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around: Stories of Contemplation and Justice, ed. The second demand is that He be personal and intimate. Like many African American men of his generation who were academically gifted, he became an ordained minister in the Baptist church. One major influence on King’s thought was the African-American minister, theologian, and mystic Howard Thurman. “Howard Thurman was practicing contemplative spirituality before we started calling it contemplative spirituality,” says Lerita Coleman Brown, professor emerita of psychology at Agnes Scott College. It is certainly to the glory of Christianity that it has been most insistent on the point of responsibility to others whose only claim upon one is the height and depth of their need. Even today, churches remain some of the most segregated institutions in the country. A precocious child, he was soon on his way to Morehouse College in Atlanta, where he received his bachelor’s degree in 1923. Privacy Policy, http://archives.bu.edu/web/howard-thurman/howard-thurman-collection, See Sunday’s meditation for my introduction to Howard Thurman. We must grant this same sympathy to all those who write with sincerity in previous times and various cultures. the basic consideration has to do with the removal of all that prevents God from coming to . He was a theologian of civil rights but he was also a prophet of a post-Protestant future. All of us want the assurance of not being deserted by life nor deserted in life. . Despite Thurman’s influence, he’s not commonly known today. The film, titled Backs Against the Wall, focuses on Thurman’s influence on Martin Luther King Jr. and the struggle to end Jim Crow. He is the man who wrote ‘How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds’ and ‘Amazing Grace’—there may be others, but these are the only ones I know. Like many mystics, Howard Thurman saw that humans need to relate to a God that is both beyond rational thought—what I might call a force field of love—and very relatable and personal. Trees!” exclaims Walter Earl Fluker, the editor of the Howard Thurman Papers Project, in the film. Achetez neuf ou d'occasion Deep River, I want to cross over into camp ground. Civil Liberties, Culture, Education, Law, Media, Money. First, He must be vast, limitless, transcendent, all-comprehensive, so that there is no thing that is outside the wide reaches of His apprehension. His mother was a domestic worker—his father, a railroad worker, passed away when Thurman was 7 years old—and so he was partly raised by his maternal grandmother. He became ordained minister; later he taught theology at Morehouse State College, amongst other accomplishments. A note on language from Thurman’s editors: “We realize that inclusive language is noticeably absent in Howard Thurman’s writings. 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Smith, Jr. (Orbis: 2006), Howard Thurman, Jesus and the Disinherited (Beacon Press: 1976), Howard Thurman, The Luminous Darkness: A Personal Interpretation of the Anatomy of Segregation and the Ground of Hope (Friends United Press: 1989, ©1965), Howard Thurman, Meditations of the Heart (Beacon Press: 1999). One example of crisis contemplation occurred on plantations: Here, enslaved Africans created narratives of survival that depended on personal courage and God’s deliverance. Georgia Rep. John Lewis, the civil rights leader, tells us that “Howard Thurman was a saint of the movement.” That’s not an entirely obvious description for an ethicist and theologian who lived until 1981 but was never on the front lines.

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