This recording is a part of a wider series of conversations from September to October of 1980 where Howard Thurman met with a variety of young men and women who were discerning their calling to ministry. Thurman poses the intent of this group as an opportunity to "open up for one's self the moving, vital, creative push of God, while God is still disguised in the movement of God's self." In this recording, Thurman explores what it means to participate on a spiritual journey in a pluralistic world, noting that "religious experience is a carbon copy of the way by which the individual must find a way to stand out in their own anonymity." Here, Thurman is framing spirituality and mission as a means of locating the depth and breadth of spirituality both within the individual, and in the context of the wider world.

Part of the Collection, NA

Tags: Atlanta, burden of obligation, church, debt, developmental psychology, dichotomy, doors, ego, experience, German reader, gratitude, ground of being, idiom of life, imagination, Incarnation, India, Jesus, Kropotkin, Lord's Prayer, Nancy Ambrose, Old Lady Wright, personality, pilgrimage, plurality of truth, prayer, Ralph Waldo Emerson, relationship, responsibility, seminary, singing, spiritual journey, tent of clues

Description by Dustin Mailman

Recorded in NA

Citation: Thurman, Howard, “Conversations with Howard Thurman, September 1980, Parts 9 and 10, Side B,” The Howard Thurman Digital Archive, accessed July 9, 2024, https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/items/show/303.