The Howard Thurman Podcast

In this final entry on the Parables of Jesus, Thurman examines the Parable of the Rich Fool. The overarching question for Thurman is this: How do we relate to the money and resources that we have? We aspire to protect ourselves and make flourishing lives with our resources, but we also find ourselves measuring our value by these things. Thurman suggests that we measure our lives by our commitment – not by how much we have, but rather if we use our goods for things in which we truly believe. Thurman invites us to ponder whether our possessions are more valuable than peace of mind and freedom of soul.

Part of the Collection, The Parables of Jesus (1951, Fellowship Church, San Francisco, CA)

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Description by Rodell Jefferson III.

Recorded in Fellowship Church, San Francisco, California

Citation: Thurman, Howard, “Parables of Jesus, Part 7: Rich Young Fool, 1951 October 28,” The Howard Thurman Digital Archive, accessed July 9, 2024, https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/items/show/586.

In this eighth sermon on the prophets, Thurman gives a thorough exploration of Ezekiel. First, Thurman returns to the topic of responsibility through the lens of holiness. In Ezekiel, though environment affects our choices, we each must reckon with ourselves and our own actions. The action is ultimate in determining our holiness, and our good acts might save us from the weight of our bad acts. Thurman also suggests that we might bear responsibility, not through some profession, but simply as ourselves taking ownership of our own living. This includes when our lives are under great threat and consequence, which might compromise our moral commitments. Do we commit the sin of deceit when our lives are jeopardy? Or do we maintain our integrity? Thurman does not offer any clear answers, but asserts that we must all wrestle with the question, for it is the circumstance of our everyday lives.

Part of the Collection, Religion of the Prophets (1952, Fellowship Church, San Francisco, CA)

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Description by Rodell Jefferson III.

Recorded in Fellowship Church, San Francisco, California

Citation: Thurman, Howard, “Religion of the Prophets: The Message of Ezekiel, 1952 August 11,” The Howard Thurman Digital Archive, accessed July 9, 2024, https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/items/show/591.

In this fifth sermon on the prophets, Thurman finds Deutero-Isaiah wrestling with what it means to be in relationship with God. The prophet is troubled by the notion that Jews are supposed to be in automatic relationship with Jehovah, and yet they do not act like it. Thus the prophet concludes that it is not tribe or lineage that makes one a Jew, but rather moral and spiritual character. Anyone can thus "become a Jew" as the prophet says. Those who have had this experience of God play the part of revealing the true nature of God to the world. For Thurman, the image of the suffering servant illustrates those who have been exposed to God's spirit and therefore suffer on God's behalf as instruments of God's plan to redeem the world.

Part of the Collection, Religion of the Prophets (1952, Fellowship Church, San Francisco, CA)

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Description by Rodell Jefferson III.

Recorded in Fellowship Church, San Francisco, California

Citation: Thurman, Howard, “Religion of the Prophets: The Message of Deutero-Isaiah, 1952 June 29,” The Howard Thurman Digital Archive, accessed July 9, 2024, https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/items/show/590.

In this second sermon on the prophets, Thurman talks about God's unwavering faithfulness to human beings even in the midst of hardship. Through Hosea's writings, Thurman illustrates the ways in which crisis tempts us into abandoning our faith in God, the true source of our security. Thurman suggests that God's punishment and redemption is carried out through the logic of cause and effect. The world is not full of war because God is evil, but because our social processes lead to war. Nevertheless, Thurman insists that we must hold the faith that "the ultimate destiny of man is a good destiny."

Part of the Collection, Religion of the Prophets (1952, Fellowship Church, San Francisco, CA)

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Description by Rodell Jefferson III.

Recorded in Fellowship Church, San Francisco, California

Citation: Thurman, Howard, “Religion of the Prophets: The Message of Hosea, 1952 June 1,” The Howard Thurman Digital Archive, accessed July 9, 2024, https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/items/show/585.

In this audio recording, Howard Thurman shares the background and the intentions of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust. Thurman traces his own educational journey through the hardships of segregation and financial struggles, which were only overcome by the support of friends, family, and strangers. After a fateful encounter with a man that helps pay his ticket to high school, Thurman makes a promise to God: for every year of his life, he will try to do for some student that that man had done for him. The Howard Thurman Educational Trust is the manifestation of that promise. The Trust makes it mission along three priorities: 1.) enabling scholarships and personal mentorship to students, 2.) encouraging intercultural experiences and understanding, and 3.) sharing the thoughts and reflections that have come from Thurman's life of religious commitment.

Part of the Collection, NA

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Description by Rodell Jefferson III.

Recorded in NA

Citation: Thurman, Howard, “Thurman on the Howard Thurman Educational Trust, 1975 February 7,” The Howard Thurman Digital Archive, accessed July 9, 2024, https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/items/show/190.

In this recording, Thurman explores the value of learning the patience of unanswered prayer. He suggests that this patience can lead away from a focus on the hunger for something that has not come to pass. Instead, we can focus on what it can mean to deal with that hunger and how it can help us understand ourselves. He then offers a number of ways in which we can help answer the question, "What do you do with the frustrations of your own life?"

Part of the Collection, We Believe (Television Series, 1958-1965)

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Description by Spencer Roberts

Recorded in WHDH-TV, Boston, Massachusetts

Citation: Thurman, Howard, “Patience of Unanswered Prayer (1958-04-11),” The Howard Thurman Digital Archive, accessed July 9, 2024, https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/items/show/167.

In this recording, Howard Thurman honors the memory of Martin Luther King, Jr. , giving perspective to his "life and martyrdom." Thurman describes King's greatest contribution to be his ability to speak ethical insight from the center of his religious experience. Thurman says that this was a new development: to denounce racism, not just as un-American and undemocratic, but as a moral sin against God. Thurman assures us that King's work is unfinished, and that it is us who determine the meaning and significance of his life by how we respond. Thurman sees King as one who lived out his metaphysical principles, and put his trust in the "sound of the genuine" that can potentially be heard between every person.

Part of the Collection, NA

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Description by Rodell Jefferson III.

Recorded in University of California, Santa Cruz, California

Citation: Thurman, Howard, “Martin Luther King Service (Santa Cruz), April 8, 1968,” The Howard Thurman Digital Archive, accessed July 9, 2024, https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/items/show/107.

This recording is the tenth lecture in our collection of ten that Howard Thurman gave at the University of Redlands in 1973 on the topic of mysticism. Thurman indicates that this lecture functions as a means to point the listener towards practical approaches to mysticism through lenses of psychology, philosophy, and religious experience. In this recording, Howard Thurman is asking the question, "What do I have?" He poses this question in relation to the mystical traditions that strive to empty themselves of the material world for the sake of transcendental relationship with God. Engaging this question, Thurman struggles with the tension between humanity's innate entanglement with "the real" of the world, and the ways in which one truly experiences the love of God by emptying oneself from all "occupations and distractions of the mind."

Part of the Collection, NA

Tags: actualization, adventure of the mind, Albert Magnus, aliveness, ant, Augustine, biology, Carl Jung, contemplation, creation, ecology, embodiment, experience, George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Great Plains, identity, journey, kenosis, love, manifestation, Meister Eckhart, Morehouse College, negative way, philosophy, Plotinus, reality, revelation, sanctification, self-awareness, solitude, soul, source, the real, transformation, universal form

Description by Dustin Mailman

Recorded in University of Redlands, Redlands, California

Citation: Thurman, Howard, “On Mysticism, Part 16 (University of Redlands Course), 1973,” The Howard Thurman Digital Archive, accessed July 9, 2024, https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/items/show/106.

This recording is the ninth lecture in our collection of ten that Howard Thurman gave at the University of Redlands in 1973 on the topic of mysticism. Thurman indicates that this lecture functions as a means to point the listener towards practical approaches to mysticism through lenses of psychology, philosophy, and religious experience. In this recording, Thurman responds to the question: "Can I work out, in my private journey, the implications of my moment of vision?" In classic Thurman form, he gives no clear answer to this question; however, he points to Jesus' ministry, and Greek philosophical conceptions of the soul, in order to further illuminate the question at hand.

Part of the Collection, NA

Tags: adultery, Brahman, Buddha, community, conversion, Essenes, experience, Greek Philosophy, Herodians, Hinduism, holiness, Incarnation, legion, Meister Eckhart, membership, miracle, nucleus, Oscar Wilde, Pharisee, Plotinus, private journey, purity, religious experience, river, Roman dogs, Rome, Socrates, soul, spiritual energy, suffering

Description by Dustin Mailman

Recorded in University of Redlands, Redlands, California

Citation: Thurman, Howard, “On Mysticism, Part 13 (University of Redlands Course), 1973,” The Howard Thurman Digital Archive, accessed July 9, 2024, https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/items/show/105.

This recording is the eighth lecture in our collection of ten that Howard Thurman gave at the University of Redlands in 1973 on the topic of mysticism. Thurman indicates that this lecture functions as a means to point the listener towards practical approaches to mysticism through lenses of psychology, philosophy, and religious experience. In this recording, Thurman reflects upon the life of Jesus, and an encounter he had with the author Margaret Rhodes, in order to make sense of what it means to heal. Here, Thurman indicates that the primary function of healing rests in the healing of one's "identity of belonging." In other words, Thurman is arguing that to heal, and be healed, is to be fully integrated into a life of community.

Part of the Collection, NA

Tags: baptism, calling, christology, contemplation, creative energy, gifts, goya, Head of Christ, healer, healing, Henrich Hofmann, historical Jesus, imago dei, inner experience, interelatedness, Jesus, magic, Margaret Rhodes, Minneapolis, mystic experience, Palestine, Platonic doctrine, power, principle of automation, self-awareness, social change, Stephen Hawking, symbolism, symposium of the soul, wilderness, woodpecker, working paper

Description by Dustin Mailman

Recorded in University of Redlands, Redlands, California

Citation: Thurman, Howard, “On Mysticism, Part 12 (University of Redlands Course), 1973,” The Howard Thurman Digital Archive, accessed July 9, 2024, https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/items/show/104.