The Howard Thurman Podcast

This recording is the seventh 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 explores the question "How must I relate to the natural order in which I must work out my life?" This question is met with the significance of the Temptation of Jesus in relation to Jesus' baptism. Thurman suggests that Jesus' transcendental experience in Baptism informs his steadfast commitment to not be led into temptation. The example of Jesus, for Thurman, illustrates the significance of the religious life, and the ways in which the religious life points one towards fullness, freedom, and responsibility.

Part of the Collection, NA

Tags: actualization, baptism, biblical interpretation, center, Charles Badger Clark, civil war, dove, Hunchback of Notre Dame, importance, Jesus, journey, Leo Tolstoy, mission, mystery, mysticism, natural order, nucleus, personal truth, pragmatism, religious experience, responsibility, Satan, solitude, structure of dependability, struggle, subjectivity, temptation of Jesus, truth, value, Vicksburg, Victor Hugo, vision, withdraw

Description by Dustin Mailman

Recorded in University of Redlands, Redlands, California

Citation: Thurman, Howard, “On Mysticism, Part 11 (University of Redlands Course), 1973,” The Howard Thurman Digital Archive, accessed July 9, 2024, https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/items/show/103.

This recording is the sixth 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 what it means to make sense of one's own transcendent "center." The center to which Thurman is referencing is held in relation to the placement of Jesus' baptism in the context of the arc of scripture; heralding this event as the epitomization of the transcendental self. It is here where the centrality of the transcendent reality is grounded upon everything existing in the "divine context," thus existence is inseparable from prayer.

Part of the Collection, NA

Tags: absolute, Albert Schweitzer, Back to Methuselah, Bernard Shaw, center, center of being, christology, clue, conditioning, Daniel, divinity, DNA, Dream of Gerontius, essence of prayer, experience, inner quiet, Isaiah, Jesus, John Henry Newman, John the Baptist, Jordan River, King Uzziah, language, lions den, meditation, nature, nervous center, Noah, nucleus, opening, organic, possibility, Psalm 139, psychology, Quakers, Quest for the Historical Jesus, scientific process, sunday school, transcendence, voice, Weinel, Widgery

Description by Dustin Mailman

Recorded in University of Redlands, Redlands, California

Citation: Thurman, Howard, “On Mysticism, Part 9 (University of Redlands Course), 1973,” The Howard Thurman Digital Archive, accessed July 9, 2024, https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/items/show/102.

This recording is the fifth 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. He revolves the content of this lecture around the question: "How may I act so that in my action there will be a corresponding manifestation of an increase within me of a sense of the presence of God?" To which, Thurman responds with dialogue with students in the class pertaining to notions of self-actualization, the task of the mystic, and the exploration of the content of religious identity.

Part of the Collection, NA

Tags: actualization, awareness, Brethren of the Common Life, center of being, comprehension, Concord Reformatory, consciousness, contemplation, contextuality, dilemma, dualism, ego, externality, good works, ground, Harvard, Hounds of Hell, identity, Incarnation, integrity, interconnectivity, intimate experience, Jesus, LSD, modernity, moral quality, mysticism, nibble, pragmatism, praxis, presence, proof, religious experience, seeing, seeking, Timothy Leary, truth, vulnerability, watch, William James

Description by Dustin Mailman

Recorded in University of Redlands, Redlands, California

Citation: Thurman, Howard, “On Mysticism, Part 6 (University of Redlands Course), 1973,” The Howard Thurman Digital Archive, accessed July 9, 2024, https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/items/show/101.

This recording is the fourth 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. Drawing from Olive Schreiner, Elmer O'Brian, and his own encounters, Thurman reflects upon God's (or The Ultimate's) sovereign providence. Thurman communicates this idea via the designation of "God's giveness." He notes that it is in personal "spiritual exercises" that one has the potential to be opened to this innate nature of God.

Part of the Collection, NA

Tags: aestheticism, angel, creative encounter, ecology, Elmer O'Brian, failure, George Fox, giveness, Gospel of John, Holt Rinehart, inner light, interelatedness, Israel, Jacob, life, manifestations of life, Meister Eckhart, natural religion, Old Testament, Olive Schreiner, panentheism, pantheism, potential, presence, reading, roses, sacrament, Saint Paul, spiritual exercise, totality of experience, ultimate, unity, Varieties of Mystic Religion

Description by Dustin Mailman

Recorded in University of Redlands, Redlands, California

Citation: Thurman, Howard, “On Mysticism, Part 4 (University of Redlands Course), 1973,” The Howard Thurman Digital Archive, accessed July 9, 2024, https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/items/show/100.

This recording is the third 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. Building upon Thurman conception of being a "time binder," he notes that utopian conceptions of harmony are not unobtainable. Drawing from his wider work of "racial memory," Thurman indicates in this recording that humanity's restorative relationship with the animal kingdom provides an inkling for God's participation with humankind in the pursuit of harmony. This harmony has existed before, and in a movement towards this redemptive harmony, Thurman suggests, there is an innate movement towards humanity's created intent.

Part of the Collection, NA

Tags: A.E. Hotchner, Alexander Pope, aliveness, awareness, common ground, communication, creation, dualism, ecology, George Cross, gorilla, harmony, journey, myths, Papa Hemingway, pathology, Plato, polar bear, potentiality, prayer, priest, racial memory, rattlesnake, Ringling Brothers, sanctification, self-consciousness, sovereignty, substance, theodicy, Thomas More, time binder, utopia, vulgarity, warthogs

Description by Dustin Mailman

Recorded in University of Redlands, Redlands, California

Citation: Thurman, Howard, “On Mysticism, Part 3 (University of Redlands Course), 1973,” The Howard Thurman Digital Archive, accessed July 9, 2024, https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/items/show/99.

This recording is the second 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 notes that innate within the human identity are the categorizations of "Space Binder" and "Time Binder." Space Binder speaks to meaning making in reference to the external world. Time Binder speaks to the transcendent reality of existence that both observes and reacts. Each of these designations function as tools to make sense of one's participation in reality, while also transcending the limits of human conception.

Part of the Collection, NA

Tags: death, deception, dualism, ecology, embodiment, epistemology, fact, freedom, harmony, India, integration, intellect, interconnectivity, Kabir, mind body, mystery, mystical union, mysticism, Nature of Mind, oneness, ontology, order, panentheism, personality, pragmatism, relationality, river, space binder, synthesis, Tagores University, temporality, time binder, transcendent reality, universal truth

Description by Dustin Mailman

Recorded in University of Redlands, Redlands, California

Citation: Thurman, Howard, “On Mysticism, Part 2 (University of Redlands Course), 1973,” The Howard Thurman Digital Archive, accessed July 9, 2024, https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/items/show/98.

This recording is the first 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. Thurman's emphasis in this recording is the centrality of one's identity, and conception of self in relation to the world and creation. He does this by drawing upon stories of and experience he has with a Sioux tribe in Canada, and his interpretation of a Robinson Jeffers poem. The recording concludes with a stream of consciousness waxing from Thurman, illustrating his understanding of becoming "self-conscious," and the potential dangers that come when one relies primarily on the self rather than the communal body.

Part of the Collection, NA

Tags: African Genesis, Andromeda, Arctic Circle, Canada, center, community, consciousness, context, continuity, creativity, ecology, embodiment, essential fact, evolution, Gore Place, identity, imagination, interconnectivity, Isolation, J Allen Boone, Kinship With All Life, mental illness, mysticism, New York, oneness, order, organism, panentheism, presence, reality, religious experience, Robert Ardrey, Robinson Jeffers, Saskatchewan, scientific theory, Sioux Indians, Strongheart

Description by Dustin Mailman

Recorded in University of Redlands, Redlands, California

Citation: Thurman, Howard, “On Mysticism, Part 1 (University of Redlands Course), 1973,” The Howard Thurman Digital Archive, accessed July 9, 2024, https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/items/show/97.

This recording is a part of a seminar that took place in 1975 on the topic of Howard Thurman's inimitable text, Jesus and the Disinherited. In these recordings, you hear the voices of numerous students in conversation with Thurman. In this recording, Thurman opens with his reflections upon the tension between the temporal body of Jesus Christ, and one makes of Jesus' lived experience. Collectively, the classroom explores questions of the historicity of Jesus, the limitations of personal experience, the impact of Jesus' teachings on the Civil Rights Movement, hope, and the habitus of nonviolent strategy.

Part of the Collection, NA

Tags: apocalyptic vision, Civil Rights Movement, consciousness, culture, death, deception, disciples, ego, encounter, experience, expression, historical Jesus, hope, integrity, Jesus, laboratory, lagoon, love ethic, luck, nonviolence, ocean, personalism, personality, plurality, religious experience, risk, seminar, slavery, suffering, truth, validation, Western Civilization

Description by Dustin Mailman

Recorded in NA

Citation: Thurman, Howard, “Jesus and the Disinherited, Part 1 (Seminar Discussion) [Side A], 1975 Jan 22-23,” The Howard Thurman Digital Archive, accessed July 9, 2024, https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/items/show/86.

This is a recording of Howard Thurman reading from his text "Deep Is The Hunger" (1951). Thurman explores a parable of a poor laborer who invests in expensive glass from a high end antique store. From this parable, Thurman discusses what it means to live with only that which is best and beautiful, that which is one's treasure. He continues by juxtaposing this idea of treasures by lifting up the nature of tragedy, which lures one from that which makes their life most beautiful.

Part of the Collection, Readings from Deep is the Hunger (1951)

Tags: antique store, balance, beauty, courage, dedication, deep is the hunger, experience, fears, Francis De Sales, home, illumined finger of God, Introduction to the Decent Life, Jesus, laborer, meditation, memory, old glass, poorly dressed, siege, storm path, storms, treasures in heaven, truth within me, vacuums

Description by Dustin Mailman

Recorded in NA

Citation: Thurman, Howard, “A Sense of Presence, Sense of Self, 1974 July 18,” The Howard Thurman Digital Archive, accessed July 9, 2024, https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/items/show/74.

A recording of Howard Thurman reading a selection of Psalms for recordings by the American Bible Society devotionals entitled, "Hear Us and Help" in November 1971. On this side of the recording, Thurman read Psalms 71, 77, 86, 90, 103, 139.

Part of the Collection, NA

Tags: American Bible Society, Here Us and Help, Psalms

Description by Erik Mattson

Recorded in NA

Citation: Thurman, Howard, “Hear Us and Help, Psalms in Today's English Version (American Bible Society), 1971 Nov,” The Howard Thurman Digital Archive, accessed July 9, 2024, https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/items/show/73.