Browse Lecture Series (36 total)
The following lecture series are available in full or part. Additional series will be made available as recordings are processed. Please note that many recordings are not part of series. To browse all recordings, click here.
The Meaning of the Religious Experience (1976, [Disciples of Christ Retreat], Santa Barbara, CA)
In this sermon series, Howard Thurman illustrates the all-encompassing nature of religious experience. The encounter with God is a renewing experience in which one's very center is changed, rippling out into all of one's life. It is in this whole-bodied commitment that one comes into the creativity and responsibility of ethical life. This sermon series contains a number of Thurman's most familiar images, i.e. the inward sea, the sound of the genuine, etc.
Contributors: Descriptions by Erik Mattson & Rodell Jefferson III.
The Parables of Jesus (1951, Fellowship Church, San Francisco, CA)
In this sermon series on the Parables of Jesus, Thurman walks listeners through the central themes of the parable. In the stories, Thurman finds Jesus pointing illustrating our deep human needs for community and wholeness. Thurman offers the sermons as invitations into Jesus' religious experience, which demonstrate for us what God is like, and what is required of us as disciples, children of God, and human beings in search of fulfillment.
Contributors: Description by Rodell Jefferson III and Erik Mattson.
The Search for Meaning (1975, Second Christian Church, Indianapolis, IN)
In this series about the Search for Meaning, Thurman discusses approaches to finding meaning in things to which we choose to devote our lives and energy through the experiences of self, freedom, and love.
Contributors: Descriptions by ShaCarolyn Halyard
The Temptations of Jesus (1962, United Church of Canada, London, ON, Canada)
Howard Thurman’s “The Temptations of Jesus” is a five-part sermon series concerned with how the spiritual attitude orients human encounters with dilemmas. In these presentations, Thurman reflects upon the biblical record of Jesus' temptations in the wilderness – bread, tempting God, and power – his decision to travel to Jerusalem, and his contemplation of death in the Garden of Gethsemane. This series shows that choosing divine purpose over egotism requires aligning with the will of God by…
Contributors: Descriptions by ShaCarolyn Halyard
We Believe (Television Series, 1958-1965)
We Believe was a color television program that aired on WHDH-TV, Channel 5, in Boston on weekday mornings at 11:15. From 1958 to 1965, while Howard Thurman was Dean of the Chapel at Boston University, he was the host of the Friday morning show. Each message has a brief introductory section with bells and music before Thurman delivers his short meditation. Some recordings have been edited to remove the intro. In some cases, the Howard Thurman Educational Trust produced tapes with two messages on…
Contributors: Descriptions by Dustin Mailman
What Shall I Do With My Life? (1971, New York Community Church, New York, NY)
In this series, Thurman discusses the concepts of freedom in the actions of an individual, how freedom is negotiated in a fluid world of logic, time, and natural order, and how communities can act in freedom.
Contributors: Descriptions by ShaCarolyn Halyard