Browse Lecture Series (35 total)

For Howard Thurman, faith is more than a set of assumptions or affirmations about life. Faith, instead, is a literal fact to be acknowledged and drawn upon in everyday living. In this sermon series Thurman explores faith as a centering force in human life that orients us to the infinite worth of ourselves and others. It is this faith alone that can steer humankind to their ultimate destiny, for it is the expansive power of faith that sustains our cultures, our civilizations, our institutions.

For Howard Thurman, community is the will of God and the intent of life. All of life moves towards a greater sense of wholeness and fulfillment. In this sermon series, Thurman explores the various manifestations of this urge towards community in human life: creation myths, the innocence of childhood, human beings as children of nature, and the utopian dreams of prophets. Ultimately, Thurman illustrates that God is on the side of harmony, and that we as human beings have the opportunity to…

In this series, Howard Thurman discusses the Declaration of Independence along four key ideas: Created Equal, Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness. Each of the four sermons explores one of these ideas. These sermons are also available at Expanding Common Ground, Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University

In this series, Thurman discusses three primary topics: the meaning of religious experience, the idea of total surrender to God, and the intimacy of a deeper relationship with God through religious experience.

“Dilemmas of the Religious Professional” is a four-part lecture series by Howard Thurman focused on the religious professional who is distinguished by a sense of divine calling and unique challenges. The lectures address the uniqueness, duties, prayers, and words of persons elected into religious professions.

"All that a man has is his life." This is the central insight explored in the Disciples of Christ Retreat collection. Throughout these lectures, Thurman discusses the dynamics of commitment in religious experience. A person has a life, and that life must be given to something. Thurman describes commitment as life giving itself to life, which summons up energy and meaning into our private worlds, and enabling new possibilities in our outer lives. For Thurman, the process of yielding to God in our…

In this 8-part series, Thurman discusses a variety of topics related to the disciplines of the spirit, including growth, personal stability, commitment, dedication, actions, dualism, and redemption.

This collection highlights individual lectures, sermons, interviews, prayers, and meditations given by Howard Thurman throughout his professional career.

In the Freedom and Suffering series, Thurman explores the woven-together tapestry of freedom, death, grace, and more. The sermon series paints a picture of human beings as both free and fallible. However, even in our imperfection and failure, we are not without the mysterious support of God, who judges us beyond our account of wins and losses. Thurman ultimately suggests that freedom, and the suffering that comes with it, brings texture and adventure to our lives, and is the way by which we…

This collections includes three lectures from the series delivered at the Friends Five-Year Meeting in 1969 at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana. Three more lectures from the series are not present in this collection.