Browse Items (14 total)

  • Collection: Men Who've Walked with God (1953)

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In this final sermon on "The Men Who've Walked With God," Thurman talks about the dynamics of human values. We are each born with a fundamental sense of values, however our values might be put towards destructive ends. It is easy to lie and mislabel our values, whether it be by ignorance or for the sake of convenience. Thurman says that power and knowledge tends to have a particular corrosive effect on our sense of values and responsibility. The answer to this is humility – measuring ourselves…

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Thurman's 13th sermon on "The Men Who've Walked With God" examines "The Imitations of Christ" written by Thomas à Kempis. Thurman says that there is a part of our personalities that wants to give over control; we want to relate to something ultimate and reliable in which we can find stability and guidance. This authority, Thurman says, must be found deep within; therein lies our freedom, for without this inner authority, we will bow to the symbols of authority in our lives. Uncovering this…

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In this 12th sermon on "The Men Who've Walked With God," Thurman talks about our outer and inner lives through Jacob Böhme, a Lutheran of the 16th century. Böhme felt that understanding the world entails more than simply experiencing it, but also relating to it from a center point. In dealing with the world, we need to bring a "double view" to all things. We must see one another in the reality of our circumstances, but also in our completeness as manifestations of life. For Böhme, this double…

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In this tenth sermon on "The Men Who've Walked with God," Thurman explores painter, Fra Angelico. Angelico's life shows us what is possible when we dedicate our skills and disciplines totally to God. Angelico, painting out of the ultimate loyalty of his heart, did not worry about judgments or critics or making money; for him, painting was the way in which the living God was projected. Thurman says that Angelico made his life into a tool for God to reveal God's glory. When our lives are dedicated…

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In this seventh lecture on "The Men Who've Walked with God," Thurman examines Gandhi. For Thurman, Gandhi illustrates what it looks like to bring mystical insight into politics and the traffic of life. In the work of Gandhi, one sees that "it is possible to achieve effective, worldly ends by the use of... techniques that are, themselves, unworldly." By shining the light of spiritual truth onto the conflicts and frustrations of life, new creative synthesis is made possible. For Thurman, Gandhi is…

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In this fifth lecture on "The Men Who've Walked with God," Thurman speaks on the Greek philosopher Plotinus. For Thurman, Plotinus's insight is the "double search" of mystical experience – the idea that as we seek out God, God also searches for us. Through this journey, one comes to share in the divine mind, or as Thurman says, "thinking God's thoughts after Him." However, Thurman is describing a thinking process, but rather an experience of ecstasy that expands beyond our sense of personality.…

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In this third lecture on "The Men Who've Walked with God," Thurman examines mysticism through the Brahmanic mystics and the development of Hinduism. The insight of the mystics was that one's soul was identical with the world-soul. However, this presented an issue. If dying means that one will merge back into the world-soul, does life have any meaning? Thurman explains how the Doctrine of Reincarnation was made to answer this. What we do in this world has an effect on our souls; living makes a…

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In this second lecture on "The Men Who've Walked with God," Thurman summarizes his teachings on mysticism and supplements it with a conversation on Laozi and the Dao. Laozi affirmed the Dao to be the creator of life that has no name or category. The Dao manifests itself in all of life. Thurman explains that experiencing the Dao requires detachment – not withdrawal from life, but rather finding the center of your being, a discipline we rarely make time for. Thurman says that we must parse through…

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In the 11th sermon from the series "The Men Who've Walked With God," Thurman explains the complex theology of Meister Eckhart. Eckhart believes that there is the Godhead, the ground of all things. This Godhead element is a part of a person's soul, and is always yearning to spill over. For Thurman, spiritual discipline is about giving more of one's life to this core. With Eckhart's Godhead insight, we can no longer deny the infinite worth of any human being; furthermore, our responsibility is to…

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In this ninth lecture on "The Men Who've Walked with God," Thurman explores insights from Jane Steger's Leaves From a Secret Journal. Jane Steger suffered from illness at a young age and, in her illness, became familiar with the mystics. In Steger's journal, we find that she felt creation itself was alive with the Spirit of God, and that our very lives participate in the divine image. Drawing from Steger's writing, Thurman concludes that the door separating us from the divine is very thin, and…
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