Browse Items (351 total)

In this first sermon, Thurman sets out to explore the meaning of religious experience, and the religious experience of Jesus specifically. For Thurman, religious experience is a private and intimate experience, and yet it also seems to involve everything that is. Religious experience is not static, but rather a dynamic experiencing that our minds cannot capture totally. Nevertheless, the mind tries to freeze it into doctrine, dogma, and theology – the language of rationality. But Thurman says…

This is Part 2 to "Presenting Albert Schweitzer," a radio program aired on WBUR Boston University Radio, hosted by Miriam Rogers. This episode was an interview with Sue Bailey Thurman. The introduction to the episode is provided by Norbert Ellerin.

In this second half, Miriam Rogers and Sue Bailey Thurman closes out the interview. Rogers asks Thurman about Gandhi and his perspective on social progress. Rogers also tasks Thurman about a book in which she is included, entitled "Meditations for…

"Presenting Albert Schweitzer" was a radio program aired on WBUR Boston University Radio, hosted by Miriam Rogers. This episode was an interview with Sue Bailey Thurman. The introduction to the episode is provided by Norbert Ellerin.

In this interview, Sue Bailey Thurman presents the lives of Phyllis Wheatley and Amos Fortune, two black people who had arrived to America at Boston on slave ships. Thurman says that the stories of their lives should hearten all Americans, as they embody the…

Thurman continues this lecture by discussing the fact that we cannot kill life, and it is arrogant to think that we can kill anything. Thurman tells how he is a time binder and a space binder which means that he can function freely outside of any time interval he might be in, and that death is an aspect of his space binding personality. Thurman describes how there is dimension to his personality that is rooted in the aliveness of life and cannot die. Then he tells how the struggle with humility…

In this first installment of Readings From Deep is the Hunger, Howard Thurman uses Matthew 5 as a framework to discuss the sufficiency of God as we wrestle with the concepts of kindness, mercy, and humility. Thurman goes on to discuss the need for God as we navigate challenges internally and externally with the world around us.

In this recording within the We Believe series, Thurman draws upon the novel "The Choir Invisible" by James Lane Allen, to reflect upon God's relationship to humanity. Thurman deeply leans into the mystery that is associated with humanity's actualized potential. He notes that our arrival to our actualized potential is inevitable; however, we shall not know the time or place of this arrival. Rather than giving quick answers, Thurman encourages us to look to the horizon for the next goal, trusting…

In this recording within the We Believe Series, Thurman reads a poem sent to him from a friend. This poem speaks from the perspective of Phillip, one of Jesus' disciples. The content of this poem wrestles with the demands of the people upon Jesus, and Jesus' willingness to pour himself out to benefit those who are in need. In the author's engagement with Jesus' life, work, death, and resurrection, we are asked to ponder the human quest of making sense of God's open, relational, and creative…

In a message reflecting on his visit to Quaker meetings, Thurman reads from Quaker poetry about the emphasis on silence, inner reflection, meditation, and seeing God's presence in the world around us. He also reads an excerpt about practicing faith for oneself instead of as a demonstration to others.

In this recording within the We Believe Series, Thurman reads three poems written by various authors speaking to subjects of war, conscientious objection, aggression, and violence. Each of these poems are read as a reflection upon the Memorial Day holiday. The first poem, by John Drinkwater, deals with aggression as it is related to war. The second poem, by Badget Clark, deals with a young man's decision to fight in the Civil War. The third, and final poem, by Edna St. Vincent Millay, speaks to…