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"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…

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…

In this message, Thurman discusses the song "Jacob's Ladder" and how it has been taken to represent human experience as a journey. He also describes a Gothic principle in which human life is Earth-bound, but also involves a sense of the beyond that provides opportunity for alternatives and choices in every aspect of life.

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…

Part 1 of Jesus and the Disinherited. Begins by referring to Jesus' "working paper." Thurman's book was written about ten years prior, and he wants to take another look at these issues with consideration of all that has happened. He tells the story of his father's death and funeral when he was seven. As he grew he found he had a very intimate relationship with Jesus, even verbally discussing things with Jesus at night in the sand dunes. Jesus was a real personality to Thurman. However, he…

Part 11 of Jesus and the Disinherited. In this sermon he discusses hatred. He argues that hatred is a defense of the weak against the strong. However, hatred dehumaninizes the other and becomes self destructive. Hatred crushes the hater by placing the cause all of life's problems on one simple target. Hatred ignores the complexities of life, becomes all consuming. Since it cuts one off from the person/people who is/are the object of the hate, it also cuts them off from God. It isolates a person,…

Part 12 of Jesus and the Disinherited. In this he defines love as the "maintenance and furtherance of life at its highest level". He begins with a quote from Olive Schreiner. Love is not an ethic in the sense of being a "yard stick" for measuring oneself, but the inner intent of God in creation. He uses the life of Jesus as a model for love, especially for those with their "backs against the wall." Thurman insists that love resists cooperating with anyone who is working against this…

Part 2 of Jesus and the Disinherited. He quotes from Russell Gordon Smith from "Fugitive Papers." Thurman argues that the Jews had a sense of destiny, which was hindered by the fact of Roman rule and created a constant turmoil and sense of danger. What made Jesus, then, different? The common belief was that anyone who upends that which blocks destiny, becomes a righteous arm of God as the enemy is destroyed. The Zealots want to appear Roman, then kill it from the inside. The Essenes wanted to…

Part 3 of Jesus and the Disinherited. He begins with a reading called "Joseph" by Clive Benson (not mentioned by name). The thrust of this piece is that God is primary, and can be trusted because God is kind. God is just and kind at the same time. There was only one real question Jesus was ever asking, "What is the will of God?" Not, "what do I want," or "how will this impact what's important to me?" He wants us to focus on this, and he tells the story of how he taught older women to ride bikes,…

Part 4 of Jesus and the Disinherited. Reads 2 pieces by Clive Benson: "The Brothers" and "The Phoenician Woman." This talk is on "brotherhood" or inclusiveness. He argues that Jesus considered someone included by their relationship with God, whereas to Paul it was one's relationship to Christ. The church has followed the Paul model. He points out that Paul had a different viewpoint than Jesus. Both were Jews, but Paul had Roman citizenship and could claim that for protection whereas Jesus could…