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"My Need — Your Need" (1958-03-14)
In this recording within the We Believe series, Howard Thurman reads from his text, Deep is the Hunger, speaking to his understanding of love. He defines love as "the experience of being dealt with at a point in one's self that is beyond all good and evil." Embedded in this definition are notions of trust and forgiveness. He indicates that love is the antithesis of isolation, with isolation being the very essence of having a lack of access to another person.
Boundaries of the Self (1961-11-24); Confidence in God (1958-06-13)
In this recording within the We Believe series; Howard Thurman reads from James Cane Allen's "The Choir Invisible," in order to reflect upon the ways in which one can come to understand community. He notes that in one's own quest for identity, that relationships can become utilitarian, only being aware of community "at points of relevancy to our purposes." What Thurman is insisting in this recording, is that when one pushes past the superficial boundaries of separateness, that one can find the…
Conversations with Howard Thurman, September 1980, Parts 1 and 2, Side A
This recording is a part of a wider series of conversations from September to October of 1980 where Howard Thurman met with a variety of young men and women who were discerning their calling to ministry. Thurman poses the intent of this group as an opportunity to "open up for one's self the moving, vital, creative push of God, while God is still disguised in the movement of God's self." Thurman's introductory remarks in this recording mention the tension that rests between isolation and…
Man and Social Change, Part 2: Man and the Experience of Community (continued), 1969 March 20
Community is evinced when any form of life identifies with another. For Thurman, humans experience wholeness when individual existence recognizes itself within the fullness of all existence. Community is an expression of life because its manifestation follows the “harmony,” “order,” and “inner togetherness” consistent with a person’s inner order. In this way, Thurman notes, community makes sense to the mind. Recognizing this profound continuity, persons in community must widen the “magnetic…
Man and Social Change, Part 2: Man and the Experience of Community, 1969 March 20
Community is evinced when any form of life identifies with another. For Thurman, humans experience wholeness when individual existence recognizes itself within the fullness of all existence. Community is an expression of life because its manifestation follows the “harmony,” “order,” and “inner togetherness” consistent with a person’s inner order. In this way, Thurman notes, community makes sense to the mind. Recognizing this profound continuity, persons in community must widen the “magnetic…
Moment of Crisis, Part 6, 1958 March 16
In this final installment of Moment of Crisis, Thurman is discussing the response of religious communities to the marginalized in society. The salvation of foreigners in Isaiah 56 is discussed as the unnamed prophet referenced in this text was compelled to take a position against those other prophets and devout believers, who insisted on the utter exclusiveness, cultural exclusiveness, religious exclusiveness, of the Judites. This critical moment points out one of the central paradoxes of the…
On Mysticism, Part 1 (University of Redlands Course), 1973
This recording is the first lecture in our collection of ten that Howard Thurman gave at the University of Redlands in 1973 on the topic of mysticism. Thurman indicates that this lecture functions as a means to point the listener towards practical approaches to mysticism through lenses of psychology, philosophy, and religious experience. Thurman's emphasis in this recording is the centrality of one's identity, and conception of self in relation to the world and creation. He does this by drawing…
On Mysticism, Part 13 (University of Redlands Course), 1973
This recording is the ninth lecture in our collection of ten that Howard Thurman gave at the University of Redlands in 1973 on the topic of mysticism. Thurman indicates that this lecture functions as a means to point the listener towards practical approaches to mysticism through lenses of psychology, philosophy, and religious experience. In this recording, Thurman responds to the question: "Can I work out, in my private journey, the implications of my moment of vision?" In classic Thurman form,…
Quests of the Human Spirit, Part 10: The Quest for Peace (continued), 1962 May 13
In Thurman’s second lecture on peace, he focuses on the collective experience of harmony in a world context. While human beings are deeply embedded within the ambitions and structures of governments and states, it is essential for the individual to establish a sense of being separate and distinct from the world in which one is nourished. Amid Cold War politics nearly twenty years after the use of the first atomic bomb, Thurman considers the meaning of thinking about peace in light of the threat…
The Child and Religious Meaning (1964-01-24); Our Children Are Not Our Things (1963-11-01)
In this recording within the We Believe Series; Howard Thurman utilizes Frederick J. Moffitt's "Thus A Child Learns," as a point of departure for his liturgy for the devotion of a child. Thurman notes that it is the "birthright" of every child to be given the tools "define for them what it is that they are seeking and where they may find it."
In this recording within the We Believe Series; Howard Thurman reflects from his text, "Meditations of the Heart," to "think about children and our…