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In this recording within the We Believe Series, Thurman reflects upon the spiritual, "The Blind Man Sat By the Way," which he calls a "sorrow song." When holding this song in tension with the biblical narrative of Jesus healing the blind man, Thurman comes to the conclusion that the blind man in the sorrow song was never healed. Drawing from the experience of people who were enslaved in America, Thurman reveals that there is no mentioning of the blind man being healed in the song because there…

This sermon is the fourth of nine in a series of sermons given in Marsh Chapel that are titled "The Inward Journey." Utilizing the intersections between Jane Steger, Jacob Boehme, and Meister Eckhart, Thurman explores what Steger calls "the inner light." He notes that the inner light within humanity is first, the "ground of God that is present in humanity," and second, a phenomenon that is "imposed upon the personality" without consent. He holds this definition in juxtaposition with a religious…

In his eighth talk, his Easter message, Thurman turns to the issue of Deception and how it can be a tool for the weak. He discusses how morality prevents chaos, and how easy it is for us to call darkness light if we want to excuse something we are doing. In this talk he gives several examples of deception, but ponders whether or not it is morally acceptable to deceive. From his own life, he gives the example of his job as the "door boy" for his older sisters and it was his job to open the door…

This recording is the second 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 notes that innate within the human identity are the categorizations of "Space Binder" and "Time Binder." Space Binder speaks to…

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…