1
10
5
-
http://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pittsthurman/original/0464de755245ab3c57ea64d9fbe2ae30.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAI4CD764Y635IGLNA&Expires=1711695000&Signature=BW3Jof%2FsRD85On42Ma43yYB3eJ4%3D
f5fc14f8d2afb531619680d875a2c13a
PDF Text
Text
Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
394-361_B.mp3
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
It does not mean that I can get rid of my responsibility for the choices. And that seems so unfair.
And I build some sort of immunity that keeps me from-- do you remember in-- forgive me for
asking you that way, because that's presumptuous. But in Hunchback of Notre Dame, who wrote
that?
Hugo. Victor Hugo.
Yeah, Hunchback of Notre Dame, you remember in that, that marvelous picture, way up in a
little cell, under one of the towers of Notre Dame. The priest is attracted by music that comes up
from the square in front of the cathedral. And when he walks over to the window and looks
down, he sees this beautiful gypsy dancer.
And something in him screamed, yes, as he staggered back from the window. And he took a
rusty nail, which was on the desk and carved in the cement wall ananke, which is "fate." And
then he realized what was happening to him, and he began to celebrate his emotions with a
fantastic series of unholy thoughts, feelings that finally burst out in words, and he said, ah, she is
so beautiful. So beautiful is she that if she had been on Earth when Jesus Christ was being born,
he would have selected her for his mother. So beautiful is she that the sight of her is more to be
desired that the sight of God.
And then suddenly, he realized what he said and what it meant, and then became shadowed with
repentance. And he talks to God now. He says to God, it's not my fault. As long as you sent
phantoms of the devil to me, in the form of these beautiful gypsy dancers, I could withstand that.
But when you sent the devil himself to me in this beautiful gypsy dancer, I had it, and you know
it, because you know that you did not make me and the devil of equal disgrace, so it's your fault.
And he became a priest again. Now-- what I'm trying to find the words to express is that I am
responsible for my journey, and in a very real sense, I did not choose my journey.
So that somewhere, there has to be either compassion, mercy, understanding, or a recognizing of
the fact that God could be mistaken. I must be responsible for my journey, and ultimately, I'm
not responsible for my journey, so that all religions of whatever kind they may be has to make
provisions for these two things to be resolved.
I live my life with a sense of absolute responsibility and freedom, and there is no such a thing as
having no responsibility and of being free. Yes.
Could it be that we have a responsibility to attain what [INAUDIBLE] called hinds' feet, or
tracking with it, so that our subconscious and our conscious are in perfect alignment, and that our
goal is to be to this place where the spontaneity or involuntary or intuitiveness of God is what is
coming through, and our only responsibilities would be to say yes and move out with it?
Yes. But the dilemma for me is that where I am staking my life, I want to be sure, or else be
shadowed by something that will take responsibility for my duties. You see, what's worrying me
is where my life is that I insist on being my own person.
1
�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
But you can say yes or no. I can say yes or no.
Ah, now you're getting it.
But I choose by the divine grace of God to will, to say, yes, and that is the only freedom there is.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
But suppose I just elect to say yes and leave out the divine grace of God and all the sanctions, all
the sanctions that I must have. You put your finger on something. When I became ill some years
ago, and the doctors didn't know what, whether there'd be a tomorrow and so forth. I wanted time
to deal with this. I wanted time to think about it, to feel my way all the way through it, to
discover how I would vote.
Now, my vote had nothing to do with what happened. That's irrelevant. And then I had to get that
straight first. Something deep at the core of me had to be honored. I had to say yes or no, having
nothing to do with living or dying. I had to separate myself from that. Now, once I said yes or no,
all the subsequent unfolding was working on another kind of agenda, just as if it was a dog or a
cat or my daughter, my sister, my friends.
But I had affirmed the grounds of my integrity, and I had to separate that from my feet, from my
destiny, when all the time I associated destiny with my choices. But I don't really see what I'm
talking about. Let me try it again. I feel so many vacuums.
Now, yes, there is a sense in which I think a person lives as if there was no other living thing in
existence, except himself or herself. A deep, central, frontal intimate sense of absolute privacy,
where my thoughts are as elemental as thought itself, where my feeling tones are so
devastatingly mine.
That the power of veto has certification rests there, not because it makes any difference outside
of that tight circle in which I lay claim to my own life, as if no one and no thing existed except
that, the only reality. Now, once I pitch my tent there, what happens to me is important, whether
it makes any difference, going up or down, no. But the grounds of my very being affirm
themselves or itself.
Now, that may be the great idolatry. I don't know. Thou shall have no other gods before me. I
don't know. But I know this, that the only freedom that I know anything about is a freedom
somewhere deep within whatever it is. I say yes or no to life, not because it influences what
happens, but because it is the ultimate trysting place between me and the creator.
Now, I think that is the very ground and the essence of religious experience. Now, when I
worked that out into the pattern of my life and get it into designs and techniques and methods
and so forth and so on, then that can be communicated. I can talk to you about it. But that's not
how you live. That's not how you live. That's not where you're energized. That's not the thing
that happens to you when you show you can stand anything life can do to you, and it makes no
difference, because life can't touch this. That's eternal.
And you stand at the gate. It's where you say yes or no, not because it makes any difference,
other than yes and no. When that's honored by you-- only you can betray it-- when that's
2
�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
honored, anybody can vote, [INAUDIBLE] anybody. You can be victimized by any citizens. The
will of God can come in, [INAUDIBLE] your leadership around, but nothing touches this.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
I think this is the God in you, to use a word that may become really confusing. But it is where the
eternal becomes time bound, right at that little-- and it's the only freedom there is. It's the only
freedom there is. And one of the terrible things to me about all of the paraphernalia of religion
and religious experience, it tends to set up roadblocks, so you can't get back there. You take
refuge in this, saying this creed, this dogma, this doctrine, but in all those places, you have to
rent a room.
And you live there as long as you can pay the rent. But you're not home. There's only one home.
Well, that's enough about it. I'm sorry. But it's true. It's just true, and if it's true, it's true. Can we
stop now, Joyce?
Did anybody else have anything to add to that?
We can take it somewhere else, and it might take time. So I don't want [INAUDIBLE]-Well, don't---this whole thing from yesterday.
Well, you better do it while you have a chance.
OK. Well I asked if you have anymore to say, and you might say, no. And then it would be over.
Fine. No, no, no, it's over.
Something that you said near the end of our session yesterday, and it was disconcerting and also
kind of haunting to me, and that's about being on the scent of the spiritual life, and when you
smell it, you better bird dog it, because if you don't, you lose the scent, but then that was all OK.
Thank you.
But than you also say that whoever can point that out to us as we go along at that moment
becomes our Savior, and that was OK.
All right.
Whoever becomes your Savior, you have to kill.
Yes.
Oh, that was so hard to hear, because the Savior has to die or become a god-Ah.
3
�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
--and then in something in between.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
That's it. That's it, you see. The only way that you can keep from killing your savior is to give
him outside of life and death. And why must you kill your Savior? All the religions of the world,
the Savior has to die. And why must he die? Because knowing enough about you to redeem you
gives him power over your life. And with that power, you're never sure he can be trusted not to
make you do with your life what you have no intention of doing, what you don't want to do.
But he deals with you out of his awareness of your vulnerability and your weakness, and your
secret becomes his secret, and is no longer secret. And he can pull this string and make you do
this, or desert you. Because then you were deserted, he found you and gave your name. And
you're never sure that even God can be trusted not to take chances with you that nobody has the
right to take.
But if-- this is the terrifying thing about surrendering a life and commitment, because you give
up the power of veto and certification over your own life, and once you do that, then something
may be required of you that not only is unfair, but you just have no intention of being involved in
doing. But once the Savior becomes God, the Savior always has to escape with his life by
becoming a god. Now, once he's a god, your weakness will not be exploited. Yes.
How did predestination, which I just can't believe in, come into play?
Well, I don't think-- I think that's just a convenient clothes line on which you hang a lot of things
that we can't explain. But the road block that it sets up, I think, in the human spirit is that it
destroys options. And yet, you know, there is an inescapable little feeling that the responsibility
for myself is not absolute and final.
The most comforting part of my childhood as I grew up was the fact that I had two sisters, one
older and one younger, and whatever my mother caught me in those nice innocent things that I
did as I grew up, I could always say I did it because my older sister made me, and even though
I'm not in that predicament any longer, the mood of it has lingered.
Is there a difference between ordained or preordained and predestination?
I don't know. I don't know. I think that there is a logic in life, I'll put it that way. And I think that- how to put this. I think that as we live, we generate momentum in the direction that we are
going. So that when you stop pedaling and pushing, it keeps going.
I think further that I create my own judgment days that processes are set in motion by things I do
that continue moving long after in me I have changed directions. And I think that it's like going
out and turf riding along the Atlantic coast in East Florida. You go out a certain distance, and the
waves was coming from deeper are on their way to the shore, and the part of the game was trying
to get ahead of the wave that's coming and get to the shore before it does. But you always
underestimate the speed.
And somewhere along the way, the tide catches you and sweeps you on, that there is a-- we set in
motion processes that continue long after we are interested in them. But they take us along,
because this is-- we can't separate ourselves from the momentum, and that's why making critical
4
�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
choices, I think, is important, but the delusion is that whether the choice I make will make any
difference that will divert the pattern of choices, that I've made up to that time, they have to
spend themselves, even though I have changed direction.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
And I have to deal with that. And I think this is why in all the religions in one way or another,
the whole doctrine of karma comes in. You-- or the doctrine even of original Christianity, some
aspects of it, the doctrine of original sin. What we don't know is which of the choices we made
give the momentum to the process in which our lives are caught now, because it may be what it
is working itself out in us is the result of a choice we made, having no way by which we could
determine that the choice 10 years after meant this. And the wheels of time move forward
always, backwards never.
This is what I have to accept, not by choice, perhaps, because I don't have any choice. If I could
just get back to the place, where I've made the choice, knowing what I know now. But I don't.
And I have to find some way by which I can introduce a new direction to the old movement, so it
becomes my servant rather than my enemy.
Yeah, that's right. Now-Do we want to take a break?
A break. Ah, yes.
As we sit together in sanctuary, in one way or another, the quest which is ours is the same. We
want to know what it is that ultimately we amount to, what is meaning of the life which is our
lives to live? How can the day's tasks become full of the glory and the vitality, which are ours in
those rare moments, when life is full, and its meaning is clear.
We expose this searching quest and this great hunger to thee, our Father, with the hope that
somewhere in this waiting experience, we may be blessed with thy spirit. Thy spirit. Oh living
God, thy spirit.
The creative encounter integrity, sing your own songs at the river. Sing your own songs. Out of
yesterday's song comes, it goes into tomorrow. Sing your own song. With your life, fashion
beauty. This, too, is the song. Riches will pass, and power. Beauty remains. Sing your own song.
All that is worth doing, do well, said the river. Sing your own song. Certain and round be the
measure, every line be graceful and true.
Time is the mode, time, the weaver, the carver, time, and the workman together. Sing your own
song. Sing well, said the river. Sing well. Our experience together this morning will be divided
into two parts. As a preliminary to the whole, let me reach back and pull together the basic
insight on which we are working these mornings.
We created an encounter that has meaning as an idea and an experience, because of a deeper and
prior experience of man with life, namely that life is a lie, that the most important thing about it
is the fact that it is alive, and it is the aliveness of life that sustains all of a particular expressions
of life, and the aliveness of life is guaranteed and maintained because life lives by feeding on
itself.
5
�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
The degree, then, to which the individual at a moment is experienced is able to sense that the
barrier that stands between him and a wider context of meaning is removed, so that that which is
deepest and most frontal in him becomes one with that which is deepest and most frontal in life.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
The integrity of the encounter is in the encounter itself. The integrity seeks to maintain itself in
the way in which the individual finds that his life is altered or structured because of what he
experienced in his creative encounter.
There must be a straight line of continuity between the integrity of the encounter and the life that
flows from the encounter. Now, part one. I'd like to read something. You will pardon-- well, you
will listen. The first robin, it is called. York, Pennsylvania-- this is in quotation-- with the
temperature at 10 degrees below 0, the first robin of the year was seen in New York today. It was
found dead on Penn Common. That's the end of the quotation.
Call me a sentimentalist, if you will, but this seems to me the most tragic news note of the cold
wave. I like people better than robins, and there has been widespread and agonizing suffering,
but you see this was the first robin. He was, by all odds, the pioneer of this clan.
He flew up from the South days, weeks, and months before any reasonable robin weather was to
be expected. Without doubt, the rest tried to discourage him. They spoke of the best recorded
experience of bird time. "Rome wasn't built in a day," some other robin told him. And no doubt
he was advised that if he insisted on such precipitous action, he would split the group, and no
good would come of it.
Somehow I seem to hear him saying, "If 10 will follow me, I'd call it an army. Are there two who
will join up, or maybe one?" But the robins all recoiled and clung to their little patches of sun
under the southern skies. "Later, maybe," they told him, "not now. First, there must be a
campaign of education." "Well," replied the robin, who was all for going to York, Pennsylvania,
without waiting for feathery reinforcement, "I know one who'll try it. I'm done with arguments.
And here I go."
He was so full of high hopes and education dedication that he rose almost with the roar of a
partridge. For a few seconds, he was a fast-moving speck up above the palm trees, and then, you
couldn't spot him even with field glasses. He was lost in the blue and flying for dear life.
"Impetuous, I call it," said one of the elder statesmen while someone took him a worm.
"He always did want to show off," announced another, and everybody agreed that no good would
come of it. As it turned out, maybe they were right. It's pretty hard to prove that anything has
been gained when a robin freezes to death on Penn Common. However, I imagine that he died
with a certain sense of elation.
None of the rest thought he could get there, and he didn't. The break in weather turned out to be
against them. He just guessed wrong in that one respect, I'm told. I wouldn't think of calling him
a complete failure. But news gets back home to the robins who didn't go.
I rather expect they'll make of him a hero. The elder statesmen will figure that since he is dead,
his ideas can't longer be dangerous, and they cannot deny the lift and the swing of his venture.
After all, he was the first robin. He looked for the spring, and it failed him. Now he belongs to
6
�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
that noble army of first robins. Many great names are included. The honors of office and public
acclaim, of ribbons and medals, the keys of the city-- these are seldom the perquisites of men or
birds on the first flight. They go to the fifth, sixth, and even 20th robins. There's almost a rule
that the first robin may die alone on some bleak common before mankind will agree that he--
7
�
AudioWithTranscription
Audio that is shown through the 3Play Media embedded interactive transcript
Audio with Transcription
<iframe width="100%" height="820" frameborder="0" src="/files/players/394-361_B.html" ></iframe>
Time Period
The decade in which the recording was produced.
1980s
Original Title
Title as transcribed from tape cassette
Conversations with Howard Thurman (parts 7 and 8), 1980 Sep 19-21, Side B
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
394-361_B
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Thurman, Howard
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
<a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/"><img style="border-width:0;" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc/4.0/80x15.png" alt="80x15.png" /></a><br />This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License</a>. 2019.
Title
A name given to the resource
Conversations with Howard Thurman, September 1980, Parts 7 and 8, Side B
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1980-09-20
Description
An account of the resource
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." In this recording, Thurman explores what it means to live one's life with a robust sense of responsibility and freedom. He notes that there is a crucial decision to be made when considering responsibility and freedom: saying yes or no to the life that rests within oneself. Following these sentiments, Thurman provides space for students to ask questions, to which they asked questions of was it means to "follow the scent of the spiritual life," "why the savior of all world religions must die," and predestination.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Description by Dustin Mailman
autonomy
awareness
blame
center
consciousness
consent
creative encounter
decision
ecology
education
fate
freedom
grace
hope
Hunchback of Notre Dame
hunger
integrity
Jesus Christ
judgement
karma
kill your savior
older sister
original sin
predestination
quest
religious experience
responsibility
river
Robin
savior
scent
sentimentality
sing your own song
spring
time bound
veto
Victor Hugo
vitality
vulnerability
world religions
-
http://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pittsthurman/original/9b1e0f10edff91bab4f13d9d4f8da12a.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAI4CD764Y635IGLNA&Expires=1711695000&Signature=DUdkZIGh9zKI6YZ9fJRnEYlQgUM%3D
fb9acbe2fb3cacabff1d400991c22e76
PDF Text
Text
Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
394-786.mp3
This is tape number ET 42. From the library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust, two
meditations by Howard Thurman. This is side one, entitled "Intentional Living."
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord,
my strength and my [? Redeemer. ?]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
I'm beginning this morning by reading a meditation from my book Meditations of the Heart. "No
man is an island. No man lives alone. These words from a poem by John Donne have been set to
music and have become the theme of a variety of radio programs which are concerned with
aspects of social responsibility.
It is of crucial importance for each person to consider how he relates himself to the society of
which he is a part. For many people, and at times for most of us, it is a part of our dreaming to be
let alone, to be free of all involvements and the responsibilities of life and for others. This is but
natural. Often, the mood passes. Sometimes we say that our personal load is so heavy that it is all
we can do to look after ourselves, with all that that entails.
Even as we express such ideas, we are reminded of a wide variety of events that we are never
ourselves alone. We are not an island. We do not live alone.
There is no alternative to the insistence that we cannot escape from personal responsibility for
the social order in which we live. We are part of the society in which we function. There can be
no health for us if we lose our sense of personal responsibility for the social order.
This means that there must be participation in the social process and that, quite specifically, such
participation means that wise and critical use of the ballot must be made, the registering of our
intent to share responsibly in government. The moral inference is that there must not be a
condemnation of the political process of society if we have been unwilling to stand up and be
counted on behalf of the kind of government in which we believe and to which we are dedicated
and for which we are willing to work and sacrifice. Where social change seems to be urgent, we
must share in that process as responsible, law-abiding citizens. The ethical values by which we
live must be implemented on the level of social change.
This calls ever for a careful evaluation of the means to which we give our support. The means
which we are willing to use must not be in real conflict with the ends which our values inspire.
Practically, this means that if we believe in democracy, for instance, we must not be a party to
means that make use of bigotry, prejudice, and hate. We must search and find the facts that are
needed for judgment and cast our lot on the side of the issues which we are willing to embrace as
our private and personal ends.
1
�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
In working on behalf of such ends, we are morally right as we see the right. We shall not
cooperate with or be a party to means that seem to us evil, means that we would not use in our
personal and private life. In this sense, then, we are our brother's keeper, for we will not demand
of any man that he do on behalf of society as a whole what as persons we would be loath to do
ourselves if we were in his [? place." ?]
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
It is a matter of very great and searching importance, as we think about our own private and
personal working paper, to make a decision or decisions which will render our position with
reference to life and its values very clear. There is one fundamental option available to all of us,
and that option is this. We can decide the things for which we will stand with our lives, with our
resources, with our mind, with our will, with our dedication, and the things against which we will
stand.
Now, this is a very crucial and intimate area of life. I'm not talking about the things that we do as
a part of the facade of our lives. I'm not concerned about the things that we do that are prestigebearing, that will cause us to be seen in the proper light so that our private commitment will not
interfere with the kind of public advance or social advance which we wish to experience either
for ourselves or our children or our families. But rather, am I thinking about the fundamental
decision of a man's life in which he comes to a point of focus with reference to the things in
which, most fundamentally, he believes and for which he is willing to work, to make sacrifices,
if need be, to suffer, if need be, to live.
Now, this is the important thing. Have you decided the things for which you will stand with your
life and the things against which you will stand? Do you know the sense in which you wish to be
counted on the side of the things which to you are most meaningful? Or have you left this to
someone else to decide for you?
There is something very thrilling and exciting, exhilarating, about taking a stand so that you
announce that it doesn't matter where anyone else stands; this is my position. And on behalf of
my position, I am willing to act, to think, to live. Now, you may say, with reference to the great
world in which you are living, that there are so many issues, so many demands, that it's hard to
get the facts. It's hard to know. It may be that the social process is so very complex and
complicated and the way that responsibilities are delegated in our society just you, John Doe
Citizen, may not be able to give expression to any fundamental conviction.
My only reply to that is suggested perhaps by something that was written many years ago by
T.R. Glover. He was discussing the decline of the Roman Empire. And he insisted that the
Roman Empire did not fail, did not collapse, because there were no crops or because of a lack of
rainfall or even because of the mass pressure of the barbarians on the frontiers.
But he said, rather, that the Roman Empire fell because the average Roman citizen had lost his
sense of personal responsibility, personal involvement, in and for the Roman society. They had
abdicated the private and personal prerogative to count, to throw the weight of their little life on
the side of the values which had meaning for them. And in the absence of this kind of positive
declaration, those persons who carried the large responsibility for the society were free to do as
2
�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
they please. And yet the decisions which these persons made became binding on those same
people who had abdicated their own personal responsibility.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
Therefore, if life is to be meaningful to you, if you are to have a fundamental self-estimate, if
you are to seem to yourself to count, to be essentially independent, then it follows that you must
make up your mind where you are, as you are, in your little world, with your little
responsibilities, with your little life, as it were, the things for which you will stand so that you
can be counted. And when you are counted, then this in itself is its own reward whether or not
the things for which you stand can in your lifetime find fulfillment.
It is madness to seek a land that has never been found before across an ocean that has never been
charted before. If Columbus had reflected thus, he would never have weighed anchor. But with
this madness, he discovered a new world. And so will you.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O lord,
my rock and my [? Redeemer. ?]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
This is tape number ET 42, from the library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust. This is
side two, entitled, "Man's Relation to the Social Order."
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord,
my strength and my [? Redeemer. ?]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
I'm reading a meditation from my book Meditations of the Heart. "No man is an island. No man
lives alone. These words from a poem by John Donne have been set to music and have become
the theme of a variety of radio programs which are concerned with aspects of social
responsibility.
It is of crucial importance for each person to consider how he relates himself to the society of
which he is a part. [AUDIO OUT] of us. It is a part of our dreaming to be let alone, to be free of
all involvements and the responsibilities of life and for others.
This is but natural. Often, the mood passes. Sometimes we say that our personal load is so heavy
that it is all we can do to look after ourselves with all that that entails.
Even as we express such ideas, we are reminded of a wide variety of events, that we are never
ourselves alone. We are not an island. We do not live alone.
3
�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
There is no alternative to the insistence that we cannot escape from personal responsibility for
the social order in which we live. We are part of the society in which we function. There can be
no help for us if we lose our sense of personal responsibility for the social order.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
This means that there must be participation in the social process, and that quite specifically. Such
participation means that wise and critical use must be made of the ballot, the registering of our
intent to share responsibility in government. The moral inference is that there must not be a
condemnation of the political process of society if we have been unwilling to stand up and be
counted on behalf of the kind of government in which we believe and for which we are willing to
work and sacrifice. Where social change seems to be urgent, we must share in that process as
responsible, law-abiding citizens. The ethical values by which we live must be implemented on
the level of social change.
This calls ever for a careful evaluation of the means to which we give our support. The means
which we are willing to use must not be in real conflict with the ends which our values inspire.
Practically, this means that if we believe in democracy, for instance, we must not be a party to
means that make use of bigotry and hatred and prejudice.
We must search and find the facts that are needed for judgment and cast our lot on the side of the
issues which we are willing to embrace as our private and personal ends. In working on behalf of
such ends, which are morally right as we see the right, we shall not cooperate with or be a party
to means that seem to us evil, means that we would not use in our personal, private life. In this
sense, we are our brother's keeper, for we will not demand of any man that he do on behalf of
society as a whole what as persons, we would be loath to do ourselves if we were in his place.
The feeling of isolation, the desire to be let alone, to be free to go about one's own affairs without
involvement in the common life, is a perfectly natural feeling. There is always, present in each of
us, a sense that if we somehow could build a wall around ourselves, then we would be able to
attend to our business, to hoe our row, to find our meaning, and to live our lives. It would be
wonderful, I suppose, if this could be done in fact. But it happens that we live in a world in
which each individual is a part of a wider social context, a world in which each individual finds
his particular meaning, never in isolation, but always in some kind of human context. Therefore,
it is important, as we think about the meaning of our lives and the living of our lives, that we take
into account that we are a part of a social organism and that there is no aspect of our society that
does not finally come to us for our veto or our certification.
Long ago, an historian writing about the fall of the Roman Empire, T.R. Glover, by name, said
that the Roman Empire collapsed not because of a failure of the wheat crop or the grain crop or
failure of rain or any act of God. It did not fall because of the pressure of the barbarians against
the frontiers of the empire. No.
But he says that the Roman Empire collapsed because the average Roman citizen, the average
Roman citizen, had lost his sense of responsibility for the total welfare of the empire. And he had
delegated this responsibility to the Senate. And much of the economic burden of the society was
on the backs of slaves, of people who'd been caught in battle. Now, he said when the barbarians
4
�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
began to press on the frontier, there was not sufficient strength within the body politic to
withstand this pressure, so it collapsed as if it were an egg.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
Wherever individuals, then, lose their sense of responsibility for the total well-being of their
fellow, then their own well-being is threatened. Therefore, as we seek to live responsibly, then it
seems to me that it is important to examine as carefully as we may the tools that are available to
us for expressing our social concern. One of these tools, of course, is the ballot. Another tool is
participation in all kinds of movements and processes which have as their purpose the altering of
the social pattern so as to make more room for all kinds of human beings to breathe.
This feeling that I can never be what I should be until every man is what every man ought to be-or to mix the figure, however far ahead of himself a turtle puts his two front feet, he cannot move
his body until he brings up his hind legs. For better or for worse, we are all tied together in one
bundle. And if I neglect my fellows, then the total health of the common life is thereby depleted,
and in turn and in essence, my own health is depleted. Therefore, when I ask myself, what is it
that I most deeply desire and need for my own fulfillment, how may I make available to my own
life the richness and the resources all around me in order that I and my children or my family
may be able to reap the richest and fullest benefits-- the question that I ask of myself, I must also
ask of my neighbor. For what meets the deepest need in me must also meet the deepest need in
him.
And when I work for myself, I work for him. When I work for him, I work for myself, for better
or for worse. No man is an island. We are tied together in one [? bundle." ?]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord,
my rock and my [? Redeemer. ?]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
The preceding program was pre-recorded.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
5
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
We Believe (Television Series, 1958-1965)
Description
An account of the resource
<em>We Believe</em> was a color television program that aired on WHDH-TV, Channel 5, in Boston on weekday mornings at 11:15. From 1958 to 1965, while Howard Thurman was Dean of the Chapel at Boston University, he was the host of the Friday morning show. Each message has a brief introductory section with bells and music before Thurman delivers his short meditation. Some recordings have been edited to remove the intro. In some cases, the Howard Thurman Educational Trust produced tapes with two messages on one recording.<br /><br />"These meditations are no longer than 15 minutes, but highly representative of his style, influence, and search for common ground." - <a href="http://archives.bu.edu/web/howard-thurman">the Howard Thurman and Sue Bailey Thurman Collections at Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University.</a><br /><br />
<p style="text-align: right;"><em>We Believe</em> program listing in the TV Guide, March 29, 1958</p>
<img src="http://pittsviva.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/webelieve-whdh-boston.png" style="float: right;" alt="webelieve-whdh-boston.png" />
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Descriptions by Dustin Mailman
AudioWithTranscription
Audio that is shown through the 3Play Media embedded interactive transcript
Audio with Transcription
<iframe width="100%" height="820" frameborder="0" src="/files/players/394-786.html" ></iframe>
Internal Notes
Notes for project team
Edited - GL 7/29
Original Title
Title as transcribed from tape cassette
Intentional Living; Man's Relation to the Social Order (ET-42; GC 11-30-71), 1971 Nov 30
Time Period
The decade in which the recording was produced.
1960s
Location
The location of the interview, speech, lecture, or sermon
WHDH-TV, Boston, Massachusetts
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
394-786
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Thurman, Howard
Title
A name given to the resource
Intentional Living (1961-06-23); Man's Relation to Social Order (1963-10-04)
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
<a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a>
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1961-06-23
1963-10-04
Description
An account of the resource
In both of these recordings within the We Believe series; Howard Thurman reads from his text, "Meditations of the Heart." In them, we hear Thurman reflecting upon citizenship and right action. Thurman's central question throughout these reflections is: What does it me to be a full, free, and responsible citizen? He claims that by having a moral praxis that rejects hatred in every way it manifests itself, one is able to resist means that contradict the end they are seeking.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Dustin Mailman
action
citizenship
Co-Laboring
decision
democracy
egg
evil
freedom
government
intention
John Donne
justice
meditations of the heart
morality
No Man is and Island
non-violent resistance
responsibility
Roman Empire
T.R. Glover
voting
working paper
-
http://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pittsthurman/original/2d57078fd37bfca6c32de528cc7cf159.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAI4CD764Y635IGLNA&Expires=1711695000&Signature=p%2FVzjvnZJO9p%2FVOcX0H6uV85ImY%3D
29608d573f8b6756fb15c2451db8bc75
PDF Text
Text
Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
394-778.mp3
This is tape number ET22 from the library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust-- two
meditations by Howard Thurman. This is side one, entitled, Quality of Life.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in they sight, oh, Lord,
my strength and my Redeemer.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
I'm beginning by reading a selection from my book, Meditations of the Heart. "At times when
the strain is heaviest upon us, and our tired nerves cry out in many tongue in pain, because the
flow of love is choked far below the deep recesses of the heart.
We seek with cravings, firm and hard, the strength to break the dam that we may live again in
love's warm stream. We want more love and more and more until, at last, we are restored and
made anew, also it seems.
When we are closer drawn to God's great light, and in its radiance stand revealed, the meaning of
our need informs our minds. More love, we cried, as if love could be weighed, measured,
bundled, tied. As if with perfect wisdom we could say, to one a little love, to another, an added
portion, and on and on until all debts were paid with no one left behind.
But now, we see the tragic blunder of our cry not for more love, our hungry craving seek, but
more power to love to put behind the tender feeling, the understanding heart. The boundless
reaches of the Father's care makes love eternal always kindled, always new. This becomes the
eager meaning of the aching heart, the bitter cry, the anguish call."
We are approaching the Christmas season. And it is a time when much thought will be given to
the sharing of gifts, the expressing of love. I am reminded that so much of our lives is
quantitative. We think about the meanings of our lives, and the meanings of things and times that
can be weighed and measured.
And, perhaps, we have no choice but to do this. I was looking over a casualty policy, which I
own. And on the inside of this policy, there is a table that lists the equivalent in dollars to
different kinds of injuries-- $1,000 for the loss of one eye or $50 for the spraining of an ankle.
In other words, these things, which have to do with the quality of pain, the quality of anguish, the
quality of suffering are transposed in terms of dollars and cents. We tend to feel that, somehow,
we can reduce all of the quality dimension of life to quantitative measurements. And this is a
delusion.
I remember some years ago having a conversation at another university where I was teaching, a
conversation with Dr. Cabot, who, for many years, was a professor in the Harvard University
1
�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
Medical School. We was seated in my little office talking. And every five minutes, some student
would knock at the door. And I would go to the door and answer it and do a little conversation
there.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
And then the next two, three minutes, the buzzer would sound. And I would answer the
telephone. And this kept on while Dr. Cabot was trying to explain something to me. And then,
suddenly he said to me, will you do me a favor? And I said, yes. He said, will you lock the door
and don't open it for 10 minutes?
And then will you please say to whoever buzzes you upstairs to not to disturb you for 10
minutes, because I want to tell you something. And I don't want to be interrupted. And this is
what he told me-- that some years previous to this time, he had been invited by the National
Conference of Social Work to give their annual lecture. And he chose to address himself to the
theme, the limitation of intake.
And his thesis was very simple that the figure five bears the same relationship to infinity that's
the figure of 5 million bears. Now, he says, that if human need, for instance, is infinite, and if a
man works 1,000 years without taking time out either to eat, sleep, or rest, at the end of the 1,000
years, that which remains to be done, will still be infinite.
If he reads every hour during 1,000 years without taking time out to eat, sleep or rest at the end
of the time, the number of books remaining to be read would be infinite. So the wise man
discovers that he cannot make a quantitative impression on infinity.
And therefore, he begins to learn how to make a qualitative impression on infinity to put into the
particular expression all of the meaning and quality and vitality of which one is capable without
feeling that what one expresses can be measured in terms either of dollars and cents or in terms
of thank you or no thank you in terms that have to do with those things that are essentially
quantitative.
When Tycho Brahe was the great Danish astronomer-- and at the end of his 25 years when there
was a change in Danish politics, the politicians came out to his observatory to see how he was
spending the money of the state. And he showed them these wonderful maps of stars that he had
been drawing-- he and his students.
And the politicians winked their eyes at each other. And one did a spiral with his hands, pointing
to his brain, showing that Tycho Brahe was a little off. And he went back. And he made the
report to the officials. And Tycho Brahe was put out of his observatory.
And the last night when he gathered his students around him, he said, 25 years ago, I had a
dream. And that was to chart 1,000 stars before I died. I've only charted 750. And now, I must
quit. But these 750 stars will never have to be charted again. I have put into what I have done.
The rich, rare quality of the most creative and most sensitive effort that I can give. Therefore, I
suggest, then, as we approach the Christmas season, that we bear down on the quality of how we
2
�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
relate to each other-- the quality that is given, rather than the quantity, the figure, the price tag
that goes with the object.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
It is the sort of thing that we want, isn't it, in our most primary and intimate relationships. When
we love someone, we do not love a little bit and measure it. But we love love. And if we do not
love in this way, then we are always under the burden of trying to prove that we love.
Let us then enter into this season with a qualitative significance to what we do, rather than be
deluded into accepting a quantitative measure, because if we do, then we can't do enough. We
will always be behind. It is the qualitative, rather than the quantitative emphasis.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
That the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh, Lord,
my rock and my Redeemer.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[AUDIO OUT]
This is tape number ET22 from the library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust. This is
side two, entitled, Religion and Life.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh, Lord,
my strength and my Redeemer.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
For our background this morning, I'm reading two things-- a poem by Max Herman and then a
quotation from Petrarch's Letters of Old Age. "Let me do my work each day. And if the darkened
hours of despair overcome me, may I not forget the strength that comforted me in the desolation
of other times.
May I still remember the bright hours that found me walking over the silent hills of my
childhood or dreaming on the margin of the quiet river when a light glowed within me. And I
promised my early god to have courage amid the tempests of the changing years.
Spare me from the bitterness and sharp passion of unguarded moments. May I not forget that
poverty and riches are of the spirit. Though the world knows me not, may my thoughts and
actions be such, as shall keep me friendly with myself. Lift up my eyes from the earth, and let me
not forget the uses of the stars.
3
�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
Forbid that I should judge others, lest I condemn myself. Let me not feel the glamour of the
world but walk calmly in my power, give me a few friends who will love me for what I am and
to keep ever burning before my vagrant steps, the kindly light of hope.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
And though age and infirmity overtake me. And I come not within sight of the castle of my
dreams. Teach me still to be thankful for life and for times, old and moments that are good and
sweet. And may the evening twilight find me gentle, still."
And then this from Petrarch. "When a word must be spoken to further a good cause. And those
whom it behooves to speak remain silent. Anybody ought to raise his voice and break a silence,
which may be fraught with evil. Many a time, a few simple words have helped to further the
welfare of a nation no matter who uttered them.
The voice itself displaying its Latin power, suffice to move the hearts of men. It is a very
searching question, the bearing that a man's religion has on life, on his life, on the way by which
he conducts his private and personal enterprise.
And there are many people who feel that religion should have nothing to do in essence with the
world with all of the things that are part of the traffic of life. And such persons who take that
position are of the mind that all religious people belong to use a phrase from the apostle Paul
belonged to the colony of heaven that they are, in essence, pilgrims through the world.
They are not involved in all the things that go to make up the common life and the common
experience. Such people, then, attempt to walk through life untouched and affected, because they
do not feel that there is any relevance between whatever may be their profession of faith and the
hard, difficult turbulent dimensions of life.
And there are others who feel that all that religion has to say can be confined to the warp and
woof of daily living that there is no dimension of life or religion that transcends the bread and
butter aspects of life, so that when they think of religion, they think in turns of doing things, of
shifting things, of transforming the world of men and affairs.
And then there are others who take the position that both of these things are true that religion has
to do with the dimension of man's life that transcends time and space and circumstance. But it
informs the quality of his living, as he is a person functioning in time and in circumstance. And
therefore, the critical question is, what do I do? How do I register the imprint, the impact of my
own private religious testimony on the stuff of life?
Now, sometimes there are people with tender consciences in this regard, who, as they look out
upon all of the injustices of life, all of the things that break the heart and make the mind move in
a tilted place, all of the inarticulate and dumb agony of the masses of men who have no voice to
speak for them that all of these things are terrible.
And they express themselves in outcry and a certain kind of personal indignation. And the phrase
is, this is outrageous. It is terrible. Somebody-- somebody ought to do something about it. And
this becomes so exhausting-- this kind of outcry-- this sort of righteous indignation that is
4
�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
expressed that all of the energy of one's life is exhausted in our crying so that there is nothing
left.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
There are no resources left upon which one may draw in order to do something about it. So
Petrarch in his letter addresses himself to an aspect of this problem. If it be true that you living in
a situation of which you are very mindful.
You are aware of all of its dimensions that go against your own deep sense, either of decency,
honor, justice, righteousness-- whatever the phrase may be-- that expresses the quality of your
own inner character. You're living in the midst of a situation such as this. And those persons,
who are in power, those persons, who are in the strategic position, so to speak or so to function
that what they do will make a radical change all the way down the line."
"If those people," says, Petrarch, "are silent, if for reasons that are political in character or
theological in character, or ecclesiastical in character, whatever may be the reasons, there is this
long and sustained and aching silence. And," says, Petrarch, "it behooves any man to speak in
order that the truth may be heard, and in order that there may be available somewhere in the
common life, a voice that makes articulate a deep and searching concern.
And it is important to remember that because an individual seems to be limited, because the
individual seems to have no power. The individual seems to think that his voice is a weak voice.
His voice will not be heard. No one will listen to me. I do not count. I do not rate.
This sort of self-pity that becomes an escape from responsibility is something that goes against
what seems to me to be the most insistent demand that life and religion in one sense are one
thing. And therefore, if those who are in a position of power to speak do not speak, then raise
your voice.
And your voice may be the only voice that is heard. But if you raise your voice, then you can
very easily do two things-- one, you can give your witness. You can give the testimony of your
own deep convictions. You can share the dimensions of your own religious faith so that you can
be honest with yourself.
You can hold in tact your own self-respect, because you have spoken. You have done what you
could. That's one thing. And the second thing is that very often, there are many, many people
who can't make up their minds, who are on the fence, who have no sense of bearing.
But when your voice speaks, and you are not a prestigious person when your voice speaks, this
then provides for them a point around which they may rally, because all life is one. And there is
nothing that takes place in any man's life that does not affect the life of all men. While there is a
lower class, I am in it. While there is a criminal element, I am of it. While there is a man in jail, I
am not free."
[MUSIC PLAYING]
5
�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh, Lord,
my rock and my Redeemer.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
This program was prerecorded.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[BUZZING]
6
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
We Believe (Television Series, 1958-1965)
Description
An account of the resource
<em>We Believe</em> was a color television program that aired on WHDH-TV, Channel 5, in Boston on weekday mornings at 11:15. From 1958 to 1965, while Howard Thurman was Dean of the Chapel at Boston University, he was the host of the Friday morning show. Each message has a brief introductory section with bells and music before Thurman delivers his short meditation. Some recordings have been edited to remove the intro. In some cases, the Howard Thurman Educational Trust produced tapes with two messages on one recording.<br /><br />"These meditations are no longer than 15 minutes, but highly representative of his style, influence, and search for common ground." - <a href="http://archives.bu.edu/web/howard-thurman">the Howard Thurman and Sue Bailey Thurman Collections at Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University.</a><br /><br />
<p style="text-align: right;"><em>We Believe</em> program listing in the TV Guide, March 29, 1958</p>
<img src="http://pittsviva.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/webelieve-whdh-boston.png" style="float: right;" alt="webelieve-whdh-boston.png" />
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Descriptions by Dustin Mailman
AudioWithTranscription
Audio that is shown through the 3Play Media embedded interactive transcript
Audio with Transcription
<iframe width="100%" height="820" frameborder="0" src="/files/players/394-778.html" ></iframe>
Original Title
Title as transcribed from tape cassette
Qualitative Life; Religion and Life (ET-22; GC 11-20-71), 1971 Nov 20
Time Period
The decade in which the recording was produced.
1960s
Location
The location of the interview, speech, lecture, or sermon
WHDH-TV, Boston, Massachusetts
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
394-778
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Thurman, Howard
Title
A name given to the resource
Quality of Life (1960-10-07); Religion and Life (1964-04-03)
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
<a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a>
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1960-10-07
1964-04-03
Description
An account of the resource
In this recording within the We Believe Series; Thurman reflects upon the way in which American culture makes sense of love. He notes that typically, the "flow of love is chocked beneath the deep recesses of the heart." This is the product of quantitative love rather than qualitative love. He reminds the listener, that qualitative love is more significant than any price tag or number of accoutrements one acquires. Qualitative love speaks to the depths of the human experience.
In this recording within the We Believe Series; Thurman reflects upon writing from Max Herman and Petrarch to ask the question: To what depth does one's religion have a bearing on one's life? He continues by probing the political and ecclesiological elements of the religious inner life intersecting with the secular outer life, and the ways in which religion impacts one's praxis and location in the world.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Dustin Mailman
bears
Cabot
Christmas
decision
ecclesiology
God
Harvard
heart
interconnectivity
Letters of Old Age
limitations
love
Max Herman
meditations of the heart
National Conference of Social Work
need
Paul
Petrarch
poem
quality
quality of life
quantity
religion
responsibility
testimony
Tycho Brahe
voice of the genuine
witness
-
http://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pittsthurman/original/eb7e5c99fd57afe966e057dbfb419c63.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAI4CD764Y635IGLNA&Expires=1711695000&Signature=u6Vfi33sg3QBfVCNFGogRMpycus%3D
7f8a951481e9f20a377c8d3bdfd90e5a
PDF Text
Text
Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
394-800.mp3
This is tape number ET60 from the library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust. Two
meditations by Howard Thurman. This is side 1 entitled "The Moment of Truth."
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
[MUSIC]
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh, Lord,
my strength and my redeemer.
[MUSIC]
I'm beginning today by reading two paragraphs, which a Canadian friend of mine sent to me
several years ago. "Eight-year-old Johnny was very serious when I called him into the hospital
and explained how he could save the life of his little sister. Mary, age six, was near death, a
victim of a disease from which Johnny had made a miraculous recovery only two years earlier."
"Now, Mary's only chance was a blood transfusion from someone who had previously conquered
the illness. Since the two children had the same rare blood type, Johnny would be the ideal
donor. 'Johnny," I ask, 'would you like to give your blood for Mary?' He hesitated for a moment,
his lower lip trembling, but I have seen many people older than Johnny who were frightened by
the idea of giving blood. So I thought no more about it."
"Then he smiled and said, 'Sure, Dr. Morris. I'll give my blood for my sister.' The operating room
was prepared and the children wheeled in, Mary, pale and thin; Johnny, robust and almost
cherubic. Neither spoke, but when their eyes met, Johnny grinned broadly. As Johnny's blood
pulsed into Mary's veins, her pale skin began to turn pink. There was complete silence as the
operation proceeded, but then Johnny spoke in a brave little voice I will never forget. 'Say, Dr.
Morris, when do I die?'"
"It was only then that I realized what that moment's hesitation that almost imperceptible
trembling of the lip had meant when I talked to Johnny in my office. He thought that giving up
his blood for his sister meant giving up his life. In that brief moment of truth, he made his great
decision."
When a man becomes aware of the essential or the intrinsic or authentic meaning of an act or a
person or a situation or an event and the bearing of that act or situation, person, or event upon his
private life, he experiences a moment of truth. When he becomes aware of the authentic or
intrinsic meaning of something and the bearing that that meaning has upon his private life, he
experiences a moment of truth.
There are several elements that are to be remembered here. The first is that it is always a
personal and private and solitary experience. We spend so much of our time associating with
other people, we are so involved in the human situation and the human predicament that we
forget that fundamentally, so much of a man's life is lived in solitariness in all of the great
moments of life, whether it is at the moment of his birth or the moment of his dying, whether it
1
�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
has to do with some great significant step that he is about to take when deep within himself he
makes the decision of commitment.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
All of these are intimate and personal and primary and solitary. And the moment of truth takes
on this character. It is as if you and the experience alone existed in the world. It's like trying to
explain something to a little child. You will explain it, and then the child will say, but why,
continue asking the same question. And then you explain it again, and the child will say, but
why?
And then you try to find a way by which you can find the proper words that will fit into the
context of meaning of the child and then utter these words so that the child understands. And
when the child looks into your face and says, oh, I understand, it is as if the child and the
moment alone existed in all the universe. It is a private opening of the life to a meaning which is
personal, yes, but at the same time, which expands out into a context of all the meaning that there
is.
Now, the moment of truth then has in it the element that is solitary, that is personal and private.
And it also has in it a certain element of commitment, a certain element of involvement. I guess
that's the best way to put it.
I am reminded of one of the experiences in the life of Saint Francis of Assisi, when in the early
part of his career, it seemed as if he had air conditioning against leprosy. He could abide almost
anything else except leprosy. This was so loathsome to him that he felt always as if he should
move in the other direction or put as much space between him and the leper as possible.
Shortly after his great commitment of his life, the story goes that he was riding along on a horse
or walking. I don't remember that detail. But around the bend in the road, he encountered a leper,
and for him it was a moment of truth because all the meaning of the disease as it expressed itself
through the loathsome body of this man and the bearing that this disease had upon the sensitivity
of Saint Francis, all of this converged in one swirling moment of encounter. And Francis drew
back, turned, and started to flee in the opposite direction.
And then he heard the voice, always the voice, reminding him of his commitment, that his
commitment was something that was absolute, that he had given up in his commitment the
initiative over his own life. Therefore, any sensitivity and all of these things were luxuries, which
his life could no longer afford.
And he turned around, embraced the leper, and the story goes that he went with the leper back to
the place where the leper lived, and he stayed there for several days administering to his need.
The moment of truth is the moment when the intrinsic, authentic, significant meaning of an event
or a person or a situation is sensed clearly and directly by an individual and the bearing that this
meaning has on the man's life.
Now, the moment of truth then carries with it always the element of commitment. For when I
experience the moment of truth, it is a total involvement, a total encounter so that my life, not
some phase of my life, some dimension of my life, some aspect of my life, but my life in some
2
�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
total sense is affected, is altered, shifts, changes, moves, makes some kind of adjustment to the
fact that I have had such an encounter.
It is solitary. It is personal. It involves the total commitment of the life in a direction contrary,
perhaps, to the way one had been going before.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
[MUSIC]
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh, Lord,
my rock and my redeemer.
[MUSIC]
This is tape number ET60 from the library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust. This is
side 2 entitled "Pearl Without Price."
[MUSIC]
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh, Lord,
my strength and my redeemer.
[MUSIC]
I'm reading from Meditations of the Heart, "The Pressure of Crisis." "When Lloyd George, the
British statesman, was a boy, one of his family responsibilities was to collect firewood for
warmth and for cooking. He discovered early that always after a very terrific storm, with high
winds and driving rain, he had very little difficulty in finding as much and more wood than he
needed at the time."
"When the days were beautiful, sunny, and the skies untroubled, the firewood was at a premium.
Despite the fact that the sunny days were happy ones for him, providing him with long hours to
fill his heart with delight, nevertheless, in terms of other needs, which were his specific
responsibilities, they were his most difficult times."
"Many years after, he realized what had been happening. During the times of heavy rains and
driving winds, many of the dead limbs were broken off, and many rotten trees were toppled over.
The living things were separated from the dead things. But when the sun was shining and the
weather was clear and beautiful, the dead and the not dead were undistinguishable."
"The experience of Lloyd George is common to us all. When all is well with our world, there is
often no necessity to separate the dead from the not dead in our lives. Under the pressure of
crisis, when we need all available vitality, we are apt to discover that much in us is of no account
and valueless."
When our tree is rocked by mighty winds, all the limbs that do not have free and easy access to
what sustains the trunk are torn away. There is nothing to hold them fast. It is good to know what
3
�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
there is in us that is strong and solidly rooted. It is good to have the assurance that can only come
from having ridden the storm and remained intact."
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
"Far beside the point is the why of the storm. Beside the point too, maybe the interpretation of
the storm that makes it an active agent of redemption. Given the storm, the fact of it, it is wisdom
to know that when it come, the things that are firmly held by the vitality of life are apt to remain
chastened but confirmed, while other things that are dead, sterile, or lifeless are apt to be torn
away."
"The wheat and tares grow up together, but when the time of harvest comes, only wheat is
revealed as wheat and tares remain what they have been all along-- tares." It is a very simple
remark that again and again, when life seems to be running smoothly, when all things seem to
fall into line and we are sure that, for us, this is the good time, the time of a sudden kind of
psychic or spiritual or actual physical prosperity.
And during such times, there is no necessity, no felt necessity for assessing our equipment for
life, our strengths, our needs. In our own country, for instance, one of the most critical problems
that faces religion, that faces organized religion, that faces the church or the synagogue is, what
does religion say to a people who are fat? Who have everything? Who are so surfeited with good
food and rich food that they must spend millions of dollars in trying to get rid of the logic of the
good food that they're eating?
Is there any word that can be addressed to a man who has everything and to whom the world, in
a sense, is his oyster? This is the point here. At such times, we are apt to live life rather casually,
to raise no fundamental question about its meaning, about our own sense of direction, about what
our point is. Because our situation does not force us to raise the critical and the crucial question.
But if the time comes, as it does come to everyone, when the normal pattern of general at easeness begins to disintegrate and break down and it is necessary for us to assess life, to think about
what life means, to raise the far-reaching personal question, what is it that I am meaning by all
the things that I am doing. What is my point? Where in the totality of my experience? Is there
provided for me as a person some radical test in the light of which and on the basis of which I
will be able to define what it is that I am trying to do, where it is that I am headed?
For it is only the radical test, the moments which seem to be unmanageable. It is only at a time
when everything seems to be falling apart that a man discovers of what is his substance? What is
his strength? What is there in him that is ultimately dependable? Where in him may be found the
resources that he needs in order to do his thing now in a hard circumstance, in a difficult
moment?
For if life is easy and if life is indulgent, then despite all of the comfort that it may bring, the
most important question that we most want to know about ourselves, we cannot know. And that
question is, what, after all, ultimately, do I'd amount to? How much can I take? How much can I
stand and not give, not yield, not buckle under?
4
�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
Am I a real man so that when I take my stand, I can absorb whatever it is that life has to offer?
And then I get something that is the pearl beyond price. I live with the confidence-- and this is of
overwhelming importance. I live with the confidence and the strength that I can stand anything
that life can do to me.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
[MUSIC]
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh, Lord,
my rock and my redeemer.
[MUSIC]
5
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
We Believe (Television Series, 1958-1965)
Description
An account of the resource
<em>We Believe</em> was a color television program that aired on WHDH-TV, Channel 5, in Boston on weekday mornings at 11:15. From 1958 to 1965, while Howard Thurman was Dean of the Chapel at Boston University, he was the host of the Friday morning show. Each message has a brief introductory section with bells and music before Thurman delivers his short meditation. Some recordings have been edited to remove the intro. In some cases, the Howard Thurman Educational Trust produced tapes with two messages on one recording.<br /><br />"These meditations are no longer than 15 minutes, but highly representative of his style, influence, and search for common ground." - <a href="http://archives.bu.edu/web/howard-thurman">the Howard Thurman and Sue Bailey Thurman Collections at Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University.</a><br /><br />
<p style="text-align: right;"><em>We Believe</em> program listing in the TV Guide, March 29, 1958</p>
<img src="http://pittsviva.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/webelieve-whdh-boston.png" style="float: right;" alt="webelieve-whdh-boston.png" />
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Descriptions by Dustin Mailman
AudioWithTranscription
Audio that is shown through the 3Play Media embedded interactive transcript
Audio with Transcription
<iframe width="100%" height="820" frameborder="0" src="/files/players/394-800.html" ></iframe>
Original Title
Title as transcribed from tape cassette
The Moment of Truth; Pearl without Price (ET-60; GC 12-4-71), 1971 Dec 4
Time Period
The decade in which the recording was produced.
1960s
Location
The location of the interview, speech, lecture, or sermon
WHDH-TV, Boston, Massachusetts
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
394-800
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Thurman, Howard
Title
A name given to the resource
The Moment of Truth (1963-04-19); Pearl without Price (1971-12-4)
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
<a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a>
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1963-04-19
1962-03-23
Description
An account of the resource
In this recording within the We Believe Series, Thurman reads from a letter that his friend from Canada sends him. Within the letter, the listener hears of a young boy who makes the decision to participate in a blood transfusion for his sister. In agreeing to participate in the transfusion, the boy misunderstood, and assumed that he would have to die in order to save his younger sister's life. Thurman sees this boy's misunderstanding as a "moment of truth." The moment of truth speaks to one's sense of courage, responsibility, creativity, and sacrifice. Embedded into this moment of truth is a reaction that comes from the tension between one's personal and public life. Thurman invites the listener to discern what their "moment of truth" is and challenges the listen to what their "moment of truth" is calling them to do.
In this recording within the We Believe Series, Thurman reads from his book, "Meditations of the Heart." In this reflection, Thurman reflects upon what it means to look at life critically. When things are going well, the difficult and the not-difficult aspects of life blend together; however, when one is in desperation, one is able to critique and names the parts of life that are difficult. This conversation speaks to Thurman's wider work concerning the tension goodness and innocence.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Description by Dustin Mailman
commitment
decision
dichotomy
encounter
experience
goodness
innocence
Lloyd George
meditations of the heart
moment of truth
pearl
responsibility
sacrifice
solitary
spiral
St. Francis
test
truth
-
http://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pittsthurman/original/b5d40c7a6becfa18f7c5d63679bb7728.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAI4CD764Y635IGLNA&Expires=1711695000&Signature=msljlX4c2d29wkIp35PtvphEYwE%3D
e9fc94b95a55eaca47efbc70e9fd69f3
PDF Text
Text
Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
394-165_A.mp3
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
Of all the stories Jesus told, there is none more stark and terrifying in import and consequence
than what he said about the man who came to the wedding feast without the proper dress. He
placed an estimate far too low upon a single moment. Nameless and unattached, the moments
come and go. The quiet monotony of the days lulls man into dullness and deadness. At long last,
days are but days and nights are but delirious interludes before the grinding begins anew.
And then one moment unlike all the rest bastes upon him. It comes unheralded, a part of a
numberless series. But it bears his name. The one great opportunity to do that to which all his
days have pointed, the one sure person of his dreams, with all things in readiness to receive him,
the one great view from the heights that sent him on his climb long, long ago.
There is no escape. He is not ready. The wedding feast is on. Down the long banquet hall the
king appears. Under the awful scrutiny, man sees his careless dress, his disheveled hair. Tears
are useless, alibis strangely irrelevant, curses or pleadings, desperate and pathetic, are of no
avail.
The great moment burns to exhaustion, then passes. And the rest, stark, utter despair amidst the
gray ashes of desolation.
It is comforting to know that it does not always happen that way. The moment of truth. There are
many, many texts that crowd into the mind. "I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision," says
the apostle.
Jacob was alone as he wrestled in the darkness with a man. "And the voice said, 'Who will go for
us? Whom shall we send?' An then said I, 'Here am I. Send me.'" The moment of truth.
There are two or three preliminary things that must be placed before our minds and our hearts as
we pursue this. The first is that the moment of truth is solitary.
There is a dimension of solitariness that belongs to your life and to my life. We go along together
with those who walk the way with us, bound to us by ties of affection, or responsibility, or duty,
and sometimes destiny. But there comes a moment when I must take to my hill alone.
It is for this reason, I believe, that Professor Whitehead suggests that religion is what a man does
with his solitariness. There is an element of solitariness in all of living. But at no point is this
element more pronounced than when a man is experiencing what for him is his moment of truth.
It need not be some elaborate, and deep, and philosophic moment.
It may be as simple as this. When you are explaining something to a child and the child asks you
or says to you, I don't understand, or I don't know what this means, or he expresses his lack of
understanding in a way that is mutually understood. And then you try again, and you draw upon
your knowledge of the child's world and the things with which the child's mind is familiar. And
you try to state it in a way that will be within his reach.
1
�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
And then suddenly your child says to you, I understand. In the moment when the child says, I
understand, it is as if that child and this insight alone existed in all the universe. There is a naked
exposure of the mind to the idea, to the insight, whatever it may be.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
It is for this reason, if we cannot ask questions about the things that we want to know, we ask
questions about things that keep us from knowing what we want to know. So that when the
question is answered, it means that the thing that stood between us and the truth that we sought
has now been removed, so that once again the mind and the truth can leap together into one
creative sense of wholeness.
Now, that is the element of solitariness. And then it follows quite logically from this that one
phrase must be characteristic always of man when he is experiencing his moment of truth, that he
sees it with his own eyes, with his own eyes.
When I was a boy-- I don't remember at what age, but it was sometime between one and 12-- I
developed a very bad, I suppose, bad habit. I enjoyed being alive, and I could hardly resist the
temptation to stop and play at least a half a game of croquet, or play a little ball, or shoot some
marbles when I was being sent on an errand.
I calculated the thing very carefully. I knew, I thought I knew the margin that was safe. 10
minutes longer, or 20 minutes. But often the enthusiasm of the experience simply because me to
be less mindful, and when I returned my mother, depending upon various things, did various
things.
[AUDIENCE LAUGHS]
And this went on. But nothing that she did really affected me. I kept on, watching for my
moment when I could get these few minutes off. Punishment didn't affect me, whether it was
corporal or being denied the chance to do something in the afternoon, or something of that sort.
Nothing really got over into where I was operating.
And then, one night, after I'd gone to bed, apropos of no recent event, my mother walked quietly
into our room and sat on my cot. I should always remember the moonlight as it broke into the
room across her face, at her hands, and I was lying in the shadow.
And she talked with me about what I was doing. She didn't condemn me. She didn't do anything,
but something that was fraught with magic, because, like a flash of blinding light, I saw me in
relation to the context of my life. And I didn't do that any more.
What external pressure couldn't do, what punishment-- I had to see with my own eyes. It was
necessary for me to experience my moment of truth and to react totally to that moment.
Now, of course, there's a lot of error that can be involved in this. Olive Schreiner tells about a
mother duck who brought her young ducklings down the site of what had been a pond. But since
her last brood of ducklings was born, this thing that had been a pond was nothing now but baked
mud.
2
�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
But the mother didn't know this. She stood on the banks, urging her ducklings to swim around
and just put themselves in the water where there wasn't any water, to eat chickweed, and worms
where there weren't any chickweed and worms.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
While they, with their fresh young instincts, smelled the chickweed and heard the water way up
the dam, and they left their mother beside her old pond to go in quest of other waters, perhaps to
be lost on the way. And as they left, they said to their mother, mother, in your day and in the
days of your other ducklings, this may have been good water, but if you and yours would swim
again, it must be in other waters.
Now, those of you who are very young, use that carefully. Now, the insight that is relevant here
is that in my experiencing of my moment of truth, there is the element in which I, with my own
eyes, must see. Or else my experience of truth in my moment of truth is secondary and not
primary.
Now, it may be that for a long time the only thing that I can manage and the thing that may be
best for me is the secondary experience. But soon or late, if I am to be responsible, I must see it
with my own eyes.
And a part of the responsibility of those of us who tutor, and train, and brood over that they may
develop and grow, a part of our responsibility is so to understand that it is possible for us to give
to those for whom we are responsible and those who are young the kind of setting in which it is
possible for them to see with their own eyes.
Now, the third preliminary thing is that I may respond, I must always respond in my moment of
truth. I must always respond in a manner that is positive. But it may be positive and creative, or it
may be positive and destructive.
It may be that when I see, I reject. Or it may be that, in my moment of truth, I look with the eyes
of a prestige-bearing individual, and take the clue to act on what I see. It is very confusing.
One of the illustrations that will point this up is a thing that [? Don ?] [? Marcus ?] describes in
his play Dark Hours. You may recall it. It has to do with the Passion Week.
After the betrayal of Jesus by Judas, he goes to collect his money. And the man who paid him
asked him a very searching question. Tell me, now that this is all over, how did it happen that
you came under the influence of this teacher?
And Judas' reply was very striking. He said, I was walking down the road one day and I met
Him. And when I looked at Him and He looked at me, meaning leaped between us, and I knew
that He was a man to whom I was tied forever. And then, he said, I became one of his followers.
And often this sort of thing happened. One day, as we were walking along, He said that, one of
you will betray me. And when I looked up, He was looking right at me. Another time, He said
that he who sups in the dish with me will betray me. And it happened that at that moment my
hand and His hand met at the dish.
3
�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
And then Judas says, it is because He has shown me to be a devil to myself that I acknowledge
that there are devils in me, and they riot in the streets. Thee, he says to God, I cannot reach and
strike. But this night, I will strike down Thy Son. I must even the score.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
Now, solitariness, this seeing with your own eye, this total response. Now there is one other
element. Always present in the moment of truth are three elements-- the element of revelation,
the element of conviction, element of decision. Decision, conviction, revelation.
It means that when I am faced with what I'm calling the moment of truth, I am aware in that
facing that the question that is before me is a question of ultimate significance, a question that
has bearing upon the kind of human being I am, the ultimate meaning of my life, the very
grounds of my self-respect. What kind of person am I? And there is no way to run.
When the prophet Isaiah heard that the king-- who was his idol, his great hero, King Josiah-- was
dead, dead from the disease called leprosy, it was fair enough for the king to have died as just
any man dies. But for him to be afflicted with the disease, the very existence of which in the
body undermined a man's self-respect-The prophet went to the temple. And while he was in the temple, trying to put all of this together
in some way, some moment that would illumine the darkness-- I don't want anyone to show me,
but I want something that can illumine the darkness by which the vicissitudes of my life have
surrounded me that I might see before me the way to go.
This is a common experience. As he sat in the temple in his darkness, beholds a vision. The
temple was filled with the glory of God, with the Shekhinah, the light, the uncreated light of
God. And before God on His throne in this vision were all of the angels and archangels.
The glory of God covered everything. Except the inside of Isaiah's heart. And the contrast
between the inner darkness and the great illumination by which he was surrounded caused him to
see the nature of his inner darkness for the first time.
It is then that he said, "Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips. I come from a people of
unclean lips," and so forth. And as the illumination began to invade his darkness, he made a
decision.
I will respond in like quality. I will put at the disposal of God my total dedication. Who will go?
"I will go. Here I am. Send me."
Now, as far as we can go this morning is this. If your life is surrounded by darkness, by
indecision, by fog, by all of the things that have settled down upon your path, obscuring it, try
turning aside from the traffic and probing the roots out of which you have come, looking at your
life, seeing by perspective what have been the basic trends that have moved you in this direction
or that direction.
What did earlier moments of insight, of illumination, say to you at others times when the way
was lost? And open up your life to the spirit. And if you are not a religious person, open up your
life to the spirit of truth, of understanding, of wisdom, so that the accumulated light that
generations of men have winnowed out of the raw materials of their livings and striving will cast
4
�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
upon your path enough illumination that you may be able to see in what sense you are in the
dark, that the light that surrounds you might invade you.
And may you not be disobedient to what you see. It may be something that stood long ago and
you have forgotten.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
The man whose birthday anniversary in many parts of the world will be celebrated during this
week, Albert Schweitzer, when he was a young man walking across the square and he saw the
light play on the statute of the kneeling, suppliant African looking into the face of the man who
could give to him light in his darkness, in that moment Albert Schweitzer experienced something
which kept coming back through all of his genius and ability, through Bach, and through his
metaphysics, and through his New Testament criticism, through his philosophy of religion and
this philosophy of civilization.
Always back this thing. And at last, he had to honor it. And in honoring it, he found salvation.
And this is independent of what honoring it did to hundreds and hundreds of other people who
were on the receiving end of his decision.
If you are in the darkness within, light has played across your path. Find the moment. And then
open yourself totally.
And what you do, it is my deep conviction that God himself does through you that you may not
betray yourself, that the deepest thing in you can say yes to the deepest thing in life. This is to
experience truth.
Teach us, O God, our Father, how we may so walk that our steps may be guided by a light which
shines upon our path. In the way that we go, leave us not alone, but be with us to bless, and to
inspire, and to judge. Forever and ever.
[GENTLE MUSIC]
(SINGING) Amen. Amen. Amen.
5
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Moment of Truth (1958, Marsh Chapel, Boston University, Boston, MA)
Description
An account of the resource
In this series, Thurman discusses the solitary nature of the moment of truth. These moments that illuminate our lives and change the course of our realities are moments that must be experienced in solitude through our own eyes. Experiencing firsthand the light that shines into our darkness has the power to do what external pressure and punishment cannot. Ever-present in our moments of truth is revelation, conviction, and decision that guides our responses.
He also discusses the moment of truth as it relates to God’s purpose for our lives. Discovering the authentic meaning of our lives helps us to uncover the bearing our experiences have on that meaning. It is the experience by which the mind and the spirit and yes, the soul of man gets a confirmation that enables him to live into the meaning of his life not only with a sense of responsibility but with dignity and power.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1958
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Descriptions by ShaCarolyn Halyard
AudioWithTranscription
Audio that is shown through the 3Play Media embedded interactive transcript
Audio with Transcription
<iframe width="100%" height="820" frameborder="0" src="/files/players/394-165_A.html" ></iframe>
Location
The location of the interview, speech, lecture, or sermon
Marsh Chapel, Boston University, Boston, Massachussetts
Internal Notes
Notes for project team
Don Marcus? (made a play called Dark Hours) - GL 5/22/19
Time Period
The decade in which the recording was produced.
1950s
Original Title
Title as transcribed from tape cassette
"The Moment of Truth" (Part 1 and 2) (Marsh Chapel), 1958 Jan 12
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
394-165_A
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Thurman, Howard
Title
A name given to the resource
The Moment of Truth, Part 1, 1958 January 12
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1958-01-12
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
<a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/"><img style="border-width:0;" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc/4.0/80x15.png" alt="80x15.png" /></a><br />This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License</a>. 2019.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
GEOMETRYCOLLECTION(POINT(-7915565.7490374 5213612.6443988))
Description
An account of the resource
In this first installment, Thurman speaks about the solitary nature of the moment of truth. These moments that illuminate our lives and change the course of our realities are moments that must be experienced in solitude through our own eyes. Experiencing firsthand the light that shines into our darkness has the power to do what external pressure and punishment cannot. Ever-present in our moments of truth is revelation, conviction, and decision that guides our responses.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Description by ShaCarolyn Halyard
conviction
decision
revelation