Browse Items (5 total)

In this seventh lecture in the Discipline of the Spirit series, Thurman uses Matthew 5:39 as a framework for discipline as it relates to our decision to act. Thurman reminds listeners of the responsibility to act or react in integrity centered around core values as we are responsible for the actions we initiate as well as the reactions we initiate in other people. One must always be careful when deciding to act lest our deeds are out of character with our core beliefs.

Thurman’s fourth sermon in this series expands the traditional frame of the wilderness temptations and portrays Jesus’ decision to go to Jerusalem for the last time as a crossroads dilemma. In this instance, Jesus must decide whether to go to Jerusalem, where he would be rejected and killed, or, to continue his ministry elsewhere and live. Thurman explains the crossroad faced by Jesus as a dilemma because this moment reflects the "agony" of any dilemma in that one must choose either between…

This recording is the fifth lecture in our collection of ten that Howard Thurman gave at the University of Redlands in 1973 on the topic of mysticism. Thurman indicates that this lecture functions as a means to point the listener towards practical approaches to mysticism through lenses of psychology, philosophy, and religious experience. He revolves the content of this lecture around the question: "How may I act so that in my action there will be a corresponding manifestation of an increase…

In this lecture, Thurman considers the challenges facing those who must simultaneously be religious experts and persons involved in the experience of leading a religious life. The dilemma of incessantly performing priestly duties, he shows, demands that public demonstrations of spiritual competence be exhibited in the service of “needy humanity” even as the professional works out one’s private formation. Thurman emphasizes, however, that intimacy with communities must not come at the expense of…

In this lecture, Thurman considers the challenges facing those who must simultaneously be religious experts and persons involved in the experience of leading a religious life. The dilemma of incessantly performing priestly duties, he shows, demands that public demonstrations of spiritual competence be exhibited in the service of “needy humanity” even as the professional works out one’s private formation. Thurman emphasizes, however, that intimacy with communities must not come at the expense of…