1
10
5
-
http://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pittsthurman/original/6d34398c2b8652b94a378af20da0516b.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAI4CD764Y635IGLNA&Expires=1711615800&Signature=62r0G%2BDFiT6M7u7W4OPTToSoYtM%3D
8e5aa99e83a6182a624f976783de7446
PDF Text
Text
Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
394-652_B.mp3
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
This morning, I am continuing and concluding our thinking together about St. Augustine, the
architect of a new faith as a part in our series on the inward journey. These words, which I shall
read, come from Augustine's Confession.
The mind commands the mind, its own self, to will, and yet it doth not. Whence this
monstrousness? And to what end? While the will entire, it would not even command it to be
because it would already be. Thus, soul sick was I and tormented, accusing myself much more
severely than my custom, rolling and turning me and my chain till that they were broken,
whereby I now was but just, but still was held. The very toys of toys and vanities of vanities still
held me. They plucked my fleshly garment, and whispered softly to me, dost thou cast us off?
And from that moment shall we no more be with thee forever? And from that moment shall not
this or that be lawful for thee to do forever? But now, they speak very faintly. For on that side
whither I had set my face and whither I trembled to go, they appeared unto me the chaste dignity
of countenancy, serene, yet not relaxedly gay, honestly alluring me to come and doubt not, and
stretching forth to receive and embrace me, her holy hands full of multitudes of good examples.
So was I speaking? A deep consideration had from the secret bottom of my soul drawn together
and heaped up all my misery in the sight of my heart. And there rose a mighty storm, bringing a
mighty shower of tears.
And I heard from a neighboring house a voice, as of a boy or girl I know not, chanting and oft
repeating take up and read. Take up and read. Instantly, my countenance altered. I began to think
most intently whether the children were want in any kind of play to sing such words. Nor could I
remember ever to have heard the like of such words.
So checking the torrent of my tears, I arose. Interpreting it to be no other than a command from
God to open the book and read the first chapter I should find. For I had heard of Antony, that
coming in during the reading of the gospel he received the admonition as if what was being read
was spoken to him. Go, sell all that thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in
heaven and come and follow me.
And by such oracle, Anthony was forthwith converted unto thee. Eagerly then, I returned to the
place where Alypius was sitting. For there, I had laid the volume of the apostle when I rose
since. I seized, opened, and in silence, read that section on which my eyes first fell.
Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying, but
put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh. No further would I read,
nor needed I. For instantly at the end of this sentence by a light, as it were, of serenity infused
into my heart, all the darkness of my doubt vanished away.
1
�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
The note upon which much of our thinking last Sunday rested had to do with the integrity of the
religious experience of Augustine. And how he felt that what he had experienced was so
fundamental to the nature of the way God works with man, that he projected this insight, as it
were, into a generalization about what would be the definitive way by which the whole world
would enter into the newness of life. And particularly, the process by which the ruined and
collapsing empire might be renewed, reordered, reborn into what, subsequently, Augustine called
the city of God.
Now, I want to back up and take a hard look at what was the dynamic element and the
transcendent element and the experience of Augustine with his god on the basis of which he,
with the most amazing and one of the most creative minds in human history, established the
foundations along which, for at least 1,000 years, the Roman Catholic Church would be building.
We began then with the fact that Augustine was wrestling with the problem of the two wills. I
think that's a good place at which to begin. He was convinced that because of his inability, by
any act of will or personal discipline on his part, to reduce to manageable units of control the
unrestrained physical appetites of his body, that this inability for his will to be effective in
bringing about a change in the behavior pattern of his life caused him to feel that this will, which
was impotent even when there was the desire to change, was due to a corruption that was not
inherent, primarily, in Augustine's will as Augustine's will. But it was a corruption inherent in
the human will itself based upon the sin of Adam.
For when Adam willed, on his behalf rather than God's, and in this act, according to Augustine's
interpretation, rebelled against God, this corrupted the will of mankind so that sin and, in
Augustine's terms, the reason why he could not break away from the terrible impulses of his
nature that made a slave of him. The reason why he could not do anything with this was the fact
that his will itself was diseased.
And therefore, he was impotent. Now, that's one of the wills. There was another will at work that
he called the momentous will. This was the will of God, which had to be obeyed, to which the
private will, before which the private will had to bow. But the private will could not bow before
the will of God and become obedient to it of itself.
Therefore, before I could give up my will to God's will, God will have to put something in my
will that would make my will willing to bow before His will. In other words, only by the grace of
God that would touch my will so that I will want to want to do it.
Now, therefore, only by the grace of God, then, is man saved. And when Augustine realized in
himself this kind of salvation, with his creative imagination, he said, as I was the whole
collapsing empire is. There is no thing at work within the Empire that can save it, only some
external sovereign power that transcends all earthy and temporal powers before which all of the
kings and the nobles before which the soldiers and the laymen and the priests of the church,
before which all creation must bow. Only some sovereign power like this that provides a point of
redemptive referral, that transcends the struggle, that is beyond the struggle, but is in some sense
involved in the struggle. Only before that kind of power will there be any salvation for the
individual or for the Empire.
2
�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
So the foundations for this he found in the Roman Catholic Church. And he imputed to this
church, through the interpretation of his religious experience primarily, all of what he himself
had experienced in God, so he says.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
That my will was touched by the grace of God. My will, therefore, for its redemption is
dependent upon the act of the grace of God. And the grace of God does not operate in a vacuum.
The grace of God operates through Christ in the church which he established.
And therefore, the church is the custodian of the grace of God. It is the dispenser, therefore, of
salvation. And those who are not touched by this act of grace on the part of the church cannot
hope even to desire salvation. So outside them, of the representative of God, the church, there
can be no salvation for the individual.
And it is amazing, isn't it, how this doctrine has persisted in some of its manifestations down to
latest times. It was this doctrine that was not rooted in Jesus Christ. It was this doctrine that
caused the minister of our little church in my hometown, when my father died, my father who
was not a member of a church, it was this doctrine that caused him to say to my mother that he
could not be buried from the church because he died out of the church, because he died out of
Christ. That there was no way by which he could get into the kingdom, except in this way.
Now, this is Augustine the theologian. But what about Augustine the man, the experiencer of
salvation? Here, we come upon something that never ceases to fascinate and excite my mind and
imagination.
Because all along, as you read The Confessions, you see two streams moving side by side. For
instance, he says, I tremble, and I burn. I tremble when I feel that I am not like God. I burn when
I feel that I am like God. Or in those that great organ note with which The Confessions open,
thou hast made us for thyself. And our souls are restless till they find their rest in thee. Or our
hearts are restless till they find their rest in thee.
This dilemma, which is always present, isn't it? Something in me which says that there is an
integrity that is native to my spirit. That there is an indigenous goodness that belongs to my life
as an expression of the life of God.
And there is in me also the clear manifestation of the corrupt impulse, the evil, not merely the
evil deed, but the evil intent. And if in experiencing the latter out of the desperation of the spirit
man reaches hungrily in any direction for some other than self reference, in the light of which he
may be able to experience a correction, not merely in terms of decision to change this or that
particular, but in the sense of a complete inner orientation and rebirth of the personality.
Now, this came to a climactic moment in the life of Augustine who, when, and the great
controversy that I should just touch because of its bearing on the point, that he had with Pelagius.
Pelagius was this sensitive British monk in whom there was no violence. He was one of these
human beings concerning whom it could be said that he would not knowingly harm anything or
anybody.
3
�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
And for him, the will of man was good. He did not need any external socially dependent frame of
reference in order to give redemptive character to the will. It was intrinsically, positively moving
in response to something that was built in the will that was of God.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
And Augustine, out of his kind of experience, knew that in and of his will he had not been able to
do anything. And what he discovered for himself he imputed into the life all around him. And so
the issue was drawn then between these two men. And Augustine won for more than 1,000 years.
Latter day, we are not as sure as Augustine was. But you can see the historical necessity out of
which he had to act for. And here, he split again. You see?
For he knew that all the time there was something in him that had not been touched by evil. At
the same time, he knew that there were great levels in him that were corrupt. And he wanted to
find something that was capable of giving to him a sense of inner integration and togetherness.
And what he felt for himself he knew that the collapsing ruined empire would have to
experience. So in his city of God, then, to take the place of the city of this world, the Empire, he
projected a church that would provide a point of referral for all of the barbarians, all of the
corrupt politicians, all of the priests, all of the laymen, some socially dependent criterion that
would take away from the individual the absolute responsibility for his own life.
And this is what we are trying to find all the time. Isn't it? I want my own independent mind. I
want to experience again and again through all the levels of my being the integrity of my own
will.
And at the same time, I want something that can protect me from self-deception, something that
will let me know by another than self reference when I am out of line. I want to be free to salute
my own integrity. I want to be safe-guarded against being destroyed by the integrity of my own
will. This is the dilemma. And whether or not we find the answer in terms that Augustine found
it, in the external authority of a church, that socially dependent organization that had within its
confines all of the mandate of God for his creation, or whether we find it at some other point.
The important thing is that I can't stand being solely dependent upon myself. And I can't stand
not being dependent upon myself. So my growth oscillates between these two.
The last line in the scripture lesson that just below where President Key stopped reading. The
apostle says only let your feet be guided, your steps be guided by such light as you have already.
There is this that I-- all the light that shine does not shine unless it shines on my path. But all the
light there is is not on my path.
And how to walk in my light, how to honor the light that is in me, and at the same time, to put
that light in a larger radiance. This is the act of greatest discipline and greatest faith. Where do
you turn for your point of referral beyond all that you know and experience? Where?
You may not find a solution as simple as Augustine's. And as complex as this was, authority. So
that I'll always know when I'm lost. I can always check back, get my bearing, and go on again.
4
�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
Knowing then that the mistake that I make can only be made if I misread the sign. But the
mistake cannot be an absolute one because all the freedom as he's felt is the freedom in obeying
the will absolutely.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
And this is the great need of modern man. Isn't it? To find some socially dependent point of
referral that will give, as you check back and forth, increasingly creative meaning to the living of
your life, even under the most cruel vicissitudes of your collective or private fortune. And
whoever thinks he's found this knows that he's saved, and he can stand anything that life can do
to him.
And he who has not found it is always looking and will look as long as he lives. What is for you
the point of referral? Forgive us our Father, for all the failure of the mind and the spirit in
following the light that is available within us. Teach us, oh God, how we may be so true to what
illumines our path, that we may be brought surely to the source of all light. This is our hope. This
is our desperation, our Father, and this is our faith. Oh, oh God, God, our Father.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
5
�
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/394-652_B.html" ></iframe>
Location
The location of the interview, speech, lecture, or sermon
Marsh Chapel, Boston University, Boston, Massachussetts
Time Period
The decade in which the recording was produced.
1960s
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
394-652_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>
Title
A name given to the resource
St. Augustine, part 1 (7); St. Augustine, part 2 (8), 1961 Dec 3, 10, Side B
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
This sermon is the eighth of nine in a series of sermons given in Marsh Chapel that are titled "The Inward Journey." In this sermon, Thurman explores St. Augustine's texts "Confessions," and "City of God." He uses each of these texts to navigate St. Augustine's theological posturing towards salvation, original sin, free will, and conversion. The climax of this sermon critiques Augustine's claim that the church is the place to which humanity finds salvation, which is held in juxtaposition to Augustine's emphasis upon God's grace being the vehicle to which salvation and religious are actualized.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1961-12-10
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Description by Dustin Mailman
Anthony
Augustine
burn
church
City of God
Confessions
conversion
creation narrative
creativity
discipline
empire
evil
experience
fall of humanity
free will
grace
Incarnation
intention
mind
original sin
Pelagius
realization
rebirth
redemption
religious experience
reorder
salvation
Tolle Legge
tremble
-
http://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pittsthurman/original/bf2a8b2c1da23e803b6f34a4a08d3129.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAI4CD764Y635IGLNA&Expires=1711615800&Signature=RlFx47sTHgC1CSdnOPeCehsSsMU%3D
d36e5477acb83ed18ed10c96bbc74888
PDF Text
Text
Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
394-649_B.mp3
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
[CHOIR SINGING]
Who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on Earth as it is
in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power
of the glory forever and ever. Amen.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[CHOIR SINGING]
The background for our consideration this morning of the inner light-- I'm reading two
paragraphs from Jane Steger's Leaves from a Secret Journal.
"For as long as I can remember, I've had days of happiness when my self of well-being appear to
be vaguely connected with a feeling of inner light. The sensation of light was not very definite. It
was rather perhaps a glow of well-being. Yet it was sufficiently pronounced for one of the
earliest notes in my journal, speaking of the times of felicity, when the things of the spirit
seemed very real to read. Within is a soft, almost tangible radiance. And for a time, I seemed to
be walking in a streak of sunlight.
And then some years ago, an old lady near the other end of her life paused to look back and
recall some of its great moments. Among other things, she wrote of an occasion when she was
walking in the country. She was under great strain. And suddenly, the strain snapped, like the
breaking of a chord.
To quote her own words, I was flooded with an ineffable soul light, which seemed to radiate
from a great personality with whom I was in immediate touch. I felt it to be the touch of God.
The ecstasy was beyond description. I was passing through a patch of beggar's grass with its wiry
stems ending in feathery heads. Every head shone and glistened like pearls. I could hardly walk,
for the overwhelming sense of the divine presence and its joy-- I almost saw God.
A little dog that had been walking quietly beside her looked up in her face at this point and began
to bark with great excitement. I do not doubt that he saw in her face the same effulgence that she
saw in the grass. I am glad to think that the glory of God is at the heart of beggar's grass, as well
as at the heart of man and that little dog's, as well as human beings may see this and rejoice.
The inner light in all of the literature and the experience of the religion of the inner life of
mankind, wherever we find it, without regard to the particular context by which the definition of
meaning is sensed and felt and interpreted, always, the-- this kind of religion has in it some
insight, some feeling for, some sense of some interpretation of what may be regarded as the inner
light, the-- a quality of personality or perhaps, even, a better word would be a dimension of
1
�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
personality, which seems to have an element in it that is that is beyond thought and beyond
feeling and beyond interpretation. And the two words that are used is inner light-- they are
symbolic words. And what are they saying?
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
These words are saying that there is this element in life which is a luminous element. This, you
may recall, is one of the things that has been characterized by the men about whom we have been
thinking, Jacob Boehme and Meister Eckhart. It is found in the prologue to the fourth gospel,
which we read last Sunday and which we have read today, the light that lighteth every man that
cometh into the world. And in the Christian tradition, Jesus Christ is identified with and is
regarded as the creative and dynamic expression, for instance, of this light which is inherent in
the life of man.
A man like John Wycliffe, for instance, felt that the light was natural to man. It had to do with
that which was a part of the essential nature of man-- that it was always there in man, that it was
a part of what may be regarded as the givenness of God, the ground of God that is present in
human life. He felt that because of the fall of man, this thing which was natural to man's life had
been dimmed. It had been made obscure. It had been somewhat lost, but not altogether lost. And
when a man became aware of the new possibilities of his life, as John Wycliffe saw it, expressed
in the whole ministry, and life of Jesus Christ then, this thing that was there was activated and
awakened. And it became sensitized and began to influence the life of the man.
This idea, you see, that here is something that is generic in man's spirit, this quality that it is
always there, it's a part of the givenness of life-- now, this has created many problems for
mankind. Certain religious sects have been built up around this idea, which caused this notion,
this aspect, of personal religious experience. And this caused them to feel that they were
independent of any revelation of any kind, that there was a fundamental autonomy in the human
spirit and that God was operative.
This light was operative in the individual. There were no conditions under which it was
available. But it was a part of the birthright of man. And therefore, if I want to know what the
truth is, all I need do is to look at my own little Geiger counter. I don't need to have any point of
reference outside of myself or a whole group of people who were part of the friends of God. And
they were the ranters. They felt that there was so much autonomy in the human spirit that they
could not be guided by anything.
The truth is only the truth as it is seen by me. And there's an element of truth in that, but not
quite all the truth. I may have a cup full of water out of the Charles River. And all the water in
my cup will be Charles River water. But all the water in the Charles River will not be in my cup.
This is the idea here.
Now, the next aspect of this, that the inner light is something that becomes illumined in you only
under certain circumstances of religious conversion-- it is something that is imposed upon
personality from without. It is an invasion, like the English walnut grafted on to whatever that
other kind of walnut is that it grows on. I don't remember. But it's grafted. It has no autonomy, no
life of itself as far as what it draws upon to sustain it. But there's a quality in the buds that
produces a peculiar fruit.
2
�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
But when we think-- I'll move back to this notion in just a minute-- when we think about the
inner light, we naturally think of the Society of Friends, for here is a group of people who have
made the question of the inner light very central to their religious experience and religious
insight. And even in the history and the movement of the Society of Friends, these two notions
concerning the relevancy of the inner light have persisted.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
Sometimes, George Fox seems to feel that the inner light is indigenous, that it belongs to the
very nature of man. Some other times, he seems to be-- to feel that the inner light is there only
when it is brought by this invasion of Jesus Christ in the life, as he expressed it. And for a long
time, these two notions flowed along within the movement of the interpretation of the inner light
of the Friends.
But however we may interpret it, whether we interpret the inner light as being that which is
indigenous in the life of man or that which comes into the life of man at some moment, the
ground of the inner light, it seems to me, rests in what, in my feeling and thought and limited
experience, is the very fluid center of personality, not-- expressed not in what I want now,
expressed not in what I want tomorrow, this week, this year, but what underneath all the days
and the weeks and months and the years that, which seems to me, to move at the fluid center of
my deepest area of consent, that nothing ever quite freezes over.
Last winter, when I was in Milwaukee, a friend of mine took me down by the bay, I guess it is-yes, by the bay and-- or the lake. Well, anyway, it was one of the other. And it was frozen. It was
the middle of the winter. And it was frozen. But as we came along, he pulled his car up to the
side of the road. And he said, come over here. I want to show you something.
So I went. And as we approached the shore, I noticed that there was an area that was full of
various kinds of birds, geese, all kinds of flying creatures. And the water was flowing. It was just
fluid. But all around you, it was frozen. And he said, many years ago, there was a lady here who
had wealth. And she loved the birds. And she hated for them to fly so far away all the time. So
she gave some money to the city so the city could pipe a stream of hot water down under
something so that always, this hot water is flowing. And always around this, the water is fluid.
And it doesn't matter what the external temperature is. The fluid center remains, remains.
Now, I know that there is a fluid center in man in which the primary disclosure of what a man is
is revealed to him, in which he may discover clues to the meaning of the movement of the life
about him. And with reference to this, the persistent temptation is to try to protect this kind of
indigenous spiritual autonomy of the human spirit from all of the vagaries of self-deception, selfdeception.
It may be just a form of subjectivism that-- and I cannot know whether or not I'm really being
fooled by this. And it is for this reason always that the religions which have to do with the inner
life have insisted that there should be some other than self-reference in which the assumption is
that the same movement of the spirit of God that is operative in the individual's life is also
operative in those other lives. And if they are moving out from the same center, the word will be
the same word.
3
�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
I remember once, many years ago, I was invited to speak, to preach, at the Friends Meeting in
Germantown, Germantown Friends. And I'd had no primary exposure to the Friends. And I was a
little-- well, I said, I want to speak out of my center without having my mind to interfere with the
free flowing of the spirit of God in me. So I will-- this is the way I feel that they worship. So I
will worship in the same way. I will not prepare.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
I traveled 950 miles to get to Philadelphia. This is pretty risky because I was supposed to preach
at the regular time. And if I had nothing to say, then I would not get my expenses.
[LAUGHTER]
So I went. And I sat on the facing seat with the man who's ahead of the meeting. And behind us
were two other rows facing the congregation. And several people sat on those. And then the
choir began to settle in. And at first, I could hardly restrain my mind. It wanted to go to work
because in a few minutes, I would have to stand on my feet and work. But I held it in firm
control for once-[LAUGHTER]
--and waited. And I heard noises in my spirit that I'd never heard before. For a while, my inward
parts seemed to be one churning riot. And little by little, the pressure of the quiet began to close
in on me and to shift from outside of me to inside me.
And then I hit a point of which I was not aware of, yes, except I know that I stopped trying to
hold my mind in check. I stopped trying to do anything. I let myself down in this. And then my
mind, my imagination, spilled out a word literally, just as if-- as these sky writers do in the
planes. And I saw the word and then the next word. And one part of my mind knew what the
sentence was from the gospel.
But the other part of me was held almost as a bird is charmed by a snake-- and the next word and
the next word and the next word until a whole sentence was there across my mind. And I looked
at it. And then my mind closed in on it and began to break it down and make material out of it
for presentation.
And when I was ready, I put my hands on the railing in front, shifted my weight, my left foot
back, and was about to stand up when, behind me, I heard the voice of a lady quoting the
passage. And then all over the place, people began talking to the point so that I-- now my
desperation moved in another direction because I said, I won't have a chance to stand up to say
anything. And if I don't, then there, again, I will not earn my bread.
And finally, at the end, near the end, I spoke. There is a fluid center in us all. But because of the
[INAUDIBLE] cares by which our days are surrounded, because of the wide variety of our
anxieties and our fears and our needs that often are so searching and paralyzing, we move and
think and speak and act out of something that is so much less than the fluid center where the tryst
of the human spirit is held in tight communion with the living God.
4
�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
Not what I want today, not what I want tomorrow, not what I want this minute or that minute,
this month or that month, but what, underneath all the days, all the hours, all the weeks, all the
months, all the years, that which I seek so that if I had nothing else, if there were no months, no
days, no years, this I would still seek-- it is given indigenously. It is given by grace, both of
them, both of them, both of them.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
Leave me not to the tempest of all the meaningful superficialities of my life, O God. Drive me.
Drive me, O God, to my inmost center where, stripped bare of all that cloys and clutters, I may
know thee even as I know me. This is the heart of the cry of thy children. O God, holy God, our
Father.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[CHOIR SINGING]
5
�
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/394-649_B.html" ></iframe>
Location
The location of the interview, speech, lecture, or sermon
Marsh Chapel, Boston University, Boston, Massachussetts
Time Period
The decade in which the recording was produced.
1960s
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
394-649_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>
Title
A name given to the resource
Meister Eckhart (3); The Inner Light (4), 1961 Oct 15, 22, Side B
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))
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1961-10-22
Description
An account of the resource
This sermon is the fourth of nine in a series of sermons given in Marsh Chapel that are titled "The Inward Journey." Utilizing the intersections between Jane Steger, Jacob Boehme, and Meister Eckhart, Thurman explores what Steger calls "the inner light." He notes that the inner light within humanity is first, the "ground of God that is present in humanity," and second, a phenomenon that is "imposed upon the personality" without consent. He holds this definition in juxtaposition with a religious experience he once had, illustrating the intimate, yet universal, nature of the religious experience.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Description by Dustin Mailman
autonomy
beggars grass
Charles River
choir
deception
fluid center
freedom
geese
Geiger counter
George Fox
Germantown
grace
identity
Incarnation
inner life
Jacob Boehme
Jane Steger
John Wycliffe
John's gospel
leaves from a secret journal
light
logos theology
Lord's Prayer
Meister Eckhart
Milwaukee
nostalgia
personality
Philadelphia
recall
self
skywriters
Society of Friends
-
http://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pittsthurman/original/d660996d63a4b901e0a450dbc014973e.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAI4CD764Y635IGLNA&Expires=1711615800&Signature=%2FV7haGqKFi4%2B3akJpWvj%2FhJdUTA%3D
14e633c1801b47fe51fef8c1fcd1419d
PDF Text
Text
Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
394-649_A.mp3
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
[CHOIR SINGING]
Close, present Father, we are overwhelmed by the strength and vitality of thy spirit within us,
moving at so many different levels of our being, kindling our minds in the ceaseless search for
truth and understanding, present in the glow which we feel when we remember that someone
loves us and that we love someone, the overwhelming sense of caring that distributes itself in so
many little manifestations of grace-- a kind word here, a thoughtful gesture there, sometimes, the
nodding of the head or the quickening light in the eye.
In the sense of inadequacy which we feel when there is so much that we would do and are unable
to do, so much that we would feel, but cannot quite feel, the great and over-reaching desire to be
better than we are through so many levels of our being, our Father, thy spirit moves with such
unerring strength and insight.
We would know thee better. If happily we might, we would enter into thy dreams for us and for
thy children. We would understand thy understanding that so much that confuses and bewilders
and distresses our minds and spirits would have no power over us. But our Father, we are just
men and women, weak and strong, gentle and harsh, loving and hating, sinning and being
righteous. We are just men and women, our Father, in a world of men and women.
Touch us with thy glory that the fear of ourselves will be relaxed. And even for one swirling
moment in thy presence, let us sense that we are thine and thou art ours. Does this seem too
much? Does it seem to thee to be the expression of pride and arrogance and conceit? The hunger
for thee will not be stilled, O God, O, O God, O God.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
"I have a heart that cries to God abandoned across the blind imperfect avenue of mind. I have a
heart that cries to God. I have a heart that cries to God across the quarried stones of thought, the
labored temple slowly wrought, a heart, a heart that cries to God.
I have a heart that cries to God immediately and must dispense with faltering through the world
of sense and calls across the mind to God, that calls across the worlds to God, nor stays to
elaborate the tongue of sacrament to slowly wrung. I have a heart that cries to God."
And then another poet expresses it this way. He is "on the far horizon, the infinite, tender sky,
the ripe, rich tint of the corn fields and the wild geese sailing high. And all over upland and
lowland, the charm of the golden rod-- some of us call it Autumn. And others call it God.
Like tides on a crescent sea beach when the moon is new and thin, into our hearts high yearnings
come welling and surging in, come from the mystic ocean whose rim no foot has trod. Some of
us call it Longing. And others call it God.
1
�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
A picket frozen on duty, a mother starved for her brood, Socrates drinking the hemlock, and
Jesus on the rood, and millions who, humble and nameless, the straight, hard pathway plod-some call it Consecration. And others call it God."
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
We are continuing our quest of the inward journey. And today, we will take just a hard,
penetrating look at the man, as it was said of him, from whom God hid nothing, Meister Eckhart.
The words which have to do with the story of this man's life are not particularly relevant words
for our purposes except to say that he did live. He was born. And he died. His period is the early
part in the middle of the 14th century. He was a Dominican, a man who was regarded by some
disciplinarians in the field of metaphysics and philosophy as the father of German philosophy.
But all these things are not of particular importance for our purpose.
But here is a man who had the strange and wonderful gift of being able to wrestle with great and
imponderable aspects of existence and to reduce them, in some ways, to manageable units of
understanding. He must have been an extraordinarily scintillating and gifted personality. For
when you read his sermons and his [INAUDIBLE], it is almost impossible to understand him
with all of the background of knowledge that has been developed since his period. And yet
wherever he preached in Strasbourg or in any of the other parts of Germany, the scholars and the
theologians and all of the people who were supposed to know those persons who were prestigebearing figures in the world of religion were always crowded out by the masses of the people.
The simple, the unsophisticated, crowded everywhere just to hear him speak. And either they
were extraordinarily perceptive or he was exceptionally gifted or we are very dumb.
[LAUGHTER]
You can take your choice.
I remember hearing Rufus Jones give a two-hour lecture once to freshmen on Hegelian logic.
And every 10 or 15 minutes, the fellows were in gales of laughter. And later in the afternoon,
when I went up to the library, I saw one of the freshmen poring over the dictionary. And I said,
well, what are you doing? He said, did you hear Rufus this afternoon? I said, oh yes, I did.
He said, I went to the library. I took the two volumes of Hegelian logic out. And I was sure I was
going to have a very exciting and wonderfully relaxing time. And now I'm at the dictionary
looking up the word "T-H-E" because I know that the way Hegel uses it, it must be different
from the way I understand it.
So I was telling Dr. Jones about this. And I said, how does it happen that you have this
extraordinary gift? And he told me an interesting story. And it's very important here, even though
I'm taking precious time from Eckhart to tell you.
He said when he was graduated from Haverford College, he was a young radical. As a matter of
fact, his class was the most radical class that had been graduated from Haverford up to that time,
so radical that it was they who brought Matthew Arnold to America to lecture for the first time.
2
�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
He was invited to give-- he, Rufus, was invited to give a sermon at the Friends Meeting in
Cleveland. And he prepared a very elaborate sermon. And he delivered it at the right moment in
the quiet. And when he unfinished, there were three comments made. One was made by a man
who sat near him. And he said, thee did very well, even though what thee had to say came from
underneath a mustache because Quakers were not supposed to have any new-fangled notions,
like mustaches.
The second said, thee did very well. But thee did not have very much unction because when thee
arose, thy coat was caught in thy belt. And when thee sat down, thy coat was still caught in thy
belt.
And then the third, the third was a lady. And she said, we enjoyed thee friend, Rufus-- that is,
some of us. But there is one thing that thee has forgotten. Our blessed master said, feed my
sheep, not my giraffes.
[LAUGHTER]
This is the idea. So Eckhart must have remembered this. His great and central insight has to do
with one of the most persistent questions of the mind. How can you get behind the creation of the
world? How can you get behind God?
If God is the revelation, then there must be that which is behind God that is inarticulate, that is
unformed, that is a pulse beats of being. And here I use the word "being," which is a form of
"this-ing" and "that-ing," a form of differentiation.
Eckhart was trying to get behind all of the manifestations of life. And he comes upon what is the
heart of his theological interpretation that there is a Godhead, which is the very ground of all
existence. It is undifferentiated. It is inarticulate. It is what he calls the "unnatured nature." It is
unknowable. He even refers to the Godhead as the great nameless nothing, trying to put into
words what cannot be put into words.
And he says, out, out of the Godhead, God moves. God is the self-consciousness of the Godhead,
moving always towards the manifestation of all of creation that there is no evolution, no gradual
development of things, except as a delusion, for all existence is mirrored in God, not as
something that is in process, but as pure thought, pure idea. Existence is. And all of the external
world is but an expression of the mind of God, the total existences, but an expression of the mind
of God.
Therefore, wherever you touch anything that is created, wherever you have any primary
experience with any sense data, wherever knowledge, which is a form of differentiation, a form
of expression, a form of thisness and thatness, a form of distinction between that which is known
and the knower-- wherever you come into any touch with any aspect of your whole sense
experience, it is as if you are a vast cathedral. And remove your shoes because it's holy.
Now, if this is true, says Eckhart, then man must partake of this. And then here his thought
moves in two, apparently, opposite directions. You see, he's trying to account for man and for the
3
�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
one who thought the things that he thought. And he says that there is-- on the one hand, there is
something in man that is a part of the unnatured nature, a part of the Godhead, the part of that
which is beyond all values, all good and evil, right, wrong-- that is, that which is beyond all
forms of judgment and all dimensions of conception, that which is deeper than thought, deeper
than feeling, that which is inarticulate.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
This is at the very center of man. This is man's-- this is the core of man's soul. And it is not an
aspect of the Godhead. It is not a manifestation of the Godhead. It is not an emanation. But it is
the Godhead itself in man and the process by which man becomes conscious and by which he
begins to develop in terms of the creative, the process by which man can hold in his mind
thoughts and ideas and watch as a dreamer in his sleep watches the dawning of day, watch ideas
take flesh and become expression of that which, at one time, was mirrored in the mind.
And we've all seen it happen, haven't we, an idea that you have? And you brood over it. You turn
it over and this way and that way. And finally, you are able to reduce the idea to a form that will
give it manifestation. And then, once the idea is, for instance, in time and space, the idea begins
to take on a character and a life and a history and a development of its own. But it is but an
expression of something that was in you that was not developed, but something that existed
whole, total, complete.
Now, how practical is this? What does this mean? The closest that I can come to an expression of
it is that when you love somebody, you see that person whole. This is why it is so difficult to find
a way to recognize the faults in someone you love.
You see them totally. You see them complete. And in your spirit, you deal with them totally. But
as you begin to express this in terms of your own pattern of details, what you express is always
so much less than what you see and sense. What you are trying to realize in a pattern of behavior
is but a broken manifestation of the thing which you see and sense and regard as whole.
Now, the baring of all of this on our journey is not far to seek-- that if it is true that there is in
every man that which is God, then growing in life means finding ways by which all the things in
your life that keep you from realizing in your own mind and spirit this which is inherent and
indigenous to you must be done away with so that we find in Eckhart a great deal of emphasis
upon getting rid of creatureliness. He says one-- in one place that, if I am able to empty myself of
creatureliness, if I am able to empty myself of the things that create conflict in me, if I'm able to
purify my life by putting out of it those things that block my visions, then automatically, he says,
the God in me gets on the move. And when it begins to move, it fills all the spaces that had been
occupied by my wedding to things, occupied by my anxieties, occupied by my acquisitiveness,
occupied by all of the things that keep me from being, in the language of the master, true to my
truest self.
And the same thing applies as he moves out into the world. He says, always, behind whatever
manifestation of the external world that I encounter, I must see that the Godhead, and let us not
be upset by his language-- the Godhead is trying to break through to the Godhead that is in me.
When, then, I, through quiet, through discipline and his great word through contemplation-when I am able, through focusing my life, to create in the upper regions of my being a vacuum
4
�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
that pulls the Godhead up through me so that it begins to manifest itself in all aspects of my life,
he summarizes by saying, what I sense in contemplation, I must express in love.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
Always, then, he comes back to the same simple, but profound insight. Every man, be he rich or
poor, be he sane or insane, be he sick or well, be he wise or stupid, every man has the same
essential increment in him. And when I deal with a man, I am really dealing with this spark-- this
think line, as he calls it. And I am never, then, at liberty to deal with him on the basis of any
particular manifestation of his life.
But always, I must recognize that even in his goodness and in his badness and the things about
him that I despise or the things that I admire, always, that which is pushing from deep within
him, trying to move out so as to join with all of the other expressions of this in all creation, this is
the thing that I must honor in him and in me. And I must not sit in judgment then upon any
particular expression of my life and say, this is I. But always, I must do a double take behind all
of the expressions.
There is something that is trying to be born in me. And all of life, perhaps, is summarized in
trying to find ways by which this can be born in me, can break through, to use the contemporary
term-- break through and become radiant in all of the expressions of my life. And to deny this is
to deny all meaning not merely in me, but in those above me, and not merely in those above me,
but in the great world outside.
Speak to Him, thou, for he heareth. And spirit with spirit may meet. Closer is He than breathing,
nearer than hands and feet. It is a wonderful thing to me to know that God is not at the mercy of
the institution, not at the mercy of the book, not at the mercy of the sacrament. But He is as close
as is the breath I take.
What a boon this must have meant to those people back in the 14th century, dying like flies from
the Black Death, the church in a great battle, having no time from its struggle to administer to the
private, personal desperations of the little man. What a boon it must have been to them to feel
that the hunger in their heart could be answered in their heart, for the hunger for God perhaps can
never be separated from God, for it may be that God is the hunger. God is the hunger.
Leave us not either to the thoughts that we think or the things that we feel. But teach us how we
may trust thy spirit within us, O thou who lighteth every man that cometh into the world, our
Father.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[CHOIR SINGING]
5
�
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/394-649_A.html" ></iframe>
Location
The location of the interview, speech, lecture, or sermon
Marsh Chapel, Boston University, Boston, Massachussetts
Time Period
The decade in which the recording was produced.
1960s
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
394-649_A
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Thurman, Howard
Title
A name given to the resource
Meister Eckhart (3); The Inner Light (4), 1961 Oct 15, 22
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>
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))
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1961-10-15
Description
An account of the resource
This sermon is the third of nine in a series of sermons given in Marsh Chapel that are titled "The Inward Journey." In this sermon, Thurman reflects upon Meister Eckhart's description of the Godhead. In his dissection of Eckhart's Godhead, Thurman wrestles with the tension between the external Godhead that exists in the world, and the internal Godhead that wrestles within the self, noting "The Godhead is trying to break through to the Godhead that is within me." Considering this sermon series' emphasis on mysticism and discovering the spirituality that is innate within human existence, Thurman uses the Godhead concept as a means to describe the indescribable nature of God, and God's relationship to the human experience.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Description by Dustin Mailman
Autumn
Black Death
conflict
contemplation
creatureliness
Dominican
ecology
existentialism
geese
Germany
Godhead
grace
Haveford College
heart
Hegel
holiness
in-breaking
Incarnation
language
longing
love
manifestations of life
Matthew Arnold
Meister Eckhart
mysticism
panentheism
patterns
prayer
purification
Quakers
Rufus Jones
self-consciousness
Socrates
unknowingness
wholeness
-
http://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pittsthurman/original/0464de755245ab3c57ea64d9fbe2ae30.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAI4CD764Y635IGLNA&Expires=1711615800&Signature=v%2BOjxWKn5lhv34mrvQRiDBmqA%2BM%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/24bec75f5215fc2f606221a1b16d2783.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAI4CD764Y635IGLNA&Expires=1711615800&Signature=OL1PlfuwdLSoYVkhaeV0YeSqGLE%3D
7a2c622b53d46a7b7dfa034679cfb5a0
PDF Text
Text
Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
394-171_B.mp3
[BELL TOLLING]
[ORCHESTRAL MUSIC]
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, oh Lord,
my strength and my Redeemer. There is a spirit about which I spoke last week and concerning
which I shall be speaking from time to time. One sonnet that belongs with this idea today.
"My Lord, Thou art in every breath I take. And every bite and sup taste firm of Thee. With
buoyant mercy, Thou enfold'st me and hold'st up my foot each step I make. Thy touch is all
around me when I wake. Thy sound I hear. And by Thy light, I see the world is fresh with Thy
divinity. And all Thy creatures flourish for Thy sake.
For I have looked upon a little child and seen forgiveness and have seen the day with eastern fire
cleanse the foul light away. So cleanse'st Thou this house I have defiled. And if I should be
merciful, I know it is Thy mercy, Lord, in overflow."
There is an element of gratuitousness always in the mood of Thanksgiving, the mood of
appreciation. And that gratuitous element, as I think of it, has this important fact working for it
all the time. And that is that when I am thoughtful about life, when I reflect upon my experiences
of living, always there is an element present that I do not deserve, an element that is there
because I am standing at this particular moment in time.
And I inherit, by the very fact of my existence, a whole bounteous flow of things that arose at
another time in human history, at another period in the past. And these things become available
to me in the present merely by the fact that I am living in the present, so that the first element of
gratuitousness is there because I am existing now rather than having existed 10 years from now.
And then there is always an element of grace that has to do with the present, that somebody,
somewhere-- somebody who is my contemporary, someone whose name I may know or whose
name I may not know-- because of what he does or what she does, or because of what she may
be doing this afternoon or tonight or tomorrow, I am the recipient. The overflow from the act that
this person performs somehow manages to be caught up in that which I am using.
And I think that this is one of the reasons why it is so important in one's own personal struggles
with ideas or with convictions-- it is important to lay hold on the insight not to give up, to persist
in working away, even against all odds.
Because if you do this, if you wrestle with your problem and your issue until at last light comes
or solution may be found, when the light comes, or when the solution breaks into your mind,
there is so much more insight than you can manage that it spills out and it moves in all
directions. And wherever anyone who may be passing has an empty vessel, a bit of the insight
which came because you struggled will be available to him.
1
�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
So I ask you, as we approach Thanksgiving Day, what is the nature of your own gratitude? And
how many times have you said, with quietness in your own heart, "Thank you, life, for all of the
graces that have come to me," or "Thank you, God, because Thou has not dealt with me after my
sin, nor according to my iniquity"?
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
[ORCHESTRAL 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.
2
�
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/394-171_B.html" ></iframe>
Original Title
Title as transcribed from tape cassette
Thankful for What?, 1964 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
394-171_B
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Thurman, Howard
Title
A name given to the resource
Thankful for What? (1964-11-20)
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1964-11-20
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.
Description
An account of the resource
In this recording within the We Believe Series, Thurman reflects upon the Thanksgiving season, asking the question: "What is the nature of your own gratitude?" He calls the listener to discern whether or not they have paused to look at their life in the present moment and identifies the present moment as a gift. When considering the task of understanding the present moment as a gift, mercy and gratitude function as the means to allow oneself to be present in the moment. Thurman claims that our mercy and gratitude is also God's mercy and gratitude, thus accepting the gift that is the present moment is to accept the gift of God's sovereign providence.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Description by Dustin Mailman
breath
God residue
grace
graciousness
gratitude
holidays
nature
panentheism
thanksgiving
vessel