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Pitts Theology Library
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394-794.mp3
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
This is tape number ET-54 from the library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust. Two
Meditations by Howard Thurman. This is side 1, entitled "Boundaries of the Self."
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]
I'm Dean Thurman, Dean of Marsh Chapel, Boston University.
James Lane Allen's "The Choir Invisible" has a paragraph which reads as follows.
"There are people in the world-- some of us may have discovered them in the sweep of our
experience-- to whom the joy and the sorrow come alike with quietness. For them there is neither
the cry of sudden delight, nor the cry of sudden anguish. Gazing deep into their eyes, we are
reminded of the light of dim churches. Hearing their voices, we dream of some minstrel whose
murmurs reach us imperfectly through his fortress wall.
Beholding the sweetness of their faces, we are touched as by the appeal of mute flowers. Merely
meeting them in the street, we recall the long vanished image of the divine goodness. For many
of us, there is such a preoccupation with ourselves, our problems, our dreams, our hopes, that
there is little or no margin available for the awareness of those whom we encounter in the way.
For such any demand that pulls away from the central self-regard is a personal assault or an
impertinent invasion."
Many years ago, I sought to interest a mother and working with a committee of women who
were helping to pilot unfortunate girls into safe havens of rehabilitation and redemption. She
heard me all the way to the end, then she said, "It takes all of my time to be a good mother to my
own children. And if every mother did the same thing there would be no such girls. I'm sorry but
that is my answer."
We are surrounded by people, some of whom we know only casually. Others we know quite
intimately, but we are not aware of them except at the points of their relevancy to our purposes
and our friends. The cultivation of the spirit of discernment as we share in the common life about
us is to rekindle in ourselves the image of the divine goodness. It is to become alive to those
about us. It is not only to know when and how to give the crucial lift to another, but it is also to
gather into ourselves that which is necessary to our own peace. This is a goal worthy of us all.
It is a very insistent aspect of our common experience to be so concerned, so bothered as it were,
about ourselves, our problems, our needs, our own lives, our responsibilities, our interests, that
we can very easily become unmindful of the fact that we are a part of the whole human family.
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That we ourselves have certain acknowledged and unacknowledged responsibilities, not only to
life, but to those who walk the way with us.
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I remember some years ago visiting with a friend who showed me a series of pictures which he
had taken on a trip around the world. For instance, he said, "Here am I, standing in front of the
Sphinx." Or, "Here am I, in front of the Parthenon." Or, "Here am I, in front of St. Peter's."
Always, these tremendous monuments of art, these expressions of the magic of man's genius and
imagination, served merely as backgrounds for his own egocentric interests, his own egocentric
concerns.
This idea of being preoccupied with one's self and one's needs can very easily be a full time
preoccupation. For it is true that one's needs are always pressing. One's responsibilities seem
always to be on the increase, that there is always something that needs to be done that involves
the full-orbed exercise of the self-regarding impulse. But this is not all of life. There is around us
all kinds of magic that is available to us if we are sensitive to it.
Some years ago, I was doing a series of addresses on a certain state college campus. And every
day at the chapel time, a crippled man came in and sat on the front seats at the end of about four
days, the end of my series. He came up on the platform and he said to me, "When are you
leaving, Mr. Thurman?"
I said, "I'm leaving tonight."
He said, "Well, will you come by my cottage before you go? Because I have something I want to
give to you. You've been very kind to me during these days."
Meanwhile, I asked some of the fellows about the man, and no one of them even knew his name.
They called him Crip. And he ran a little cobbler shop on the edge of the campus and earned his
living by half-soling shoes and repairing heels for the college fellows.
So that night when I rapped at his door, he told me to come in. And he was standing, supporting
himself by the back of a chair. His crutches were down on the floor. And he pointed me to a seat.
And then he said, "Mr. Thurman, do you like Shakespeare?"
And I said, "Oh, yes I do."
"What is your favorite play?"
I said, "Hamlet." And you know what he did? He read to me from memory the whole first act of
Hamlet. And then at my dictation he went through tragedy after tragedy of Shakespeare's,
reading with feeling and interpretation, and all from memory. He had garnered all of this through
the years.
Now he was just an elderly crippled man swinging his way through life suspended on two huge
crutches. And as far as these students were concerned, he was just that and nothing more.
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But instead of just being this, he was literally full of magic. And we are reminded of those
striking lines of outward noise. "There is magic all around us, in the rocks, in the trees, in the
minds of men. Deep, hidden springs of magic. And he who strikes the rock aright may find them
where he will."
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Not this suggests, you see, that it doesn't matter how commonplace, how drab, how ordinary is
one's own life. Or how monumental may seem to be the demands that close in upon one, so that
it seems as if it is necessary to give all of one's powers to one's own interest. If one can push the
boundaries beyond one's self, then one will discover all the magic from all of these other manysided exposures and expressions of life that will feed one's own concerns and give to one a sense
of strength and creativity and ability in dealing with one's own problem.
"There is magic all around us, in the rocks, in the trees, and in the minds of men. Deep, hidden
springs of magic. And he who strikes the rock aright may find them where he will."
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Let the words out of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, oh
Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
This is tape number ET-54 from the library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust. This is
side 2, entitled "Confidence in God."
[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]
This is the final service that I shall be taking for the rest of the summer. But in the fall, I shall
return and begin the series over again.
During the summer months, there are three guests who will be carrying the program as associates
of Marsh Chapel of Boston University. Dr. Lavely, Professor of Philosophy, and the
congregational minister Dr. Edwin Prince Booth, who is a Professor of Historical Christianity
and School of Theology at Boston University. And Dr. Sam Headrick, who is a Professor of
Practical Theology in the Graduate School of Theology at Boston University. These three
gentlemen will take the full responsibility for the Friday broadcasts until early in September.
I wish to say also my simple appreciation to all of you who have been kind enough to write
letters and postal cards, and to make telephone calls expressing your appreciation for the services
which began last November.
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One of the most searching statements in the Old Testament was written many years ago by the
prophet Jeremiah. And this is the statement.
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"A curse on him who relies on man, who depends upon mere human aid. For he is like some
desert scrub that never thrives, set in a salt solitary place in the steppes. But happy is he who
relies on God, who has God for his confidence. For he is like a tree planted beside a stream,
sending his roots down to the water. He has no fear of scorching heat. His leaves are always
green. He goes on bearing fruit when all around him is barren. And he looks out on life with
quiet eyes."
It is a very sobering thought, when we reflect upon it, that things seem to be more permanent
than people. Long after I am no longer living, the possibilities are that my watch will be carrying
on. It will be used. It will remain.
There is something about the tangibleness of things which seems to indicate that there is a
quality of permanence in them, that there is a substantial element that transcends all of the moods
and the passing aspects of life. I think this is a reason why we tend, again and again, to try to
identify ourselves with things, try to put our imprimatur or our face or our stamp on things.
Because we sense this quality which seems to be very real, very authentic, very true.
Sometimes we say to ourselves, if we can find a memorial that will remain after we are no longer
living, this then would be a constant, tangible, practical for-instance of all that our life meant and
all that we were trying to accomplish or say in the living of our days.
thought, however, reveals that there is an element in our lives that is not contingent upon things.
There is a dimension of us which cannot ever be satisfied by anything that is material, anything
that has to do with the demands of our lives as creatures. There are hungers of the heart and the
mind and the spirit that cannot ever be satisfied by things, of whatever importance these things
may be. Perhaps you had relationships with other human beings in which the thing that you most
wanted from them was understanding and sympathy, a kind of warmth of heart that could
reaffirm your spirit and give a dimension of meaning to your inner life and to your whole, to the
total structure of your purposes. And what you received was gifts of one kind or another, tangible
things, things that were useful in their place, that were very important, that were valuable in
terms of money. But things that were irrelevant, really, in terms of what you were seeking most
deeply and what you felt that you needed most deeply.
I think this is what the prophet has in mind when he says that a man is not blessed who places
confidence in man, in the sense that confidence and the things that man is able to give, or
confidence in the more tangible expressions of life.
Now this is not to suggest that life is not practical and that it is not down to Earth. But it is to say
that there must be a full-orbed recognition of the practical demands of life, the practical and
tangible needs that men have.
But the bias, the accent, the emphasis of a man's life must not be placed upon these things that,
after all, cannot address themselves to the deepest needs of the spirit, of the deepest needs of the
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Pitts Theology Library
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mind. Therefore he suggests that if a man places his confidence in God, in that which transcends
all of the passing aspects of life, that which transcends even the vicissitudes of life. That which
is, in a sense, involved in the struggle of life, but also is beyond the struggle. A man must have
something to which he can refer that will give a meaning to his life and a validation to his
aspirations and his hopes in a manner that transcends whatever may be the particular moment in
which he is living.
And this, after all, is what we are seeking. And the prophet says that this is what God gives to
human life.
I remember many years ago reading in an old copy of the "National Geographic" magazine an
article about the Sahara Desert. Here, the article described how once upon a time many, many,
many years ago, what is now the Sahara Desert was a great, dank, damp, fertile jungle growth
with huge primeval trees growing there. Some of these trees, said the article, sent their roots so
far down into the bowels of the Earth that they made primary contact with the underground rivers
flowing there, rivers in which there were large concentrates of minerals and all of the other
things needful for the sustaining of the tree. So that when the weather changed, when the whole
climate picture shifted, and the vegetation began to dry up and disintegrate, and finally the only
thing that was left was a desert waste, parched sands, here and there a vestigial reminder of the
far-off time in the past when the desert were different, as expressed in oases.
But something else remained. Here and there may be found giant trees standing out in the desert
surrounded by no oasis. These trees have their roots so far down into the heart of the earth that
their roots are in primary contact with the underground rivers sustaining and keeping them. So
that despite the temperature by which they are surrounded, despite all of the external conditions
of climate and what have you, the leaves remain green.
Now this is the thing. It seems to me that the individual has to find for himself. Send his roots
down so deep into the heart of life that he makes primary contact with that which sustains and
gives ultimate meaning to life.
Thus the prophet says, a curse on a man who depends upon things, upon man, who relies upon
mere human aid. For he is like some desert scrub that never thrives, set and a salt solitary place
in the steppes. But happy is he who relies on God, who has God for his confidence. For he is like
a tree planted beside a stream, sending his roots down to the water. His leaves are always green.
He goes on bearing fruit when all around him is barren. And in the midst of all vicissitudes of
life, he looks out upon life with quiet eyes. This is my wish for you as well as for me.
[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]
5
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Dublin Core
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Title
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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" />
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Descriptions by Dustin Mailman
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Audio with Transcription
<iframe width="100%" height="820" frameborder="0" src="/files/players/394-794.html" ></iframe>
Original Title
Title as transcribed from tape cassette
Boundaries of the Self; Confidence in God (ET-54; GC 12-3-71), 1971 Dec 3
Time Period
The decade in which the recording was produced.
1960s
1950s
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
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394-794
Creator
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Thurman, Howard
Title
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Boundaries of the Self (1961-11-24); Confidence in God (1958-06-13)
Source
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<a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a>
Format
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audio
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<a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a>
Date
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1961-11-24
1958-06-13
Description
An account of the resource
In this recording within the We Believe series; Howard Thurman reads from James Cane Allen's "The Choir Invisible," in order to reflect upon the ways in which one can come to understand community. He notes that in one's own quest for identity, that relationships can become utilitarian, only being aware of community "at points of relevancy to our purposes." What Thurman is insisting in this recording, is that when one pushes past the superficial boundaries of separateness, that one can find the "deep, hidden springs of magic" which informs one's understanding of the divine.
In this recording within the We Believe series: Howard Thurman reflects upon a passage from the prophet Jeremiah. From the reading, Thurman ponders what it means to have complete confidence in God. He notes that there are longings of the heart that are much deeper than any desire for material possessions. For Thurman, it is in the places of "the deepest needs of the spirit," that one discovers what it can mean for one to understand these needs of the spirit.
Contributor
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Dustin Mailman
community
curse
ecology
ego
existentialism
experience
heart
interconnectivity
James Cane Allen
Jeremiah
magic
materiality
National Geographic
oasis
parthenon
permanence
redemption
responsibility
Sahara Desert
sphinx
temporality
The Choir Invisible
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Pitts Theology Library
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394-793.mp3
This is tape number ET52 from the library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust. Two
meditations by Howard Thurman-- this is side one, entitled, "Response to Life."
Pitts Theology Library
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Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh, Lord,
my Strength and my Redeemer.
I'm continuing how thinking together on certain aspects of the 139th Psalm. And today, how
precious are thy thoughts unto me oh, god? How precious are thy thoughts? The worth of life
abounds in all I see. The kernel of the seed holds in its place a swinging door, through which the
boundless energy of living substance flows, forming itself in root and stalk, in branch and fruit.
The germ in the egg awaits the fulfilling moment. A gentle tug, a brooding urge, and unhurried
push to full creation-- then living form of chick or bird or child. A whisper in the mind like a
voice floating in the hills calls to itself kindred thoughts from far off places. Ideas take shape and
form, forming within their vital wall their strange insistence. They pull, they push, they drive,
command until, at last, they are the master in the house and the whole course of a man's life is
channeled into regions he does not know, nor scarcely understand.
How precious are thy thoughts unto me, oh, God? The response to goodness, the urge to
minister, the quickened willingness to bless, the deep rejection of the evil deed revealed, the pull
of the clear thought and the honest desire, an all-embracing tenderness cradling the kindly act,
the far flung hope comprising myriad strands of all man's dreaming, the hard rebuff to all that
mocks and scorns, the whole surrender of the center of consent to lose life only to find it again.
How precious are thy thoughts unto me, oh, God? How great is the sum of them?
To be able to think is a miracle. Ideas, invisible things, take their shape in many ways, and many
ages, many climbs, and then they land in your mind. And, in your mind, they began to work,
grow, develop, until at last, they spill out in acts and deeds. Ideas are very strange things.
They come from afar. They are born within. They take possession of the mind and order the
body to behave in certain ways. Now, when an idea comes into the mind, it orders all things to be
its servant-- if it be a central idea. If it be what is called a hard idea. And, very often, we get these
ideas that influence the life in ways that are not deliberate.
You may remember in "Faust" when Foust is about to drink the poison potion because he feels
that he has exhausted all learning. As he lifts the goblet to his lips, he hears through an open
window the songs coming from a chapel hard by. These songs-- or this song, this music is like
the music which crept into his mind and spirit when he was a child.
He was scarcely aware of the fact that he was exposed to this early music, that it had embedded
itself in his mind and spirit, but here it was. And, as soon as he hears the voices singing, a whole
flood of memories of earlier experiences-- everything in his past that was related in quality and
tone to the insight and the impact of this early music upon him is now activated. And these
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things stand over against that which is working in his mind causing him to commit suicide. And
he drops the goblet and goes on with his life.
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How precious, also, are thy thoughts unto me oh, God? What kind of thoughts, what kinds of
images are you storing up in your mind? What kind of idea bank do you have? Are they ideas
which have to do with the things in life that have irritated you, that have made life difficult-- all
the negative experiences that you have had with other human beings-- have you kept a carefully
accumulated body of this kind of data so that the things which you store up through the years are
all the things that you dislike as you have lived your life?
If that is the case, then, it is these things that you have stored up in terms of ideas and images and
pictures as you have lived through the years. It is these things that create the inner climate of
your life. It is these things that provide the atmosphere through which you look out upon the
world. And, if this is the case, then the kind of structuring, ordering of your response to life in
general is determined by the quality of these kinds of things which you have accumulated and
held fast at the central place in your mind. And this means, you see, that what you think, then, of
people-- what you think of situations which you contemplate is not just the result of the
particular idea on your mind or the situation on your mind, but it is the quality of all of the
atmosphere that has been generated through years of the accumulation of a certain kind of
thoughts, a certain body of ideas.
Now, if you have made a habit of gathering unto yourself things upon which you may feed with
meaning and significance-- great ideas, great and breathless moments of beauty that have been
visited upon the human scene through the gifted minds and tongues and pens of poets and
dreamers and prophets-- if these are the things upon which you feed, then a climate of that kind
is is generated and it is through this kind of climate that you look out upon the world.
This is one of the great reasons why, whether a person believes in a daily life of devotion,
whether you are a person who believes in prayer as a form of religious experience and expression
or not-- if you want to live a full and healthy life so that your outlook will be fresh and full of the
distilled wisdom of all the ages, each day of your life you will set aside some moment, some time
when you will expose yourself to some of the great images, the great pictures, the great thoughts
that have blessed the minds of other men.
I will fly in the greatness of God as the Martian flies, filling all the space twixt the marsh and the
skies. By so many roots as the marsh grass sends in the sod, behold, I will lay me a hold on the
greatness of God. Some such idea as that, and there are many others. Gather unto yourselves
those ideas that inspire, that breathe wisdom and tenderness and kindness and love. And these,
then, will create in you a climate and an atmosphere through which you will look out upon the
world and interpret the things that come into your life from day to day. How precious are thy
thoughts unto me, oh, God?
Let the words out of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh,
Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.
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This is tape number ET52 from the library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust. This is
side two entitled, "Responsibility for Action."
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh, Lord,
my Strength and my Redeemer.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
In the morning's mail, I received a Gaelic blessing, which I will share with you before I begin the
regular part of the program. May the roads rise with you and the wind be always at your back.
And may the Lord hold you in the hollow of his hand. This morning, we come to the end of our
consideration of the 139th Psalm. We are thinking together about the last stanza. Try me and
know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.
Judgment seems far removed from act and deed. Trumpets from the past sound warning notes.
The day of judgment-- prepare to meet that God. Beyond the gates of modern life, ancient myths
couched in dogmas old mold and rot in silent gloom. The end of time-- god on his throne to
judge mankind and the man alone stands before the judgment seat. The sky, a canopy above,
heavenly hosts, angels, archangels in ceaseless flight bathed forever in eternal light blazing forth
from the throne of God-- such is the ancient myth.
No man is free to live unmindful of an impending doom-- or so it seems. There is a timeless
warning in the far off world. The bitter truth returns in many forms. No deed, no act stands by
itself alone. In born and blood and nerve and cell, in all the imagery of mind-- in sound of voice,
in wrinkled brow, standing, sitting, waking, sleeping, laughter or tears-- the imprint of thought,
the registry of deed remain for all man's days.
There is a tight circle in which man moves. Nothing escapes. Soon or late, somewhere some
when, the doer and the deed together sit. The ancient myth renews its truth, and the man stands
alone before the judgment seat. Try me, oh, God, and know my thoughts, and see if there be any
wicked way in me.
The idea that life is a pilgrimage in responsibility is an old idea. The notion that to live is to be
responsible is a notion that is deeply ingrained in man's experience of life. And yet, there is
always the tendency to seek ever devious ways by which one may escape the responsibility for
one's own action.
This is elemental responsibility. This is primary responsibility. And, in a sense, it is absolute
responsibility. I am responsible for my own deeds and, yet, there is something that is so full of
awe about the fact that I am always trying to find ways to circumvent the relentless logic of the
fact. When I was a boy, I had two sisters-- one was older, one was younger. I was fortunately
placed because whenever I was being held accountable for something that I had done, I could
always say that I did it because I came to the rescue of my little sister and it really wasn't my
fault or responsibility, but hers. Or, I could say that I was acting under the influence of my older
sister and, therefore, it was not my responsibility but hers.
Always, there is this tendency to shrink from taking responsibility for one's own actions. But it is
a mark of maturity, a mark of growth to be willing to do what, in the last analysis, one has no
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live option except to do-- namely to take responsibility for one's own actions. Now this is a
psychological thing. It's a nice phrase to use to describe it, but it is also written in the organism,
it is written in the body. The nervous system itself registers the moment by moment encounter of
man with the living texture of his experience.
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For instance, if you became emotionally disturbed and you went to see a psychiatrist or an
analyst, one of the things inherent in the procedures that are used is something which has to do
with taking you back very slowly over the whole history of your life. Every single incident as
nearly as you are able to sense it is reproduced, because somewhere in the story of your life is the
source of the thing which, in the present, is giving you the difficulty or the trouble.
This suggests, you see, that in the unfolding of life, in the growing of individuals, everything
counts. Nothing walks with aimless feet. As Tennyson places upon the lips of Ulysses-- I am a
part of all that I have met, yet all experience is an arch where through gleams that untraveled
world whose margin fades forever and forever when I move. This is a fact of life. And, translated
in terms of religious significance, it says that life is a responsibility, and that the living of life is a
responsible act.
It is a small wonder, then, that a man like Conrad says it was always a serious thing to live and to
live life seriously-- to live it responsibly. And this is radically different from taking life seriously.
Taking life seriously may result in brooding and all kinds of internal congestions and disorder.
But to live life seriously is to be involved at each critical step in the responsibility for what that
step initiated in you or what that step set going in the world.
Now, there is still another dimension here. Man does not only live his life responsibly. Not only
are we responsible for our own actions, but something that is again and again overlooked, and
that is that man is responsible for his reactions to life. Now this is different, you see-- the first is
a man is responsible for his actions. He must pick up the tab for his action. Or, as the prose poem
suggests, there comes a time when the doer and the deed together sit.
But there is something more-- man is responsible for his reactions to the experiences and to the
events of his life. Now, it is true that again and again, a man may encounter experiences which
are not responsive to his will-- however good that will may be. We are always surrounded by
forces that seem to be impersonal in character-- forces that mold us and shape us but are not
responsive to our will. Forces that do not seem to be quite sensitive enough or capable enough of
taking this into account.
But, nevertheless, they involve us, they make their impact upon us, and we are responsible for
our reactions to the events of our lives. I cannot determine what will befall me. I am a creature of
life, I am a creature of my time, I'm a creature of my period. I am involved in processes that do
not arise within me and are not responsible to me. But, nevertheless, there is a measure of
autonomy that I have-- a margin of integrity. And that is what I shall do with the events of my
life-- how I shall react to the raw materials of my experience.
4
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Transcription
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And, as I react to them, this reaction goes into the making of my life. Search me, oh, God, says
the Psalmist, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked
way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.
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Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh, Lord,
my Rock and my Redeemer.
5
�
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We Believe (Television Series, 1958-1965)
Description
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<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" />
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Descriptions by Dustin Mailman
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<iframe width="100%" height="820" frameborder="0" src="/files/players/394-793.html" ></iframe>
Original Title
Title as transcribed from tape cassette
Response to Life; Responsibility for Action (ET-52; GC 12-2-71), 1971 Dec 2
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
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394-793
Creator
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Thurman, Howard
Title
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"How Precious Are Thy Thoughts..." (1961-01-13); Try Me and Know My Thoughts (1961-03-17)
Source
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<a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a>
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audio
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<a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a>
Date
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1961-01-13
1961-03-17
Description
An account of the resource
In this recording within the We Believe series; Howard Thurman reflects upon the line "How precious are thy thoughts, O God," found within Psalm 139. Thurman uses this verse in order to poetically wax the miracle that is having a mind. In this recording, Thurman suggests that because the mind orders the body, that it is significant to discern what the mind of God consists of. It is in the discerning of God's mind that one finds the content of devotional posturing: wisdom, tenderness, and love.
In this recording within the We Believe series; Howard Thurman reads from a Gaelic Blessing, and the concluding stanza in Psalm 139, attempting to make sense of the content of a faithful human existence. He uses these reflections in order to emphasize his understanding of the interrelatedness of life, and the ways in which action and reaction are essential to both human flourishing and human suffering. Here, Thurman places great emphasis on responsibility, indicating that to live a life is to participate in a responsible act.
Contributor
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Dustin Mailman
action
birth
Conrad
ecology
egg
experience
fact of life
Faust
freedom
germ
imagination
interconnectivity
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
judgement
memory
mind
myth
new life
Psalm 139
psychiatrist
reaction
responsibility
salvation
Tennyson
Ulysses
wind
-
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f993f6056fdd6900d3cee1d705dd9b95
PDF Text
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Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
394-784.mp3
This is tape number ET37 from the library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust. Two
meditations by Howard Thurman-- this is side one, entitled, "The Meaning of Love."
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.
May I remind you that if you are interested in receiving transcriptions of my talks, you may get
them by addressing me either here at the channel five or at Marsh Chapel, Boston University. I'm
continuing our thinking together about the meaning of love. And today, I want to read a few
verses from Moffitt's translation of the 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians.
Love is very patient, very kind. Love knows no jealousy. Love makes no parade, gives itself no
airs, is never rude, never selfish, never irritated, never resentful. Love is never glad when others
go wrong. Love is gladdened by goodness-- always slow to expose, always eager to believe the
best, always hopeful, always patient.
The working definition that we are using is this-- that love is the experience of being dealt with
at a point in one's self that is beyond all the good and beyond all the evil. To love is to deal with
another person at a point in him that is beyond all the good and beyond all the evil.
There is something in the experience which has with it always a note of security-- of emotional
security. And security in its simplest terms means the experience of having one's needs satisfied.
And whoever is able to satisfy one's needs-- simple needs or complex needs-- the response,
because of this sense of satisfaction, is in terms of not only dependence, but in terms of trust, in
terms of confidence, in terms of affection, in terms of love.
It is for this reason that religion insists that God loves man and that it is man's experience of the
love of God which, in the first instance, enables him to be able to love anyone. I wonder if you
take for granted the fact that so many of your own basic needs are satisfied by life. And, if you
take this for granted, then your attitude towards life may not be one of responsibility,
responsiveness, of reverence, of gratitude. It may be an attitude that is simply callous.
You may decide, for instance, that you reap the fresh air that you breathe and the cool water that
you drink and all of the other simple creature ways by which your needs are satisfied. But, if you
reflect upon your total experience of life in this regard, then your attitude towards life will be one
of reverence and towards the creator of life, one of trust and confidence.
Now, with this background, let us deal more specifically with the question before us. Love
means in simple experiential terms the ability to let one's life be filled with many simple deeds of
gratuitous extras, gratuitous kindnesses as manifested towards people by whom you are
surrounded.
When I was a boy, I could hardly wait for Thanksgiving, because Thanksgiving meant that
Christmas was in the offing. And, from Thanksgiving until Christmas Eve midnight, I was a
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Transcription
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Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
model boy. I would respond almost instinctively to my mother's needs during that whole period.
For instance, she did not ever see the bottom of the wood box because I kept it full of wood all
the time. I had a sense of what was vital for her, I can anticipate her needs. All of this because I
knew that Thanksgiving meant that Christmas was around the corner and when Christmas came,
that I would be rewarded for all of these simple gratuitous extras by which I had filled my
relationship with my mother.
Now, this mood that I manifested during that time is an indication-- it's a sampling of what
happens all the time in your relationships with people for whom you have this kind of love and
affection. You can sense their needs. You can anticipate their needs. And, at the heart of this
anticipation, at the heart of this awareness, there is a kind of clear-cut and definitive
understanding so that your response to the need is an intelligent response, as contrasted merely
with the sentimental or emotional response.
At the center of the dynamics of the feeling, there must be an understanding mind. If I were to
put it in a rather caustic phrase, it would be something like this-- that, in love, the mind must be
as hard as ice, the heart as warm as a kitchen stove. This is what I mean. Now, there is a second
dimension here.
There is the tendency to feel ownership towards the person that you love and to demand that you
will be loved in kind and in quality as the proof that your love has been received. We want to be
loved back. Now, this is perfectly normal, very natural, but it is my thought that the necessity to
be loved back in exchange for, or in return for loving, is an extraneous and irrelevant necessity, if
I may put it that way.
Love does not-- at its best, love does not demand that love be given back to one in return. This is
illustrated in a rather melodramatic story written many years ago by Olive Schreiner. She calls it
the story of Tausa. Tausa was a little dog. He sat with his tail in a puddle of mud. It wasn't
raining except out of his eyes, for he was very sad.
Presently, a fine looking aristocratic mastiff who lived next door came out of his yard and passed
Tausa's house and he saw Tausa weeping and he stopped-- Tausa was a little terrier. He said to
Tausa-- what's the trouble with you, little fellow? Do other dogs bite you? No, I manage to take
care of myself pretty well.
Do you get enough to eat? Yes, I have bones and occasionally there's meat on them. Do you have
a place to sleep? Yes, I have a box with some rags in it. Well, what's the trouble with you? Tausa
said-- I want to love people and I want to feel that people love me. And the mastiff said, love,
what is that? Have you ever seen it? No, said Tausa. Have you ever smelled it? No, said Tausa.
Have you ever tasted it? No, I haven't ever tasted it. Well, what good is it anyway?
And thus applying the pragmatic test to that kind of reality, the mastiff went on down the street.
Tausa got up, shook the water off his tail and the water out of his eyes and went in the opposite
direction. Presently, he saw a ragged newsboy coming-- a newsboy who had a very sad face.
And he went running up to the newsboy literally in a ball of excitement. He didn't know whether
to lick the boy's hands first or his feet. He just wanted him so.
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And the boy called him-- doggy, doggy. And when Tausa came very close to him, he kicked him
in the nose. But the lonely boy laughed. There was a singing in Tausa's ear now as he went down
the other side of the street. He wasn't so sure about how he felt. He came to the outskirts of the
village and there, he saw a cottage. The gate was open. He went through the gate, up the steps, at
the door, he looked in, he saw an invalid stretched out on a bed.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
He made a noise at the door, which being interpreted was, if you ask me, I'll come in. So the
invalid asked him in, and Tausa found that she was a very lonely person. She had had a dog once
upon a time, but he'd gone away somewhere. Tausa tried to amuse her during the daytime by
catching his tail with his teeth so as to take her mind off of suffering. And then in the nighttime
when he would hear her cough, he would get up from his pad and walk over by her bed and rub
his head against her hands and lick her fingers to let her know that even though it were
nighttime, he knew that she was suffering and he cared.
And then one day, the dog that belonged home came back. And Tausa heard the invalid say, I
don't want to give Tausa away, but what shall I do with him? Tausa didn't want to be given away,
so he went out in the backyard and disappeared. But, as he went along, he had the feeling that the
invalid for the first time in her life had had an experience with someone to whom her invalidism
was not a burden.
Tausa saw a boy just ahead of him-- a boy with a large piece of meat under his arm. And a man
jumped from behind a tree, accosted the boy, threw him to the ground, and was trying to take the
meat from the boy. And Tausa barked at him furiously and, presently, the man got up and ran
away because he thought somebody was coming. The boy looked at Tausa's face peppered with
rage and he said, do you try to do that to me after all that your master has done to me?
So, he attacked Tausa. Tausa was thrown into the bushes. The last time I saw him, says the story,
he was stretched out in the road, now, what does this mean? That love at its best does not
demand requitement. It gives, and in its giving, it finds its strength and its security and its ability
to give more and more and more. This is our privilege and this is our opportunity.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh, Lord,
my Rock and my Redeemer.
This is tape number ET37 from the library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust. This is
side two, entitled, "A Sense of What is Vital."
Let the words out of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh,
Lord, my Strength and my Redeemer.
It is a pleasure to announce to you that beginning next Friday and for the two succeeding
Fridays, our guest on this program will be Dr. Edwin P. Booth of the graduate school of theology
of Boston University. Today, I am thinking with you about a phrase taken from the letters of the
apostle Paul. The phrase is this-- a sense of what is vital.
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Transcription
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It suggests the necessity which we all feel, for the honoring of overtones, of meaning, and
understanding, and wisdom which may not be a part of the ordinary garden variety insight. We
note this, particularly, on the personal level. For instance, when you consider the difference
between a kind act and merely an act of graciousness, there is an element that is unmeditated, an
element that is unreflective, and an element that is spontaneous and creative about kindness.
Pitts Theology Library
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It is for this reason that men do not ever quite manage to deserve the kind act. It is true that there
are many men who deserve honor, because of the nature of the contribution which they have
made to their generation or to other generations. All men according to the most creative kind of
ethic deserve respect as human beings-- or, in the language of religion, as children of God.
There are men who deserve varying degrees of recognition because of the way by which they
have identified themselves with a particular movement in time and space or in human history.
But no one ever quite deserves the kind act. There is an element of gratuity, of something extra
in the kind act. Have you been on the receiving end of a kind act? And, because of this kind act,
you have tried to repay the person for the kind act, only to discover that it cannot quite be done?
You can't quite balance it out, because what the kind act did for you was something so intimate
and so searching and so utterly without merit that it isn't possible for you to measure it in kind.
This is why the kind act seems somehow always to be identified with what religion recognizes as
the grace of God-- the manifestation of a dimension of life which is our experience even though
we do not quite merit it. The psalmist says he has not dealt with us after our sins nor rewarded us
according to our iniquities.
Wherever there is the element of something extra-- something that goes beyond the balance-something that spills over-- that has no necessity inherent in its operation except the out-flowing
quality of the deed itself. This is the kind act. And this is to have a sense for what is vital.
Very often, this sense of what is vital is manifested in various kinds of human relations. I have a
friend in San Francisco, for instance, who works at a mortuary. He is a sculptor. His professional
job is to sculpt the faces of the corpses so that they may be lifelike and be characteristic of the
person when the person was alive. Whenever he comes home from his day's work and when his
wife greets him and his handkerchief is hanging way out of his pocket, she knows that this is not
his good day. And whatever she has in mind to discuss that requires some measure of emotional
tension or something else, she knows that this is not the time to talk about it.
They agreed on a symbol like this so that the symbol will communicate to the other person what
is vital and what is not vital for that particular time. Whenever he greets her, as she has on a
beautiful, handmade embroidered apron that he brought to her from Czechoslovakia many years
ago, he knows that this is not her day. And whatever he has on his mind that the discussion of
which may involve a certain amount of emotional tension, he knows that this is not the evening
to talk about it.
This symbol suggests to each that whatever is vital in terms of the need of the other person, this
is the time to honor it. Now, there's a third aspect here-- we are all concerned, finally, about
having experiences in which we ourselves have a sense of being understood. So much of that
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Transcription
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which upsets the emotions, so much of that which depresses and casts down in human experience
has to do with a private feeling of not being understood.
Pitts Theology Library
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Haven't you said it to yourself many times-- in this deed, I am not understood. One of the most
dramatic illustrations of it that comes to my mind is something that I read many years ago
written by a national news reporter who had attended the burial services of Dillinger the famous- or infamous-- gangster, as the case may be.
He said that the only person present at the burial moment, other than a minister, was the mother
of Dillinger and this particular newspaper reporter. As the mother turned away from the grave of
her son, she said to herself over and over in the presence of the newscaster-- they didn't
understand my boy. They didn't understand my boy. If they had understood him, he would not be
where he is today.
This is a rather extreme expression of the thing that's on my mind. There is deep within all of us
a great need for understanding, a need for the feeling that, with reference to our lives, with
reference to the things that we do, which, to us, are important-- we are not required to be on the
defensive. To experience the integrity of the act without being under the necessity for being
apologetic for the act-- to feel that not only are my acts interpreted and somehow understood,
but, more importantly, that I am understood.
I remember talking with a little child once who always insisted on getting headaches or footaches
or back aches. And I remarked to her-- I'm sure you're doing this because you think that your
mother and your father do not love you, do not understand you, so that you are trying to attract
attention to yourself by getting a headache or getting a backache or getting a toothache. But why
don't you be smart? I said.
You should know now that when you use this device in order to be sure that you are being cared
for, that the thing that gets the attention is the headache or the backache or the toeache. And,
after all, you do not get the attention. And if you are trying to have a sense of being understood
and being cared for, this is not the way to go at it.
If I knew you and you knew me and each of us could clearly see by the inner light divine the
meaning of your heart and mind, I am sure that we would differ less and clasp our hands in
friendliness if I knew you and you knew me. This need for understanding is so important in
human life that it is the insistence of religion that, in the supreme act of worship in the human
spirit-- when the human spirit is before its god, when it is laid bare before god, that it has a sense
of being totally dealt with and being completely understood so that there is a moment when I can
act with utter freedom and with utter enthusiasm and with utter involvement, because I know that
not only my deed, but that which is deepest in me-- my intent, my purpose, the creative
movement of my desiring-- all of this is gathered up in the understanding of the individual.
A sense of what is vital-- this is one of the great necessities of our spirits.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh, Lord,
my Strength and my Redeemer.
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
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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" />
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Descriptions by Dustin Mailman
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<iframe width="100%" height="820" frameborder="0" src="/files/players/394-784.html" ></iframe>
Original Title
Title as transcribed from tape cassette
The Meaning of Love; A Sense of What is Vital (ET-37; GC 11-26-71), 1971 Nov 26
Time Period
The decade in which the recording was produced.
1950s
Location
The location of the interview, speech, lecture, or sermon
WHDH-TV, Boston, Massachusetts
Dublin Core
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Identifier
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394-784
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Thurman, Howard
Title
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The Meaning of Love (1958-03-07); A Sense of What is Vital (1959-01-30)
Source
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<a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a>
Format
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audio
Publisher
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<a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a>
Date
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1958-03-07
1959-01-30
Description
An account of the resource
In this recording within the We Believe series, Howard Thurman reflects upon a passage from 1 Corinthians to elaborate on his understanding of love. He defines love as "the experience of being dealt with at a point in oneself that is beyond all the good and beyond all the evil. He notes that the love of God functions as the exemplary love to which humanity should strive towards. Thurman's conception of love is not possessive nor transactional, rather, it is interdependent and comes from the heart.
In this recording within the We Believe series, Howard Thurman reflects upon the Apostle Paul's phrase, "a sense of what is vital." Thurman continues by developing his understanding of wisdom, and how wisdom points one towards awareness of vitality. Because you can only know of vitality by means of signs, Thurman suggests that it takes wisdom to discern which symbols actually point towards vitality.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Dustin Mailman
1 Corinthians
A sense of what is vital
affection
community
confidence
Dillinger
discernment
dog
experience
interconnectivity
love
meaning
Moffatt
mortician
mortuary
Olive Schreiner
ownership
Paul
requitment
San Francisco
satisfaction
security
symbolism
trust
understanding
vitality
wisdom
-
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e198bf7a7d3170e1b8e1d96c8b321781
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Text
Pitts Theology Library
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Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
394-783.mp3
This is tape number ET31 from the library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust. Two
meditations by Howard Thurman. This is side 1, entitled Supportive Order Inherent in Life.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
[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]
As a continuation of our time together last week, I want to read, today, from The Inward
Journey. And this has to do with the unity of life. "In all the waking hours, the tentacles of time
give channel to each living thing-- the bird on wing, the mole moving in darkness underground,
the cricket chanting it's evening song, the primeval whale sporting in chilly seas or floating
noiselessly in turbulent waters, in mountain crevice or sprawling meadow, the delicate beauty of
color-stained flower or fragile leaf.
High above the timberline, the sprig of green dares wind and snow. In the barren parchness of
desert waste, the juiceless shrub and water logged cactus. High in the tree top, the green-pearled
fruit of olive mistletoe and the soft gray stillness of creeping moss. The infant, the growing child,
the stumbling adolescent, the young adult, the man full-blown or stooped with years-- the
tentacles of time give channel to each living thing.
And beyond all this, thoughts that move with grace of being, light thoughts that dance and sing
untouched by gloom or shadow or the dark. Weighty thoughts that press upon the road with
tracks that blossom into dreams or shape themselves in plan and scheme.
Thoughts that whisper, thoughts that shout, thoughts that wander without rest, seeking, seeking,
always seeking. Thoughts that challenge, thoughts that soothe. The tentacles of time give channel
to each living thing.
Out from the house of life, all things come. And into it, each returns again for rest. When I
awake, I am still with thee.
There is not only a built-in unity and harmony in the organism-- in yours, in mine. But there is a
unity that is inherent in the particular life. This unity is determined by many factors, some of
which we understand and some we do not understand.
Why does your foot grow and grow and then stop growing? Why does some other part of your
body develop? And then something gives the word. And it stops it. It makes an end of growing.
The thing that's in my mind is that there is, in the individual life, a kind of built in logic and order
that is inherently a part of the individual's life, so that everything in your life counts. It is a part
of the order that is inherent in the living stuff which is your own life.
1
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Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
Now this does not mean as it seems, that I am making some left handed case for a kind of ranting
determinism that suggests that everything that concerns your life or my life is fixed and ordered.
No. I am saying, however, that because of the harmony that is within the movement of the
private life, every thing in that life belongs.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
And if I could understand the totality of a man's life, how he has responded from the day of his
conception to the present, to all of the forces that have played upon his life to which he has
responded, then the story of his life would make sense. For there is, within the life, an order and
a harmony.
And this is the basis upon which so much of the therapy that people are using now at the hands
of the disciplined minds-- the doctors who work with us when we have emotional upsets and
emotional disturbances, or we have some other things going on within us that are unmanageable
and that cause us to do things which are out of character. And how do these men work?
They assume that there is a logic here that somewhere in the development of your life or my life
or the individual's life that is seeking help, something happened. An event took place. And I
responded to that event in a certain way.
And as a result of the impact of this-- upon my life and my response to it, what I am
experiencing now is the order. This is how we study diseases. We say that the cure for a disease
is unknown. But we do not say, ever, that the cure is unknowable.
For the assumption is that there is an order that is inherent in the operation of the disease, that
there is a rational order in the mind. This rational order is always trying to penetrate, to make
contact, to touch, to sense, to become aware of, to understand.
The principle of order that may be at work and the behavior of this body of cells, so that when
the rational principle in the mind makes contact with the order that is in the disease, so that the
mind says that the logic in my mind and the logic here in this disease flow together, and give me
an insight, then men can talk in terms of curing the disease or of reducing it so that it will not,
any longer, threaten life.
What I'm saying is that we are surrounded by an order of which we are part and of which all of
life is a part. And that if there are those experiences in life that break the order, those experiences
that rupture the community, these things are regarded as being against life.
And the purpose of life from this point of view is to develop more and more order, more and
more synthesis, more and more wholeness, more and more creativity. And wherever there is that
which is divisive, wherever there is that which tears asunder, which [? rends ?] this must be
regarded as being against life.
And he who works for order, who works for harmony, who works for a total experience of
integration, life is on his side. And he who works against this, whatever may be the private
grounds for the judgment that monitors the enterprise, this is against life. And if it is against life,
it is against God."
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The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, oh, Lord,
my rock and my Redeemer.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
[MUSIC PLAYING]
The preceding program was pre-recorded.
This is tape number ET31, from the Library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust. This is
side 2, entitled For Love's Sake.
[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]
Today I am reading, as the background for our thinking, a prose poem from the greatest of these.
"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. Thus spoke one whose very life and deeds these words fulfilled.
Contacts with one another abound in a world grown small. Because the mind of man has worked
unceasingly to banish barriers set by nature here and there, everywhere. But where there is no
will to love, to make an act of grace towards fellow man, contacts may degrade. Outrage nip the
tender shoots of simple trust.
Love abides when all else sickens and dies from sheer revulsion and disgust. The fruit it bears
sustains the nerve and makes the life a harbor of repose for the weak and tottering, a heavy
judgment for the cruel and hating, a precious bane for those who seek to know the way of God
among the sons of men.
With it, the deeds of men are measured by man's great destiny. It meets men where they are,
sometimes cruel, sometimes lustful, sometimes greedy, often callous, mean, of low design, and
treats them there as if they were full-grown and crowned with all that God would have them be.
For love's sake, and love's alone, men do with joyous hope and tender joy what no command of
heaven, hell, or life could force of them if love were not. To be God's child, to love with steady
mind and fervent heart, this is the law of love."
The apostle, Paul, in one of his letters, has left a very significant and pointed line which has
bearing on our thought for today. He says, "My prayer to God is that your love may grow more
and more rich in knowledge and in all manner of insight, that you may have a sense for what is
vital, that you may be transparent and of no harm to anyone."
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Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
We are surrounded today by a climate of impersonality, I suppose, is the best way to put it. It is
very difficult for the individual in our society to keep from becoming anonymous in his
relationships and in his estimate of himself, so that any thought about the thickening of human
relations, the tidying of relationships-- so that when men move in the midst of each other, they
will have no sense of jeopardy, no sense of being threatened, is a most important consideration.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
The basic statement that I would make, that I hope you will remember, with reference to this
whole idea is that in our kind of world today, there is but one refuge that any man has on this
planet. And that is in another man's heart. And when I close the door against any man, it means
that I undermine my own sense of emotional security as I seek to live my life on this planet.
Now there are many contexts which we have, contacts, for the most part, are contacts without
fellowship. Now contacts without fellowship tend to express themselves in a kind of
unsympathetic mood.
They are, essentially, unsympathetic. They are cold. They are detached. Sometimes they are
cruel. The contacts are there. But they are not warm. They are unsympathetic. They are hard-the sort of thing that you feel, sometimes, when you go into a man's office. And he looks at you
with a with a dead hard stare in his eyes. And you wonder whether the third button on your shirt
is open or closed. But you dare not feel to see.
It is something that strips you, that lays you bare, that exposes you. It's hard. It's devastating. It is
destructive. Now an unsympathetic attitude tends to express itself in the exercise of a will that is
distorted, a will that is ill, a will that is sick.
And there is a subtle contagion about a sick will. Many people who come into direct contact with
it or are exposed to it find that they are contaminated by this. And the same sort of disposition or
attitude which is theirs, which is to be found in the mind and the life of the person with the ill
will, becomes characteristic of those to whom it is exposed.
Now an ill will that is dramatized in the life of a man is what we mean by hate walking on the
earth. Now the reverse of this is true.
Contacts with fellowship are warm. And they make for an understanding that is sympathetic-the kind of understanding that we all seek, the sort of understanding that gives the individual a
sense of inner freedom, that gives the individual the feeling that he need not pretend.
He need not cover up. The vulnerable things in his life will be protected by someone who
understands him in a sense that is increasingly total. And this is what we seek, after all-understanding that is sympathetic, so that in its warm glow, the weaknesses and the strengths, the
good points and the bad points, are not held in any sense that is judgmental.
But they are gathered up in a healing mood of not only compassion but of understanding. This is
what we seek among ourselves. This is what our children seek. This is what adults seek.
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Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
Now sympathetic understanding tends to express itself in the exercise of a will that is good. Now
a good will is the creative expression of one man's total attitude towards another man.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
It is, laced, if I may use that word, in a kind of kindness. And here, something very important
must be said. No one ever quite deserves kindness. Men deserve respect as human beings. Men
deserve honor, sometimes, for the contribution which they have made to the redemption of the
common life or the contribution which they have made to some stark human need to which they
are exposed.
But no one ever quite deserves kindness. For when you are kind to a man, it means that you
place upon him something that he does not merit. It is like placing a crown over his head that, for
the rest of his life, he is trying to grow tall enough to wear, so that when you are the recipient of
the kind act, you know deep within yourself that you cannot ever repay this deed to the person
from whom the deed issued to you so that the only thing that you can do is to seek to confer that
kind of meaning upon someone else as your response to that kind of meaning that has been
conferred upon you.
Now a goodwill caught, dramatized, epitomized, for instanced in the life of a man is what we
mean by Love. And when we love, it means that we deal with each other at a point in each other
that is beyond all the good and beyond all the evil. There is but one refuge that one man has
anywhere on this planet. And that is in another man's heart.
Will you keep your door open that whoever knocks may enter?
[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]
5
�
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Title
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We Believe (Television Series, 1958-1965)
Description
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<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" />
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Descriptions by Dustin Mailman
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Audio with Transcription
<iframe width="100%" height="820" frameborder="0" src="/files/players/394-783.html" ></iframe>
Internal Notes
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Edited - GL 7/26
Original Title
Title as transcribed from tape cassette
Supporting Order Inherent in Life; For Love's Sake (ET-31; GC 11-24-71), 1971 Nov 24
Time Period
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1960s
1950s
Location
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WHDH-TV, Boston, Massachusetts
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Identifier
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394-783
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Thurman, Howard
Title
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Supportive Order Inherent in Life (1963-05-17); For Love's Sake (1958-05-30)
Source
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<a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a>
Format
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audio
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<a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a>
Date
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1963-05-17
1958-05-30
Description
An account of the resource
In this recording within the We Believe Series; Howard Thurman reads from his text, "The Inward Journey." Thurman's reading speaks to the intricate ways in which human life and experience is ordered in a synchronistic fashion. It is in one's understanding of creation's interrelatedness, Thurman suggests, that one can come to understand that the entirety of one's existence belongs.
In this recording within the We Believe Series; Howard Thurman reflects upon a poem from Eugene V. Debs, speaking to notions of solidarity and love. He notes that notions of love and disease both have a contagious characteristic, and that there is great responsibility in one's choosing of love or disease. To share one's heart, thus one's love, is to invite fellowship and community. To share one's disease, is to invite isolation and individualism.
Contributor
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Dustin Mailman
belonging
contagion
creation
creativity
ecology
Eugene V. Debs
experience
fellowship
harmony
healing
heart
interconnectivity
inward journey
love
order
organism
Paul
Philippians
poetry
relationship
security
society
synchronization
synthesis
tentacles of time
unity
vulnerability
wholeness
will
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http://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pittsthurman/original/2d57078fd37bfca6c32de528cc7cf159.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAI4CD764Y635IGLNA&Expires=1711646400&Signature=7qw0YBWz%2BOkkcXSPFmRHY1kgxBs%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
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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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
�
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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
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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
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Descriptions by Dustin Mailman
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<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
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WHDH-TV, Boston, Massachusetts
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394-778
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Thurman, Howard
Title
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Quality of Life (1960-10-07); Religion and Life (1964-04-03)
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<a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a>
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audio
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<a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a>
Date
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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
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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
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Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
394-776.mp3
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
This is tape number ET 20, from the library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust, two
meditations by Howard Thurman. This is side one, entitled, "Our Little Lives, Our Big
Problems."
[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 this morning from Meditations of the Heart. "Our little lives, our big problems, these,
we place upon Thy alter. The quietness in Thy temple of silence again and again rebuffs us.
For some, there is no discipline to hold them steady in the waiting and the minds reject the
noiseless invasion of Thy Spirit. For some, there is no will to offer what is central in the
thoughts. The confusion is so manifest, there is no starting place to take hold. For some, the evils
of the world tear down all concentrations and scatter the focus of the high resolves.
War and the threat of war has covered us with heavy shadows, making the days big with
foreboding, the nights crowded with frenzied dreams and restless churnings. We do not know
how to do what we know to do. We do not know how to be what we know to be. Our little lives,
our big problems, these, we place upon Thy alter.
Brood over our spirits, Our Father. Blow upon whatever dream Thou hast for us that there may
glow once again upon our hearts the light from Thy alter. Pour out upon us whatever our spirits
need of shock, of lift, of release, that we may find strength for our days, courage and hope for
tomorrow. In confidence, we rest in Thy sustaining grace which makes possible triumph in
defeat, gain in loss, and love in hate. We rejoice this day to say our little lives, our big problems,
these, we place upon Thy alter."
I remarked in our meditation last week that each of us must deal with our lives on the basis of
two dimensions. First, there is the image which we have of ourselves. And it was about this that
we talked last week.
Now this morning, I want to think about the second dimension. We must deal with ourselves on
the basis of our fact. To state it in a more comprehensive term, it would be something like this,
that each of us must have a sense of fact with reference to his facts.
Now, it is comparatively easy to have a sense of fact with reference to other people's facts. We
are functioning all the time in the light of the readings which we make from our sense of fact, of
other people's facts. We are sensitive to their wrongdoings, their attitudes towards us. We are
sometimes, not always, critical and judgemental as we deal with the raw materials of their facts
as we encounter them in the living of our facts.
1
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Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
But the burden of my idea this morning is that we must have a sense of fact with reference to our
fact, with reference to our own fact. In other words, I must accept my fact. Now, it may be very
different, and often it is, from the image that I have of myself. My fact is the raw material, the
raw stuff, out of which I make all the meanings that I have with reference to what my life is
saying by what my life is doing.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
Now, when I accept my fact, it means that I call all of the elements in my fact by their true name,
what may be regarded in the estimate of others as something that is unscrupulous, as a dealing
that is not quite ethical, not quite on the level, to use the phrase. When I raise the same question
about myself, I may call it shrewdness. I may call it cleverness. I may tone it down so that as it
turns up in the context of my living, it glows. It has a significance and a meaning and a
wholeness which I may not allow as I react to your sense of fact, for instance.
So I must call what I see in me by its true name. And in doing this, I'm able to assess my facts in
terms of my intent. Again and again, I discover that the thing that I intend to do, the thing that I
will to do, as it moves out from me seeking to fulfill itself in the context of my experience,
becomes adulterated, becomes watered down, becomes something perhaps so different from
what I intended. When the words leave me, there's a grace and a wholeness and sometimes a
healing and a beauty in them. But by the time they reach the object towards which they are
going, something has happened to them.
Now, I must deal with this aspect of the difference between the deed itself, the fact itself, and
that which is my intent. And all the time, I must bring the deed under the judgment of the intent
until at last, the deeds become the lung through which the intent breathes or the manifestation of
the intent.
The second thing is that I must, in my sense of fact, recognize that I will not give myself up. It is
true that I may not, as I think about it, be as good as my mother thinks I am or as my friends
think I am or as someone else thinks I am. But despite this fact, despite the fact that I have an
inside knowledge of what it is that I am, in true essence, I do not give myself up.
I do not relax my hold on myself. I cling to myself with an abiding enthusiasm because this is all
I have. To state it almost crassly, I am stuck with me. For better or for worse, I must negotiate
the time interval of my living with the stuff that I am.
Now, there's a third thing. I recognize that so much, so much, much, that is not good flows from
me out into the world, affecting the lives of others, that this knowledge of the not-good that
flows from me to others gives to me a charity, a tenderness, an understanding of the not-good
things, as it were, that flow from other people to me. Now, let me state this again. So much that
is not good flows from myself out to others that I am learning slowly how to be charitable
towards others for the not-good things that flow from them to me. I must accept my fact, a sense
of fact with reference to my facts.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
2
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Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
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]
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
This is tape number ET 20 from the library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust. This is
side two, entitled "Periodic Rest."
[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 from my book The Inward Journey. "The need for periodic rest is not confined to
mechanisms of various kinds. Rest may be complete inactivity when all customary functioning is
suspended and everything comes to a pause.
Rest may be a variation in intensity, a contrast between loud and soft, high and low, strong and
weak, a change of pace. Rest may be a complete shifting of scenery by the movement of objects
or the person. All things seem to be held in place by the stability of a rhythm that holds and
releases, but never lets go.
Under this same necessity lives the mind, as well. There is an inner characteristic of mind that
shares profoundly in the rhythm that holds and releases, but never lets go. Rest for the mind
takes many forms. It may come in the change of material upon which it works. It may be ranging
widely and irresponsibly over strange areas of thought.
It may be tackling a tough problem with more than the customary intensity. It may be
daydreaming, that strange and wonderful fairyland of sugar plums and candies. It may be the
experience of being swept to a perilous height by a sudden gale that rushes in from some distant
shore or of being caught in the churning spiral of a water spout that moves up from some hidden
depth. It may be all, any, or none of these, but something else again.
Rest for the mind may be a part of its activity. Thus, working and resting are a single thing.
Perhaps this is true because the mind takes its energy neat, in a manner direct and immediate.
Now, under the same necessity lives the spirit, as well. There is no clear distinction between
mind and spirit. But there is a quality of mind that is more than thought and the process of
thought. This quality involves feelings and the wholeness in which the life of man has its being.
There is no need to tarry over the correctness of definition or even over the preciseness of
meaning. What is being considered is what a man means totally when he says, I am. This self
shares profoundly in the rhythm that holds and releases, but never lets go.
3
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Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
There is the rest of detachment and withdrawal when the spirit moves into the depths of the
region of the great silence, where world-weariness is washed away and blurred vision is once
again prepared for the focus of the long view, where seeking and finding are so united that
failure and frustration, real though they are, are no longer felt to be ultimately real. Here, the
presence of God is sensed as an all-pervasive aliveness which materializes into the concreteness
of [? Communion, ?] the reality of prayer. Here, God speaks without words and the self listens
without ears. Here, at last, glimpses of the meaning of all things and the meaning of one's own
life are seen with all their strivings. To accept this is one meaning of the good and great line from
the book, 'Rest in the Lord, O rest in the Lord.'"
I think it was Professor Hawking, formerly professor of philosophy at Harvard University, who
first gave wide currency to a very familiar and ancient experience of man, experience of the
human spirit. And the term that he used to capture the meaning of this universal aspect of man's
living experience was the principle of alternation. And by this, he meant, as all men have found
and have experienced, that we pick up the responsibilities of our lives and carry them, and then
we put them down.
We pick them up. We put them down. There is this principle that defines the rhythm of man's
life. Another way of putting it-- on again, off again; on again, off again.
Now, interestingly enough, this is a necessity that is built into the nature of the organism. And I
think indeed, it is built into the nature of any kind of mechanical instrument or device or
machine, the need for working it and resting it, for providing the things that will give to the
intensity of the function a break, as the broken field runner on the football field. He runs, and one
of the reasons why it is so difficult to counteract him and to pin him down is that he breaks his
speed, but he breaks his speed within the rhythm of his movement.
Now, this seems to me to be fundamental to our bodies. We work and we sleep. We work and we
rest.
It is fundamental to our minds. If we are students, we study and then we stop studying. Or we are
reading and then now and then, we close our book or we leave our book open and look far into
the distance, letting our eyes rest, and let our minds range in a leisurely manner over some of the
material that we've followed with great intensity.
The same sort of rhythm is true in relationships. If we are too full of togetherness. In the
relationship that you have with another human being who is very close to you, if in that
relationship, there is no room for breathing, no rhythm in the relationship, but it is always full of
the same kind of intensity, pretty soon, there is an exhaustion. And when that exhaustion takes
place, it is so difficult once again to rehabilitate it and give to it meaning and the significance
that it had.
Now, the same thing is true in one's spiritual life, in the way that we handle the problems of our
spirit. There is a quality in us that's like the quality of the eager beaver. We pounce upon a thing
and we stick with it and will not take a moment to break the intensity of it. And pretty soon, there
is a weariness that comes.
4
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Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
And interestingly enough, it is a weariness that starts on the edges, on the outer edges of the
experience, and works slowly towards the center. And when it gets to the center, then the whole
context is flattened out and full of exhaustion. Therefore, in the living of your life or even in the
living of any person's life, to practice the principle of periodic rest, the principle of alternation-carry your burdens with [? full-on ?] responsibility, making room on your shoulders for the load
which is your load.
But now and then, put it down. Let it rest. And then pick it up again. Or you may carry your
burden on one shoulder and then change it over to another shoulder.
This is the principle. On, off. Pick it up, put it down. And once this becomes the rhythm of the
movement, the respiration of your spirit, then many crooked paths will become straighter and
heavy burdens will be lighter. This is the law of life.
[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]
5
�
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We Believe (Television Series, 1958-1965)
Description
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<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" />
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Descriptions by Dustin Mailman
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<iframe width="100%" height="820" frameborder="0" src="/files/players/394-776.html" ></iframe>
Internal Notes
Notes for project team
Edited - GL 7/26
Original Title
Title as transcribed from tape cassette
Our Little Lives, Our Big Problems; Periodic Rest (ET-20; 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
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394-776
Creator
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Thurman, Howard
Title
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Our Little Lives, Our Big Problems (1963-01-25); Periodic Rest (1963-03-22)
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a>
Format
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audio
Publisher
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<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
1963-01-25
1963-03-22
Description
An account of the resource
In this recording within the We Believe Series; Howard Thurman reads from his text, "Meditations of the Heart," working with the tension between factuality and intention. In this tension, one must accept their "self-fact" in order to navigate a faithful deed or image.
In this recording within the We Believe Series; Howard Thurman reads from his text, "The Inward Journey," reflecting upon the significance of rest and restoration. He uses philosophical and ecological imagery to portray the significance of daydreaming, making sense of the cosmos, and finding integration in one's own life.
Contributor
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Dustin Mailman
aliveness
altar
communion
creativity
daydreaming
detachment
discipline
fact
fairyland
image
individuality
intention
interconnectivity
meditations of the heart
mind
pacing
raw materials
reality
rest
rhythm
solitude
spirit
Stephen Hawking
sugarplum
waiting
withdraw
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c4c315476a7887dde1a7274c2c126beb
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Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
394-652_A.mp3
[MUSIC - "BE STILL, MY SOUL"]
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
(SINGING) Be still, my soul. The Lord is on thy side. Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.
Leave to thy God to order and provide. In every change, he faithful will remain. Be still, my
soul. Thy best, thy heavenly friend through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.
If I ascended into heaven, thou art there. If I make mine bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I
take the wings of the morning and fly to the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand
hold me and thy right hand shall steady me.
If I say, behold, the darkness covers me, even the night shall be light about me. The darkness,
hideth not from thee. But the night shineth as the day. The darkness and the light are both alike
to thee.
For thou hast processed my reigns. Thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. In thy book, all
my members were written which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there was none of
them.
How precious, how precious are thy thoughts unto me, oh God. How great is the sum of them. If
I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with thee.
Search me, oh God, and know my heart. Try me, oh God, and know my thoughts and see if there
be any wicked way in me. And lead me in the way everlasting, everlasting.
[MUSIC - "BE STILL, MY SOUL"]
And this has to be part one of Saint Augustine, architect of a new faith as a continuation of our
series the end of the journey. As a background, may I read these two paragraphs from Augustine.
What do I love when I love thee? Not beauty of the body, not harmony of line nor brilliancy of
light so pleasant to thee's eyes, nor sweet melodies of every kind of song, nor the sweet scent of
flowers and perfumes and spices. Not manna and honey. Not limbs inviting to fleshly embrace.
Not these do I love when I love my God. And yet, I love a kind of light and the melody and
fragrance and food and embrace when I love my God. The light, melody, food, fragrance,
embrace of my inward man.
Where there shineth upon my soul what space containeth not and where resounded what time
stealeth not away. Where in fragrance, which a breath scattereth not, where there is flavor that
eating lessen it not and where there is an embrace that cannot be rendered asunder, this I love
when I love my God.
I asked the earth for God and it answered me, I am not he. I asked the sea and the depths and the
creeping things and they answered, we are not thy God. Seek thou above us.
1
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Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
I asked the breezy gales and airy universe and all its denizens replied, Anaximenes is mistaken. I
am not God. I asked the heavens, sun, moon, and stars. Neither are we, say they, the God whom
thou seeketh.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
And I said unto all things which stand about the gateways of my flesh, ye have told me of my
God. But ye are not he. Tell me something of him. And they cried with a loud voice, he made us.
He made us. He made us.
The decay of the Roman Empire had been set in motion by some forces that were subtle and
some that were obvious. There were many theories about why it had begun to disintegrate, this
empire which seemed to the human mind to symbolize in time and space the sovereignty of the
eternal, the point of referral that stood above all of the traffic of life, all of the conflicts of life.
And little by little, men saw that this empire itself was beginning to disintegrate. The stirring of
populations swinging back and forth across the frontiers, a movement of populations that has
continued down to the present time. This is one of the mysterious things as I think about human
history.
I know the answers that the sociologists give about why peoples start moving, why they get on
the march. But I'm not sure that this answer is a satisfying one. But be that as it may, the empire
was in flux. It had broken itself in twain.
And this, the tensions between the Orient and the Occident, the tensions between great racial
groups that had been rooted in a certain kind of culture and a certain pattern of life, a tension that
had been held at equilibrium as long as the Roman Empire spread its eagles everywhere. And
held, as if it were in one, vast continuum, all of these subtle conflicts.
Now when this outer rim cracked, all the built-in tensions began to emerge. And finally, it
expressed itself in the formal division of the empire between the East and the West.
Augustine, what about him? What words may I use to talk about him? He was a part of this flux.
He lived in North Africa, a North Africa that we cannot imagine now because when he lived
there, it was a lush land, full of all kinds of wonderful vineyards, green fertility, and the gods of
fertility flourished.
This was North Africa when Augustine was a boy. He had a wonderful mother, devout, pious,
who brooded over him with great tenderness, knowing somewhat within herself that if she could
pray long enough, she was a devout Catholic, if she could pray long enough, if she could hold
out without giving up, the pressure of her love would bring her wandering son into the fold.
His father had no interest in these things. His father was a man without any particular religious
convictions or faith. As a matter of fact, he's defined as being a pagan, a familiar phrase
[INAUDIBLE].
He had ambitions for his son. He wanted his son to make a mark in the world. So he put forth all
the effort possible to see to it that his son would get a good education and all the things that went
2
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thurman.pitts.emory.edu
along with it. He wanted to protect his son from throwing his life away in riotous living. So very
early, he secured a kind of common law wife for his son.
All the time, his son's mind was growing and expanding, searching, seeking. And his seeking
finally took him away from home.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
He became a teacher at Carthage first and they did not have much discipline in the university.
Students did not pay their bills. Their bills were not due until the end of the semester. So students
would go to classes up to about two weeks before the semester was over. Then they'd change
teachers.
Well, Augustine couldn't live at this rate. So he left and he went to Europe. And I did not fill in
too many details about him.
But there he met a man finally, Ambrose the Great. He must have been a great preacher, for this
was the thing that first attracted Augustine to him. But through the influence of Ambrose, he
began to work out this matter of entering into the fullness of the new life which he found in Jesus
Christ.
Now, it's cruel to summarize his life in this superficial manner. But this is not to be a biography
of Augustine.
The first and most dramatic influences on his life as far as the things that shaped his mind was
the Manichean philosophy. And let us not be perturbed by the word. But this influenced his life
and at a critical point. And in my judgment, it continued to influence his life and to influence
[INAUDIBLE].
Manichean philosophy recognized some of the realities of human experience, the conflict
between good and evil, between the impulse to do that which seems to be right and the impulse
to do the thing which seems to be evil or which is evil.
And it's projected a metaphysical interpretation of existence that could account for the conflict
that goes on in the human spirit between good and evil. And they said that all of life is divided in
this way, between the powers of darkness and the powers of light.
And these two powers seem to be equally matched in human experience and in the world and in
existence. The human heart is the battleground when the tug of war between these two forces
goes on its way, that they are fundamentally equally matched.
Do you think so, if you were talking about this? Do we get a feel of it in the scripture lesson that
was read? Just the feel of it? There is going on all the time, this tension.
Sometimes, do you feel that the thing that is evil in you is stronger than the thing that is good?
Would you load it a little? What about us? Not what you think you ought to think, but how do
you think about it? What is it?
3
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Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
Well this was a part of a Augustine. Now there was another influence in his life that was very
crucial, and that was the burying of the philosophy, the influence of [INAUDIBLE], as we
referred to last Sunday, this near-Plutonic influence that the world was created by gods, by the
creative whim.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
But as the world moved farther and farther to the edges of the extent of the mind, the creative
energy, that out of which everything moves, it became more and more material, more and more
contaminated.
And as a matter of fact, there's a hard line between the spirit and matter that the spirit could not
quite ever get into matter. And matter could not ever quite make the move in the other direction.
So that you get a [INAUDIBLE] seed between the things that are material and the things that are
thus spiritual.
And this is a little of the philosophy of the Manichean, that-- and if you somehow are sure that
the material things, your body, your flesh, that if you're sure that these things are set on their
way, that they cannot be influenced. That which is spiritual can't get into it and do anything with
it. And vice-versa.
If this is the case, then in terms of your practical living, you may decide that as far as the
expression of your appetite is concerned, since nothing that is material can have any effect, any
door by which it can reach over into that which is qualitative in life, then it doesn't matter what
you do. It doesn't matter what you do.
Because there is no way, you see, by which any activity of the body, any material functioning
can have any bearing on the other side of the chasm.
And if you tried to live completely on the other side of the chasm, then the less attention that you
give to the demands of your body, the freer you are to give all of yourself to the other side so that
you can either get a libertinism out of this or an asceticism. And these were the things that were
at work in the background of Augustine's mind.
And then, when he became-- however, when he became a Christian, when he felt that the central
thing about man's existence was the fact that there was at work in the material, in the flesh a
creative and redemptive process.
Not merely that God could not be involved in the world, but that God was at work redeeming the
world through the doctrine and the experience of the incarnation through Jesus Christ. And
therefore, Augustine felt that the thing that was most evil in man was not that he was a victim of
this sort of dichotomy that I'm talking about.
But that he had a will that was in rebellion against the will of God, that God was not merely
creator, some impersonal, creative force moving and brooding over the stuff of life and making
the stuff of life yield more and more forms and shapes and manifestations. No, not that. But God
was a sovereign will, holding in the integrity of his whim all existence. And that the only sin of
which man really was capable was the sin of rebellion against this whim.
4
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Now the sovereign will, this point of referral, this is the step that Augustine takes in his thought
that becomes the-- how shall I say this? That becomes the rallying point for the decaying,
disintegrating empire. Now, let me just pin that down so you can hold it until next Sunday.
Pitts Theology Library
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Now, when a society begins to break up, when there is no point of referral outside of the
individual or outside of the liberal, political, or social arrangement, when there is no basis for
integrated behavior which the centrality, you see, the political centrality of the Roman Empire
provided for the whole civilized world at that time.
Now, when this fountainhead broke up, when it broke up, this left a vacuum so that there was no
point of referral, nothing that would give to people a basis for integrated behavior. They had no
sense of cohesion externally. And therefore, their sense of inner cohesion began to break up.
And into this vacuum Augustine projects the sovereignty of God. And this is very interesting to
me. This becomes the foundation of what to me in essence was a new faith. Jesus Christ, the
founder, the apostle Paul, the first great, creative interpreter and the mind and the will and the
brooding of Augustine, the architect for 1,000 years.
Suppose in 1917 in Russia, when there was no point, when the central point of referral had
broken up, what the Tsar symbolized was no more. So there was no basis for integrated action
for this vast land and vast people.
Why was it impossible for someone somewhere in the Christian movement to do, at that critical
time, what Augustine did for the collapse of the Roman Empire. Why?
And they had to find a point of referral in a very crude kind of persuasive dialectic. And another
great moment in the destiny of man passed.
What had we learned in the more than 1,000 years of dealing with this specific responsibility that
had been set forth back in the 5th century?
After the war, when the great German nation, loaded with guilt, began to do this with no point of
referral that was prestige-bearing, of prestige-bearing significance to provide a basis for the
integrated behavior of the nation. Why into that vacuum there did not move that which moved
into the vacuum created by the collapse, the formal collapse of the Roman Empire.
But instead, some resurrection of an ancient folk idiom clothed in new form and manifestation
moved through the central dominating spot in the minds of a nation and provided a rallying point
of dignity and meaning and significance for them.
And here we are now. Do you believe that there is, in the grounds and the experience of your
religion, that which is so utterly significant in its transcendence and eminence and redemptive
character as demonstrated in your own life that you feel that it can provide a point of referral on
the horizon that will be redemptive for our society? And give even to America a basis for
integrated behavior?
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So that in the light of it, it can experience, it meaning America, can experience the kind of
redemption that will make it whole in which even here the bruised reed will not be crushed nor
the smoking flak quenched.
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Or is your personal experience of religion too small that you would not run the risk of giving to it
such a far-reaching assignment? This is the question with which Augustine wrestled. And his
answer was yes, that which moved into my life redeemed my life, made my mind not a seeker
after truth, but put into my mind the kind of quality that enabled me to design truth and to follow
it.
This is of such timeless significance as demonstrated in what I have been through that it can save
not the world, but worlds. And because he felt that way and projected it for 800 years, the
Catholic church moved on the track he laid.
Thou has made us for thyself, he said. And our hearts are restless till they find their rest in thee.
You believe that? I do. I do. I do.
Walk beside us, our father, in the way that we take. And leave us not to the weakness of our
strength or to the strength of our weakness this day and forevermore.
[CHOIR SINGING]
[MUSIC - "BE STILL, MY SOUL"]
6
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Marsh Chapel, Boston University, Boston, Massachussetts
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1960s
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Thurman, Howard
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St. Augustine, part 1 (7); St. Augustine, part 2 (8), 1961 Dec 3, 10
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<a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a>
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GEOMETRYCOLLECTION(POINT(-7915565.7490374 5213612.6443988))
Description
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This sermon is the seventh 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 biography, specifically speaking to the influence of Manichean Philosophy on Augustine prior to his conversion to Christianity. Thurman notes of the dualistic nature of this philosophy, and the ways in which redemption for both the body and the mind are non-existent in this train of thought. Thurman continues by noting the significance of redemption in Augustine's theological imagination, and appropriates Augustine's construction of redemption towards the political landscape of Germany post World War I.
Date
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1961-12-03
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Description by Dustin Mailman
America
asceticism
be still my soul
biography
body
Carthage
creative energy
discernment
dualism
Germany
interconnectivity
libertinism
Manichean Philosophy
mind
North Africa
prayer
redemption
Roman Empire
sovereignty
World War I
-
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8aa46d518dd1388eace146cc23644596
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thurman.pitts.emory.edu
394-232_B.mp3
Today, McCall takes his discussion a step further. He is raising the question as to how deeply
satisfying is the notion of the hand of God. It is personal, on the one hand, or it may be
impersonal. Beautiful or ugly. Kind and compassionate. Brutal or sadistic.
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We begin then by saying with him that-- remember that while you are seeking, you are also
being sought. You will not be lost, you will not miss the gate. You will be found. You will be
led, you will enter in. Look for that. Expect it.
Expect shells to break in their season. Expect boats to ride as the tide comes in. This is hope-- to
desire and to expect. To desire but not to expect it is not hope. For though you may desire the
moon, you hardly hope for it.
To expect but not to desire is not hope. For who that expects his loved one to die could be said to
hope for it. But to desire and to expect the desire's fulfillment, that is hope, and we are saved by
hope.
I remember some time ago looking up an old meaning of the word "hope" in connection with
something that I was writing at the time. And to my amazement, I discovered that there is a
definition of hope which says that hope is the inlet that connects the sea with the lagoon. It is the
opening through which the lagoon has free and easy access to the sea. It is the opening through
which the sea has free and easy access to the lagoon.
This opening through which the ebb and flow of the rhythmic pattern of life is not only external
to the individual but it is a part of the internal character, structure, and meaning of experience.
And this, in my judgment, is what McCall is talking about.
And then he goes on in another quotation. "If I cannot place a God behind the universe, I shall
nevertheless wish not to leave an emptiness." You may recall in The Brothers Karamazov that
one of the figures, one of the characters in this novel speaks of the fact that since by man's
definitions or theories or experiences, there is no God anywhere, which leaves the central seat
governing the totality of the universe empty. This character says, "Since there is no God, I will
have to be God myself."
Now McCall is thinking about that basic idea that's inherent in this suggestion when he says, "If I
cannot place a God behind this universe, I shall nevertheless wish not to leave an emptiness. That
would not be honest, nor according to the intellect's necessities, nor in the temper of an age of
science."
And continuing, he says, "All put fear is there, behind this universe our home, or at least our
house." One says, nothing stands there. Another contradicts, says something is standing there but
the something is unconscious. A third will run to cover in what he calls the unknowable. Many
refuse to look, having assumed that it doesn't matter.
But it might. And if it matters, then what? And McCall goes on to discuss this. And at a time
when in the period when this book was being written that there were many rampant notions
1
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about how we may ascribe some conscious meaning do what seems to be the impersonal
character of the universe.
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And I think each of us has had the experience of seeming to be alone and solitary and in a sense,
deserted but not quite deserted. For if one feels deserted, then the idea is that at one time, one
was not deserted, and now by contrast, one feels left out or alone.
But this is not the mood that McCall is addressed-- to which he is addressing himself. He is
talking about a primary feeling. "Not only that there is nothing there now but that there never has
been anything.
Now what does the human mind-- what does the human spirit do with that mood in the midst of
its tribulations and its suffering? Now this is where he comes out. Even if I poured my protests to
the silence that surrounds me, I heard that wandering voice again, and I said, it moves in circles.
For all its moving, it arrives nowhere except to the place of its beginning, which is to cancel it
out.
Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his seat. I would know the
words which he would answer me--" this is Job speaking and McCall is quoting him. "Behold, I
go forward, but he is not there and backward but I cannot perceive him.
On the left hand where he does work, but I cannot behold him. He hideth himself on the right
hand, but I cannot see him. But he knoweth the way that I take."
And then McCall says, "No, wait. Hold there. Hold everything. Prove that," he says. "Prove that
he knoweth. With that, if that were true, if I were really profoundly convinced that it is true that
he knoweth, then I might endure the rest. I could endure anything that life can do to me if I know
that he knoweth."
And on this note, he ends this part of his wrestling with the hand.
2
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We Believe (Television Series, 1958-1965)
Description
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<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" />
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<iframe width="100%" height="820" frameborder="0" src="/files/players/394-232_B.html" ></iframe>
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McCall's Hand of God (IV), 1964
Time Period
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1960s
Location
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WHDH-TV, Boston, Massachusetts
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394-232_B
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Thurman, Howard
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McCall's Hand of God, Part 5 (1964-10-02)
Date
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1964-10-02
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<a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a>
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audio
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<a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a>
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<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; Howard Thurman reflects upon Oswald W.S. McCall's "Hand of God." Here, Thurman ponders the centrality of hope in the life of faith, and the ways in which hope is grounded in a myriad of contradictions. He continues by defining hope, noting that hope is deeply experiential and the central marker of making sense of the Hand of God.
Contributor
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Dustin Mailman
experience
fear
Hand of God
hope
interconnectivity
journey
liminality
mind
Nature of God
Oswald McCall
rhythm
salvation
seeking
solitary
spirit
The Brothers of Karamazov
trust
voice
-
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029e7fdf656f8571f0ff89790237e74b
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thurman.pitts.emory.edu
394-181_A.mp3
[MUSIC PLAYING]
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.
I'm continuing our thinking together about the meaning of love. And today, I want to read a few
verses from Moffatt's translation of the 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians.
Love is very patient, very kind. Love knows no jealousy. Love makes no parade, gives itself no
airs, is never rude, never selfish, never irritated, never resentful. Love is never glad when others
go wrong. Love is gladdened by goodness, always slow to expose, always eager to believe the
best, always hopeful, always patient.
The working definition that we are using is this-- love is the experience of being dealt with at a
point in oneself that is beyond all the good and beyond all the evil. To love is to deal with
another person at a point in him that is beyond all the good and beyond all the evil.
There is something in the experience which has with it always a note of security, of emotional
security. And security in its simplest terms means the experience of having one's needs satisfied.
And whoever is able to satisfy one's needs, simple needs or complex needs, the response,
because of this sense of satisfaction, is in terms of not only dependence but in terms of trust, in
terms of confidence, in terms of affection, in terms of love.
It is for this reason that religion insists that God loves man and that it is man's experience of the
love of God which in the first instance enables him to be able to love anyone. I wonder if you
take for granted the fact that so many of your own basic needs are satisfied by life. And if you
take this for granted, then your attitude towards life may not be one of responsibility, of
responsiveness, of reverence, of gratitude. It may be an attitude that is simply callous.
You may decide, for instance, that you elate the fresh air that you breathe and the cool water that
you drink and all of the other simple creature ways by which your needs are satisfied. But if you
reflect upon your total experience of life in this regard, then your attitude towards life will be one
of reverence and towards the creator of life one of trust and confidence.
Now, with this background, let us deal more specifically with the question before us. Love
means in simple, experiential turns, the ability to let one's life be filled with many simple deeds
of gratuitous extras, gratuitous kindnesses, as manifested towards people by whom you are
surrounded.
When I was a boy, I could hardly wait for Thanksgiving, because Thanksgiving meant that
Christmas was in the offing. And from Thanksgiving until Christmas Eve midnight, I was a
model boy. I would respond almost instinctively to my mother's needs during that whole period.
For instance, she did not ever see the bottom of the wood box, because I kept it full of wood all
the time. I had a sense of what was vital for her. I can anticipate her needs, all of this because I
1
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knew that Thanksgiving meant that Christmas was around the corner and when Christmas came,
that I would be rewarded for all of these simple gratuitous extras, by which I had filled my
relationship with mu mother.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
Now, this mood that I manifested during that time is an indication. It's a sampling of what
happens all the time in your relationships with people for whom you have this kind of love and
affection. You can sense their needs. You can anticipate their needs. And at the heart of this
anticipation, at the heart of this awareness, there is a kind of clear-cut and definitive
understanding, so that your response to the need is an intelligent response as contrasted merely
with a sentimental or emotional response.
At the center of the dynamics of the feeling, there must be an understanding mind. If I were to
put it in a rather caustic phrase, it would be something like this, that in love, the mind must be as
hard as ice, the heart as warm as a kitchen stove. This is what I mean.
Now, there's a second dimension here. There is the tendency to feel ownership towards the
person that you love and to demand that you will be loved in kind and in quality as the proof that
your love has been received. We want to be loved back.
Now, this is perfectly normal, very natural. But it is my thought that the necessity to be loved
back in exchange for or in return for loving is an extraneous and irrelevant necessity, if I may put
it that way. Love does not-- at its best, love does not demand that love be given back to one in
return.
This is illustrated in a rather melodramatic story written many years ago by Olive Schreiner. She
calls it "The Story of Towser." Towser was a little dog. He sat with his tail in a puddle of mud. It
wasn't raining, except out of his eyes, for he was very sad. Presently, a fine-looking aristocratic
mastiff who lived next door came out of his yard and passed Towser's house, and he saw Towser
weeping. And he stopped.
Towser was a little terrier. He said to Towser, what's the trouble with you, little fellow? Do other
dogs bite you? No, I manage to take care of myself pretty well. Do you get enough to eat? Yes, I
have bones, and occasionally, there's meat on them. Do you have a place to sleep? Yes, I have a
box with some rags in it.
Well, what's the trouble with you? And Towser said, I want to love people. And I want to feel
that people love me. And the mastiff said, love? What is that? Have you ever seen it? No, said
Towser. Have you ever smelled it? No, said Towser. Have you ever tasted it? No. I haven't ever
tasted it. Well, what good is it anyway? And thus applying the pragmatic test to that kind of
reality, the mastiff went on down the street.
Towser got up, shook the water off his tail and the water out of his eyes and went in the opposite
direction. Presently, he saw a ragged newsboy coming, a newsboy who had a very sad face. And
he went running up to the newsboy, literally in a ball of excitement. He didn't know whether to
lick the boy's hands first or his feet. He just wanted him so.
2
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And the boy called him. Doggie? Doggie? And when Towser came very close to him, he kicked
him in the nose. But the lonely boy laughed. There was a singing in Towser's ear now as he went
down the other side of the street. He wasn't so sure about how he felt.
Pitts Theology Library
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He came to the outskirts of the village. And there he saw a cottage. The gate was open. He went
through the gate, up the steps, at the door. He looked in. He saw an invalid stretched out on a
bed. He made a noise at the door, which being interpreted was, if you ask me, I'll come in. So the
invalid asked him in.
And Towser found that she was a very lonely person. She had had a dog once upon a time, but he
had gone away somewhere. Towser tried to amuse her during the daytime by catching his tail
with his teeth so as to take her mind off her suffering. And then in the nighttime when he would
hear her cough, he would get up from his pad and walk over by her bed and rub his head against
her hands and lick her fingers to let her know that even though it was nighttime, he knew that she
was suffering, and he cared.
And then one day, the dog that belonged home, came back. And Towser heard the invalid say, I
don't want to give Towser away, but what shall I do with him? Well, Towser didn't want to be
given away. So he went out of the back yard and disappeared. But as he went along, he had the
feeling that the invalid, for the first time in her life, had had an experience with someone to
whom her invalidism was not a burden, because he saw a boy just ahead of him, a boy with a
large piece of meat under his arm.
And a man jumped from behind a tree, accosted the boy, threw him to the ground, and was trying
to take the meat from the boy. And then Towser barked at him furiously. And presently, the man
got up and ran away, because he thought somebody was coming. The boy looked at Towser's
face, purple with rage, and he said, do you try to do that to me after all that your master has done
to me? So he attacked Towser. Well, Towser was thrown into the bushes. The last time I saw
him, says the story, he was stretched out in the road.
Now, what does this mean? That love at its best does not demand requitement. It gives, and in its
giving, it finds its strength and its security and its ability to give more and more and more. This
is our privilege. And this is our opportunity.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in they sight, oh, Lord,
my rock and my redeemer.
3
�
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Title
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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" />
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Descriptions by Dustin Mailman
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<iframe width="100%" height="820" frameborder="0" src="/files/players/394-181_A.html" ></iframe>
Original Title
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The Meaning of Love, 1958 Mar 7
Time Period
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1950s
Location
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WHDH-TV, Boston, Massachusetts
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394-181_A
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Thurman, Howard
Title
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The Meaning of Love (1958-03-07)
Date
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1958-03-07
Source
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<a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a>
Format
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audio
Publisher
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<a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a>
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An account of the resource
In this recording within the We Believe series, Howard Thurman reflects upon a passage from 1 Corinthians to elaborate on his understanding of love. He defines love as "the experience of being dealt with at a point in oneself that is beyond all the good and beyond all the evil. He notes that the love of God functions as the exemplary love to which humanity should strive towards. Thurman's conception of love is not possessive nor transactional, rather, it is interdependent and comes from the heart.
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Dustin Mailman
1 Corinthians
affection
community
confidence
dog
experience
interconnectivity
love
Moffatt
Olive Schreiner
ownership
requitment
satisfaction
security
trust
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Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
394-169_A.mp3
I'm continuing today our thinking together about certain of the insights from the ancient sorrow
songs that were sung many, many years ago by the slaves in America. Today, we thinking
together about deep river.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
Deep river, my own home is over Jordan. Oh, don't you want to go to that gospel feast, that land
of promise where all is peace. Deep river, my home is over Jordan.
A contemporary point has expressed the same basic insight in other words. He says, I've known
rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins. My soul has
gone deep like the rivers. I bathed in Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo, and it lulled me to sleep. I looked upon the Mississippi and saw
Abe Lincoln going down to New Orleans. And I've seen it's muddy bosom turn all golden in the
sunset. I've known rivers, ancient, dusky rivers. My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
The flowing streams have had a profound influence on the thoughts and the dreams and the
hopes and the aspirations of mankind throughout all the ages. It is not unusual that these early
singers would seize upon the raw materials of their own experiences with streams, with rivers
and incorporate this experience-- or these experiences into their interpretation of the meaning of
life and the destiny of man. For the rivers meant freedom for many of them, and it is altogether
fitting that the rivers should influence their thoughts and their reactions and their interpretations.
To think of life in terms of a river is always a fresh and stimulating and creative point of view. A
river has a very simple beginning. The Mississippi River, for instance, begins way up in the
northern part of our country, a very simple stream or a child could step across it at its source. But
as it moves down across the broad expanse of the American continent, it deepens and widens,
becomes turbulent and restless and churning until at last it emptiness itself into the Gulf of
Mexico, whose far off waters and call it always hears.
Life is like that, your life and my life. I have a very simple beginning. As a matter of fact, the
scientists tell us that life on this planet has a very simple beginning. And as the evolutionary
process developed, life became more complex and differentiated until at last creatures such as we
appeared on the scene.
And the individual life begins in a very simple way. For a period of nine months, the germ
forms, and at last, there is a great spasm and the child is born. And then the process starts over
again. Life is very simple for the child, but as the child develops and grows, life becomes more
involved, more complicated, more churning, more turbulent until at last it gives itself up at the
end.
It is the nature of the river to flow, always moving, always in haste. As a boy, very often I sat
beside a stream watching the waters flow by and wondered what made the river flow in this way.
There was no wind blowing, but it seemed as if the very nature of the stream itself was to flow.
This has been a thing upon which the mind of man has seized with a wide variety of creative
interpretations.
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The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
It was the Greek philosopher Heraclitus who reminds us that no man bathes in the same stream.
One of the great world religions thinks of the meaning of life in terms of flux, in terms of
change, in terms of process. One of our great contemporary American philosophers thinks of
God himself as creative process, this notion of movement, of a process, of change. This seems to
be characteristic of life even as it is of the river.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
It is true in your life and in my life. When you were very small, you were sure that when you
were a little older, perhaps when you were nine or 10 years old, the thing that you sought would
come to pass. And then when you were 10 you said, oh, no. I can't experience this until I'm in my
teens. And then when you were in your teens, some of the things which you sought you could not
find you were sure until you were in your 20s.
And life moves like that, a coaxing cat always calling us to come to the thing that is just on the
horizon. I said that the fight would be over when I arrived, but when I got there, I found that the
fight was not over. The fight will never be over. No, not even in death. This is the nature of life.
Life is on the side of that which is on the make.
That which has arrived, that which has fulfilled itself has no future. It has only a pass. I shall
arrive. What time? What circuit first? I ask not, but unless God send his hail, his sleet, his
blinding fireballs, or stifling snow, in his good time, I shall arrive. He guides me and the bird.
The analogy is complete in the second sense because it seems that it is of the very nature of life
to be in process never to remain fixed. We cannot arrive at QED because life represents that
which is essentially dynamic, that which is full of change so that we-- if we are to be alive to its
meaning and its significance, we must be sensitive to the growing edges to that which has not
come to pass but that for which the individual stands in immediate candidacy for fulfillment.
The analogy is complete in the third place because of the relationship that the river holds to its
banks. It is the nature of the river to demand from the banks that they give of themselves to the
water. It is an automatic relationship.
If, for instance, I wanted to understand the story of the Mississippi River to refer to it again, I do
not have to follow it through all of its circuitous rounds across the country. I do not need to
examine all of its tributaries and the ways by which it touches this state or that state or this area
or that area. All I need do is go down to the delta where the Mississippi River empties into the
Gulf and there take a handful or a shovel full of delta sand and analyze it. And there I will find
the whole story of the history of the river's journey from its beginning to its fulfillment in the
Gulf of Mexico.
Your life and my life are like that. Every experience that we have, every thought that we think,
every primary encounter that we have with all of the raw materials of our living, these things
leave their deposit so that the history of a man's life is in essence the judgment that life passes
upon that individual. This is the relationship that life has to the living experience. It is the
relationship that the river has to the banks.
The analogy is complete in the last instance because a river has a goal. The goal of the river is
the sea. It is very interesting that all the waters in all the land, in all the rivers, rivulets, streams,
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The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
all of this water comes out of the sea. And all the waters in all the lands go back into the sea that
out of which the river comes is that into which the river goes.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
The goal of the river and the source of the river are one. Your life and my life are like that. The
goal of life is God. The source of life is God. That out of life comes and that out of which life
goes is God.
I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.
My soul has grown to deep like the rivers. I've bathed in Euphrates when dawns were young. I
built my hut near the Congo, and it lulled me to sleep. I looked upon the Mississippi and saw it's
muddy bosom turn all golden the sunset. I've known rivers, ancient, dusky rivers. My soul has
grown deep like the rivers.
3
�
Dublin Core
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Title
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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" />
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Descriptions by Dustin Mailman
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<iframe width="100%" height="820" frameborder="0" src="/files/players/394-169_A.html" ></iframe>
Original Title
Title as transcribed from tape cassette
Deep River; Nature of Life, 1958 Sep 26
Time Period
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1950s
Location
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WHDH-TV, Boston, Massachusetts
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394-169_A
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Thurman, Howard
Title
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Deep River; Nature of Life (1958-09-26)
Date
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1958-09-26
Source
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<a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a>
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audio
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<a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a>
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<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 "sorrow songs" of those who were enslaved in America. His remarks speak specifically to the songs that reflect upon the self in relation to a river, such as, "My soul has gone deep like the rivers." The voices of these singers relate their lives to that of a river from a place of deep experientiality. Thurman continues, by relating the unfolding of life to that of a river: a simplistic origin which grows into a complex system, which eventually returns to a wider body, one is able to understand the ways in which humanity is intertwined and shares a common trajectory.
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Description by Dustin Mailman
Abraham Lincoln
creativity
Deep River
evolution
experience
interconnectivity
Jordan River
process
river
slavery
spirituals