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In this recording within the We Believe Series, Thurman places the Negro Spiritual "Deep is the River, My Home is Over Jordan," and Langston Hughes' "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" in conversation with one another. He likens the life of a river to the movement of human existence: the river begins as a mere stream, then becomes a river wearing down the riverbanks, then disperses itself into a wider ocean. As the river shifts and bends, Thurman claims, the human life also bends and shifts,…

This recording is the fourth lecture in our collection of ten that Howard Thurman gave at the University of Redlands in 1973 on the topic of mysticism. Thurman indicates that this lecture functions as a means to point the listener towards practical approaches to mysticism through lenses of psychology, philosophy, and religious experience. Drawing from Olive Schreiner, Elmer O'Brian, and his own encounters, Thurman reflects upon God's (or The Ultimate's) sovereign providence. Thurman communicates…

Community is evinced when any form of life identifies with another. For Thurman, humans experience wholeness when individual existence recognizes itself within the fullness of all existence. Community is an expression of life because its manifestation follows the “harmony,” “order,” and “inner togetherness” consistent with a person’s inner order. In this way, Thurman notes, community makes sense to the mind. Recognizing this profound continuity, persons in community must widen the “magnetic…

Community is evinced when any form of life identifies with another. For Thurman, humans experience wholeness when individual existence recognizes itself within the fullness of all existence. Community is an expression of life because its manifestation follows the “harmony,” “order,” and “inner togetherness” consistent with a person’s inner order. In this way, Thurman notes, community makes sense to the mind. Recognizing this profound continuity, persons in community must widen the “magnetic…