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In this recording within the We Believe Series; Howard Thurman reads from Jane Steger's "Leaves from a Secret Journal." He attempts makes sense of the makeup of one's own life through the lens of ecology and biology. Using examples such as trees and DNA, Thurman explores the depths of the "order" of human existence.

n this recording within the We Believe series; Howard Thurman draws upon a parable of two leaves at the end of the Fall season. The two leaves are in conversation with one…

In this recording within the We Believe series; Howard Thurman draws upon a parable of two leaves at the end of the Fall season. The two leaves are in conversation with one another, pondering questions of why they must die and who will take their place when they die. After reading this parable, Thurman reflects upon the ways in which all of creation's lived experience participates in death; rendering death as an event that happens in one's life, not something that happens to oneself.

In the final sermon of this series, Thurman affirms that Jesus does not struggle with the fact of death but the fact of finality swallowing all future possibilities. When Jesus asked God whether the cup before him might pass, what he possibly considered, Thurman notes, is whether more time living might be better than dying. The test of faith, Thurman says, comes when life’s agony is not relieved. In Jesus’ yielding expression, “Thy will be done,” Thurman interprets God’s ability to intervene “in…

In the second temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, Thurman explains why Jesus resisted making himself an exception to the rule of the natural order. The tempter’s efforts to convince Jesus to operate beyond the logic of physical reality was an effort to get him to be less human. Jesus did not act outside of life so that he could speak to human life, Thurman notes. No one can do as one pleases or “disregard the structure of dependability that holds life in focus.” Trusting God rather than…

In Thurman’s second lecture on peace, he focuses on the collective experience of harmony in a world context. While human beings are deeply embedded within the ambitions and structures of governments and states, it is essential for the individual to establish a sense of being separate and distinct from the world in which one is nourished. Amid Cold War politics nearly twenty years after the use of the first atomic bomb, Thurman considers the meaning of thinking about peace in light of the threat…

In the first of this two-part lecture, Thurman defines peace as a sense of “inner togetherness.” Experiences of peace are diverse and unfold through manifestations of innocence, exhaustion, reconciliation, conformity, and triumph. Here, Thurman emphasizes peace associated with “trials.” He does so because only tranquility on these terms persist within when external conditions do not change. This, he says, is the peace that passes all understanding.