Browse Items (10 total)

This initial lecture in the Disciplines of the Spirit series is a discussion about the development of patience through the discipline of growth. Thurman describes discipline as the training, development, response to, and often responsibility for something. The spirit is disciplined, trained, cultivated, and fashioned by many things. One of these things is the experience of growth. Growth is characteristic of life and as our body continues to develop, so does our mind and spirit. In our initial…

In this sermon, Thurman discusses the strangeness associated with following Jesus and taking up the life of ministry. The strangeness of this act is that one must leave the known for the unknown, convert family into strangers, and assume a spiritual orientation to a material world. When Jesus opted not to turn stones into bread he must have done so, Thurman muses, knowing that while humans do not live by bread, alone, they do live by bread. While the time men and women spend on earth is a time…

Here Thurman speaks to the moment of truth as it relates to God’s purpose for our lives. Discovering the authentic meaning of our lives helps us to uncover the bearing our experiences have on that meaning. It is the experience by which the mind and the spirit and yes, the soul of man gets a confirmation that enables him to live into the meaning of his life not only with a sense of responsibility but with dignity and power.

In this recording within the We Believe series, Howard Thurman unpacks his understanding of love, the experience of love, and the nature of love. Thurman describes love at its best to be an involvement with the "innermost center of the beloved." Thurman describes the experience of love as being "totally dealt with," noting that trust, responsibility, and consent all point to the creative moment that composes one's understanding of "love." Love is shared, love is transcendent, and love speaks to…

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.

In the first of two sermons entitled “Man,” Thurman considers what it means for the human to be a spirit-possessing being. The spirit is fundamental to understanding all things that a person thinks and feels. It is what enables the human to respond to one's experiences. Thurman imagines spiritual consciousness as an elevated level of awareness, whereby a person resists being imprisoned within moments and events so that possibilities beyond immediate experience become visible. Here, one can speak…

This sermon is the second of nine in a series of sermons given in Marsh Chapel that are titled "The Inward Journey." In this sermon, Thurman reflects upon Jacob Boehme's philosophical text "The Mystic Will." Thurman uses this text to make sense of the order that is embedded in the natural world. He notes that it is a natural inclination for humans to make sense of the order of their life by means of external resources; however, with the help of Boehme's writing, Thurman emphasizes that one must…

In this recording within the We Believe Series; Howard Thurman reflects upon his writing within "The Inward Journey," to speak to the impact Jesus has upon one's experience of life. Thurman notes that it is in one's seeking of God that they find Jesus, and when one finds Jesus, one has the resources to find synthesis, wholeness, and unity.

In this recording within the We Believe Series; Howard Thurman reflects upon his writing within "The Inward Journey." In this reflection, he gives a…

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…

In this recording within the We Believe Series, Thurman reflects upon the Thanksgiving season. He lists a litany of feelings, emotions, materials, and states of being that he is thankful for: air to breath, food to eat, shelter, love, etc. He then discerns the way in which humanity may overlook many of the things that humanity should be grateful for, and suggests that Thanksgiving should be approached as a sacrament which points one towards humility and gratitude.

In this recording within…