Thanksgiving and the Nature of Life (1963-11-22); Waiting Creatively (1959-06-12)
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 the We Believe Series, Thurman reflects upon the meaning of "waiting." He defines waiting as the "interval between moments, experience, events, that are filled with activity." Waiting is dynamic in nature, and requires a true decision from the one who is participating: creatively participating in one's own life as it is manifested today, or longing for the life they will never have.
Thurman, Howard
<a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a>
<a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a>
1963-11-22
1959-06-12
Dustin Mailman
audio
394-780
Conversations with Howard Thurman, September 1980, Parts 5 and 6, Side A
This recording is a part of a wider series of conversations from September to October of 1980 where Howard Thurman met with a variety of young men and women who were discerning their calling to ministry. Thurman poses the intent of this group as an opportunity to "open up for one's self the moving, vital, creative push of God, while God is still disguised in the movement of God's self." This recording opens with one student's reflection on the inner life, which is followed by a discussion on dualism, in relation to the inner life, from Thurman. Thurman explores the tension between the outer life and the inner life, religion and superstition, and the practical and the theoretical. Speaking to these examples of dualism, Thurman notes that dualism as "a padding, a shield, to keep us from the naked exposure to the spirit of God."
Thurman, Howard
<a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a>
<a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a>
1980-09-20
Description by Dustin Mailman
<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.
audio
394-360_A
Conversations with Howard Thurman, Part 2, 1980
This recording is a part of a wider series of conversations from September to October of 1980 where Howard Thurman met with a variety of young men and women who were discerning their calling to ministry. Thurman poses the intent of this group as an opportunity to "open up for one's self the moving, vital, creative push of God, while God is still disguised in the movement of God's self." The majority of this recording is a group of young people working through the nature of temptation, and Jesus' understanding of his sense of self as it pertains to Luke 4:1-13. Towards the end of the recording, the group brings their ponderings on the scripture, to which Thurman responds with ambiguity, "The only thing I know is how the tempter works with me. And that is sometimes just in my imagination, sometimes there's somebody who poses something."
Thurman, Howard
<a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a>
<a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a>
1980
Description by Dustin Mailman
<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.
audio
394-190_B
A Thanksgiving Meditation (1958-11-14)
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: the ability to have food, all that dies in order for us to live, etc. He then concludes this meditation by discerning the ways in which one could understand their own gratitude for God: God's care, God's protection, etc.
Thurman, Howard
<a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a>
<a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a>
1958-11-14
Description by Dustin Mailman
<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.
audio
394-171_A
In the Garden, 1962 September 16
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 the midst of the breaking heart and the anguishing spirit” and inspire peace and resolve.
Thurman, Howard
<a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a>
<a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a>
1962-09-16
Description by ShaCarolyn Halyard
<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.
audio
394-024_A
GEOMETRYCOLLECTION(POINT(-9044266.856827 5310050.4960179))
At the Crossroad, 1962 September 15
Thurman’s fourth sermon in this series expands the traditional frame of the wilderness temptations and portrays Jesus’ decision to go to Jerusalem for the last time as a crossroads dilemma. In this instance, Jesus must decide whether to go to Jerusalem, where he would be rejected and killed, or, to continue his ministry elsewhere and live. Thurman explains the crossroad faced by Jesus as a dilemma because this moment reflects the "agony" of any dilemma in that one must choose either between competing goods or competing evils. Jesus knew going to Jerusalem would mean meeting his fate. If he did not go, it would mean quieting the revelation of God within him. In the choice Jesus makes to go to Jerusalem, Thurman recognizes the crowning example of faith to trust God and follow divine will.
Thurman, Howard
<a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a>
<a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a>
1962-09-15
Description by ShaCarolyn Halyard
<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.
audio
394-023_B
GEOMETRYCOLLECTION(POINT(-9044266.856827 5310050.4960179))
The Kingdoms of this World, 1962 September 14
In his third sermon regarding Jesus and the tempter, Thurman discusses the dilemma one faces when deciding whether personal ascent to power will compromise one's spiritual integrity. It is possible, Thurman says, that Jesus considered how ruling over the kingdoms of the world might position him to further the aims of God’s kingdom. Perhaps Jesus contemplated the potential of his teaching, healing, and miracle-working power backed by political authority. However, Thurman warns that “the nerve center of our consent” must always go to God. Rather than succumbing to the temptation of expediency, the individual must be invested in a reality beyond one’s own.
Thurman, Howard
<a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a>
<a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a>
1962-09-14
Description by ShaCarolyn Halyard
<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.
audio
394-023_A
GEOMETRYCOLLECTION(POINT(-9044266.856827 5310050.4960179))
Tempt God, 1962 September 13
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 seeking exceptions to the natural order is what allows one to feel the closeness of God, Thurman says, and feel the hand of Jesus “on my shoulder speaking the word of reassurance” and offering peace.
Thurman, Howard
<a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a>
<a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a>
1962-09-13
Description by ShaCarolyn Halyard
<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.
audio
394-022_B
GEOMETRYCOLLECTION(POINT(-9044266.856827 5310050.4960179))
Not By Bread Alone, 1962 September 12
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 of the body, the meaning of life is vast and transcends the body.
Thurman, Howard
<a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a>
<a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a>
1962-09-12
Description by ShaCarolyn Halyard
<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.
audio
394-022_A
GEOMETRYCOLLECTION(POINT(-9044266.856827 5310050.4960179))