Howard Thurman: Essential Writings (Modern Spiritual Masters Series) (Paperback)

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Key Phrases: centering moment, glad surprise, Deep Is the Hunger, Disciplines of the Spirit, Howard Thurman (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Thurman's best contribution was his ability, before many other people were doing it in our culture, to bring together the inner life, the life of passion, the life of fire, with the external life, the life of politics. --Martin E. Marty, University of Chicago

Product Description

Howard Thurman (1900 1981), minister, philosopher, civil rights activist, has been called one of the greatest spiritual resources of this nation. His encounters with Gandhi in India helped instill his commitment to nonviolence. His identification of Jesus as one of the disinherited helped shape the thinking of Martin Luther King, Jr. His embrace of wisdom from other religious traditions emboldened interfaith cooperation and understanding.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 174 pages
• Publisher: Orbis Books (November 8, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570756708
• ISBN-13: 978-1570756702
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #428,370 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Standing with those whose backs are against the wall, February 6, 2008

By	Kerry Walters (Lewisburg, PA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

In what's arguably his best book, Jesus and the Disinherited, Howard Thurman asks what message Jesus has to give to those whose backs are against the wall. In his Introduction to this new compilation of Thurman's spiritual writings, editor Luther Smith points out (p. 28) that Jesus advises neither blaming the wall nor trying to flee, but instead to respond with love, thereby asserting autonomy over the situation. In a fundamental way, this is the heart of Thurman's thought and activism: liberating oneself, through love, to be fully human; liberating others, through love, to be fully human; and liberating God, through love, to be fully God.

It's a shame that Thurman isn't as well-known today as he was even a short quarter of a century ago. As a Christian pacifist, he influenced most of the leaders of the American Civil Rights Movement. As a college chaplain and teacher, he moved hundreds of students to reflect deeply on the moral life. As a popular and insightful preacher and author, he inspired thousands of listeners and readers to to take more seriously what it means to be a Christian. He anticipated both liberation theology and theologies of the oppressed.

The love ethic so central to Thurman's thought undergirds one of the most notable features of his teachings: its loving embrace of alternative religious perspectives. Thurman was convinced that there are universal truths, but that humans can only encounter them in particulars. We have no sub specie aeternitatus perspective. So God is discernible in particular modes of worship, particular doctrines, particular faith traditions. But no particular can encompass a universal. So while the universal is encountered in the particular, no particular has a monopoly on truth or revelation.

Smith is to be commended for reintroducing Thurman in this lovely compilation.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great read., June 28, 2009

By	Emilio F. Soto (Bronx, New York) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Fast delivery. Awesome piece of American Literature.

Tito / Bronx, N.Y.