The Howard Thurman Podcast

In Part 4 of the Parables of Jesus sermon, Thurman interprets the Parables of the Two Debtors and the Unforgiving Servant. When we feel a deep need of forgiveness, we are more likely to be forgiving towards others. For Thurman, this is summed up in the thinking of Jesus: We can only seek forgiveness from God if we are willing to forgive people for what they have done to us. None of us can escape t...

In Part 3 on the Parables of Jesus, Thurman explores the Parable of the Prodigal Son. For Thurman, God is like the story's father, and the brothers represent the ways in which we can fall out of relationship with God. In his interpretation of the younger brother, Thurman comes to two insights. Firstly, there is a relationship between the internal and external: the outside famine that the son s...

In this second sermon on the Parables of Jesus, Thurman uses the Parable of the Lost Coin and the Parable of the Lost Sheep to speak about salvation and the nature of God. Thurman says that both parables describe the redeeming process of God. As human beings we fall into being lost and isolated, often due to forces beyond our control. However, God works towards our salvation, restoring the isolate...

Howard Thurman uses the parables of the sower (Matt. 13:1-23) and the fig tree in the vineyard (Luke 13:6-9) to explore the growth of the kingdom of God. He claims these parables illustrate that “the kingdom of God comes independent of human effort aside from the initial act.” This initial act is the choosing and planting of the seed and after that, “there isn’t any more than can be done.” Then, o...

God acts in the process of history. This is the primary theme in Thurman's fourth sermon on prophets. Returning to Isaiah, Thurman says that history is more than the logic of cause and effect. History is more dynamic than this. Every event is an overflowing unseen with potential. When we limit ourselves to the surface-value of events, we undermine our own hope and security. In Isaiah, Thurman...

In the third sermon on the prophets, Thurman explores the visions of Isaiah. Thurman describes Isaiah's first vision as encompassing "the total meaning of human existence." It is an experience of both illumination and vocation. The vision says something about the world and what he must do in it. The second vision is a utopian vision, seeing into a time when the world will be whole. Thu...

Thurman begins with Amos in this sermon series on the prophets of the Hebrew Bible. The theme of responsibility rings throughout this sermon. Through Amos, Thurman suggests that if all nations are under the judgment of God, then Israel is uniquely under the judgment of God, simply because they have been made aware of God. Knowledge and opportunity is equated to responsibility. In the light of such...

In this fourth lecture on the Inner Life, Thurman explores the relationship between the inner and outer life. Though our culture tends to draw a sharp distinction between the two sides of life, Thurman says that there is an integrated flowing between them. There is no either/or choice between inner and outer, rather the inner life is where our outer life is restored. Furthermore, centering in our...

In this excerpt from the third lecture on the Inner Life, Thurman says that it is rational and necessary to have a goal in life. To be without a goal is to undermine the self-respect of one's own being. Life is dynamic and responds to our commitment. When we hold a goal or purpose at our center, life energy rallies to support our efforts. This goal need not be extravagant, but can be as simple...

In this second lecture on the Inner Life, Thurman says that one must keep a dream in their heart, for dreams are nourishment for the human spirit. The dream is our inward consent to life and what we hope to do with it. We must ask ourselves what we are after, and what we are for. That which our inner authority says yes to becomes our link with the Eternal, and feeds our lives with significance. It...

In the third installment of Deep Calls Unto Deep Thurman speaks to the intimacy of deeper relationship with God as it relates to a religious experience. As we come to our self in God, God comes to himself in us. Thurman also speaks to the system of ethics and morality that has been created out of the religious experience which begs the question whether it is our relationship with the Lord or our r...

In the second installment of Deep Calls Unto Deep, Howard Thurman speaks to the idea of total surrender to God. This includes the need to surrender our private burdens and concerns as well as our spiritual being. The process of surrender is continuous as there will always be opportunities to discover areas that are not yet surrendered. Yet, it is not perfection that the Master requires, only that...

In this first lecture of the Deep Calls Unto Deep series, Howard Thurman is lecturing on the meaning of the religious experience. The greatest possible experience that can be had is an encounter with the living God as man-made ideologies and will eventually pass away. However, it is through God the creator that all particular expressions of life arise. Therefore, the meaning of the religious exper...

Thurman delves into the profound understanding of the human soul’s intrinsic value. Drawing on biblical passages, Thurman emphasizes the omnipresence of God and the importance of recognizing the "sound of the genuine" within oneself. He recounts the story of a man possessed by demons, highlighting the man's inability to identify his true self. Thurman urges us to find our unique identi...

In the 11th sermon from the series "The Men Who've Walked With God," Thurman explains the complex theology of Meister Eckhart. Eckhart believes that there is the Godhead, the ground of all things. This Godhead element is a part of a person's soul, and is always yearning to spill over. For Thurman, spiritual discipline is about giving more of one's life to this core. With Eckhar...

In this ninth lecture on "The Men Who've Walked with God," Thurman explores insights from Jane Steger's Leaves From a Secret Journal. Jane Steger suffered from illness at a young age and, in her illness, became familiar with the mystics. In Steger's journal, we find that she felt creation itself was alive with the Spirit of God, and that our very lives participate in the divine...

In this sixth lecture on "The Men Who've Walked with God," Thurman examines St. Augustine as a source of mystical insight. Thurman describes Augustine's search for God through the senses, the mind, the feelings, until finally finding "that which is" inside the soul. Thurman says that this is a union with God that is beyond thought, analysis, and spelled-out feelings. This m...

In this final sermon of the series, Thurman binds together faith and the dream of democratic living. Drawing upon the language of covenant, Thurman says that we are morally bound to God as God is morally bound to us. Furthermore, this covenant relationship brings us into unique relationship with others who share the same covenant, the same religion, the same culture, etc. But this binding-together...

In the introductory sermon to “A Faith to Live By,” Thurman reflects on the sense of instability humans experience when confronting the fact of their finiteness within the expansive universe. He argues, that when an existential awakening occurs, what anchors the religious believer is becoming conscious of God as a "categorical fact" that exists at the center of all reality. It is the fact...

In this concluding sermon on the Religion of the Prophets, Thurman highlights some key themes in the prophets. For Thurman, the genius of the prophets were founded upon the idea of the sovereignty of God. God is both fact and act, working in the unfolding of history. God has been expressed through creation, through Abraham's faith, through Moses' exodus, and ultimately through the redempti...

In this third lecture on loyalty, Thurman discusses the conflict between the individual and the state. For Thurman, loyalty to something supremely worthy is the ultimate basis for self-respect and significance. Thurman's word for this ultimate cause is God. Thurman posits that the state can either make itself a vehicle of this human striving, or it can become a competitor to it; the state can...

In this second lecture on The Meaning of Loyalty, Thurman discusses the problem of conflicting loyalties. We live complex lives with a hierarchy of causes that cannot be reduced to one. How do we resolve loyalty to our ideals in conflict with our loyalty to self-preservation? There is no simple answer, but Thurman poses that we become loyal to the experience of loyalty itself. This principle may b...

In this final lecture on the Inner Life, Thurman illustrates the infinite value of the human spirit. Here, Thurman ponders what it is that makes human beings "a little lower than God." There is an aspect of the human spirit that is limitless. The deepest things in us are always emerging against all obstacles. Once we become aware of this truth, all experiences become our teachers, helping...

In this sixth lecture on the Inner Life, Thurman explores ethical awareness. For the religious person, any sin against another is a sin against God. The person must always connect their acts to their ultimate relationship with life. We are all personally responsible for our ethical lives. Thurman says that we often fall into the trap of pushing people outside of our moral responsibility, but he in...

In this fifth lecture on the Inner Life, Thurman proposes that we cannot live without approval. We hunger for approval, and approval guides who we become. We dance in a world of approvals, from larger society to our more intimate communities. The security we get from belonging affects how we live and make decisions. Thurman says that we must come to a point where we settle for nothing less than ul...