Howard Thurman: Sermons on the Parables

by Howard Thurman, David B. Gowler (Editor), Kipton E. Jensen (Editor)

Howard Thurman, preacher, educator, poet, theologian and civil rights leader best known for his ethical and cultural criticism, influenced a wide audience, from Martin Luther King and Mohandas Gandhi to young students exploring faith and social responsibility. Among the first preachers to conduct Christian services in a nontraditional way, drawing from such eastern religious faiths as Buddhism and Hinduism, Thurman's philosophy of interfaith worship and dialogue is reflected in this collection of his essential writings. It reminds us all that out of religious faith emerges social responsibility and the power to transform lives.

Genres: Spirituality, Theology

192 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 23, 2018

About the author

Howard Washington Thurman was an author, philosopher, theologian, educator, and civil rights leader. As a prominent religious figure, he played a leading role in many social justice movements and organizations of the twentieth century.

Reviews

[Irene · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of sermons given by Rev. Howard Thurman during the 1950s, each with an introduction by the editors. I wonder if they would have had a clearer impact on me had I heard them. Living from your center and being connected to community seem to be the themes he returned to regularly.

[Robert D. Cornwall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having belatedly read Howard Thurman's Jesus and the Disinherited, I was pleased to receive a review copy of a newly published collection of Thurman's Sermons on the Parables. Jesus' parables have been illuminating and challenging to many, and to experience them in the preaching of this leading 20th century African American religious leader is a blessing. This collection of sermons preached in the 1950s, following the publication of "Jesus and the Disinherited," is a natural extension of that important book. As with the earlier book, Thurman reminds us in these sermons that Jesus always had in mind those on the margins. We fail to properly interpret Jesus if we fail to make the connection.

Thurman is best known today as one of Martin Luther King's spiritual mentors. While he did influence King, he was much more than this, as the editors of this collection note. He was an important figure in American religious life simply on his own, pushing boundaries and paving the way for others who came after him. While Thurman is a product of the Black church, his spiritual vision was wide. The editors remind us that Thurman was the first African American intellectuals to meet with Gandhi, and that Thurman took into consideration elements of Hinduism in his own spiritual development. His conversations with Gandhi helped him connect the plight of the untouchables with African American Christians. This also helped him develop his own vision of non-violent social witness.

As the editors note, "Thurman reminds us that Jesus spoke primarily to those who were oppressed by the powerful and that Jesus' prophetic message continues to be relevant to the oppressed in any age and in every place, albeit in ways not completely understood or acknowledged by many who claim to follow him." (p. xvi). As for Thurman's sermons, the editors write that his sermons and writings "provided succor and sustenance to an entire generation of civil and human rights activists." (p. xxxvi). Reading these sermons we are challenged to embrace the prophetic message of Jesus in every age.

The editors, one of whom is a New Testament Scholar who has written on the parables (Gowler) and the other a professor philosophy at Morehouse College, where Thurman studied and taught (Jensen) bring their expertise and experience to the task of bringing the sermons to our attention. The sermons are transcripts of taped sermons. Thus, we have them as preached and recorded. That these were preached in the 1950s, and not all recordings are of the same quality, means that parts of some of the sermons were not clear enough to transcribe. The missing parts are noted, allowing us to try and fill in the gaps.

Each of the sermons is introduced by the editors. They give us a sense of the text, the location and date of the sermon, and an overview of Thurman's purpose in delivering the sermon. Many of the sermons were delivered in collegiate contexts, as he served as Dean of Chapel at Boston University. As a preacher myself I know that what is communicated on paper is different from what is communicated in person. What cannot be fully communicated is the tone of voice and the embodiment of the message. Where possible, the editors add in parenthetically that there was, for instance, laughter. That helps to some degree, but isn't the same. Nonetheless, the words printed communicate important truths.

As to who might benefit from this book. Preachers will find encouragement and sustenance. Seekers after truth will be inspired. Those who wish to understand the civil rights movement in its fullness will benefit both from the sermons and the introductions. Finally, those wishing to experience the parables of Jesus in a modern context will find the collection stimulating. If Martin Luther King was inspired and encouraged by Thurman's vision of Jesus, perhaps we will as well. Highly recommended.

[James Klagge · Rating 5 out of 5]

You learn a lot more about Howard Thurman from these sermons than you do about the parables. These are not scholarly investigations of the parables, but deep and even mystical reflections on the messages. Thurman generally drills down into the story in the parable and finds one profound idea and meditates on it. For him, a parable "acts as a can opener for the mind" (p. 8).
Each sermon had at least one line that made me pause and wonder. Some examples:
p. 13: I discover that the quality of my very being is involved in wheat and tares.
p. 20: [Deep questions] worried me all the time, because I couldn't get any answer that was satisfying. And of course I don't have one now, because it is a question the answer to which one lives into, and the more deeply one lives into the answer, the more irrelevant becomes the question.
p. 24: I don't quite know how to establish a relationship with my fellows that can float my sprit to them or bring their spirit to me.
p. 46: You are trying in the process so to settle your account with life that life will begin to flow freely through you again.
p. 81: The divine purpose is that there shall be increasingly, in all creation, community, a sense of ingatheredness, a sense of wholeness, a sense of integration.
p. 85: The redemption of the whole creation rests upon the redemption of a single human being. God cannot be happy in his heaven if any man is in hell. Therefore, I must work out my salvation by seeking in every way to further communion between myself and all living things and myself and God.
p. 95: The responsibility for how other people relate to me is not mine.
p. 115: He had to plant his enemy's field with grain that God might exist.
p. 115: Know that if you respond with all that you have, your little life takes on a meaning in the light of which even death itself becomes a little thing.
p. 123: When we learn how to center down, there begins a movement that is not only creative but is redemptive for all our days.
p. 131: When I make the deliberate intention of my life to be to you what the purpose of God demands that I be to you, then in so doing, I enter into his kingdom, and he enters into my life.
We used this book as the text for our adult Sunday School class in a small Black church, covering about 2 sermons per week. It worked very well. We had already read Jesus and the Disinherited as well as watched a long video interview with Thurman previously, so we had a lot of background for his mystical and his liberationist approach to Jesus. BTW, the prayer/mediations that open each sermon were wonderful and we generally used them as our opening prayers.

[David Shirk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant series by a scholar, poet, and peerless communicator. I will be returning to this often.

I don't love the introductions to the chapters, I feel like Thurman's work stands on it's own, so I usually skip them.

[Vincent Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Book

Informative book...worth being on all seminarians desk...Timely and worth reading and studying even for this age...

Will recommend for others to read...

[R. R. Nichols · Rating 5 out of 5]

This Gift

I love Howard Thurman and no matter what I read nor how many times I read his writings they ALWAYS motivate and inspire me in fresh ways.

[Adam Shields · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary: Collection of sermons on the parables, mostly from the 1950s.
This year I have been trying (with mixed success) to read a sermon a day. I have been alternating between Eugene Peterson, Fleming Rutledge, Howard Thurman and in the past few days Karl Barth.

Thurman's Sermons on the Parables are faithful transcriptions of the full sermon with introductory material by the two editors. The commentary helpfully points out features and places the sermons in context. I have heard enough of Thruman's voice in recordings that it was easy to hear Thurman's voice as I was reading them. Thurman had a slow deliberate style of speaking and I think it would be helpful if you are not familiar with his speaking style to listen to the audio collection of his sermons on Audible or watch a few of the youtube video link this one.

The parables are very familiar territory for most Christians; there is little that can be said that is new. But I was surprised at how often Thurman was able to bring a fresh perspective to the parables while at the same time taking the text seriously, he was not just creating new.

I am not going to comment anymore but quote from an introduction to one of the sermons and then the sermon itself to give a sense of the book.

From the introduction

Thurman notes that in the parable of the lost sheep Jesus portrays God as a shepherd who loves and actively seeks out the sheep who is lost. For Thurman, this portrayal of the shepherd and the sheep also demonstrates the importance of community. The sheep was out of touch “with the group that sustained him.” A sense of isolation can occur with human beings who wish to be “independent,” and it also can happen with nations—and have devastating results. The parable teaches that, like the shepherd, God is not passively waiting; God takes the initiative and is always actively seeking and searching for those who are lost. What the shepherd does for the sheep, God wants to do for human beings: restore them to fellowship and the community in which they truly belong.

From the sermon

And then the shepherd, who had many sheep, missed him when he got back to the fold, and he left his ninety and nine—or whatever the number was—and he went out to try to find this sheep that was lost. And Jesus says, “God is like that.” Nothing heavy and theological about that. Very little that is dogmatic, technically, about it. Just that here is a shepherd who loves his sheep, and one of the sheep in doing the most natural thing in the world—and that is to eat the grass—did it with such enthusiasm and over a time interval of such duration that he didn't know when the shepherd called, and he was lost. And why was he lost? He was lost because he was out of touch, out of touch. That's why he was lost. Out of touch with the group that sustained him, the group that fed him, that gave him a sense that he counted. That's all. And as soon as he was out there alone, he said, “I'm just here by myself. Nothing but me in all of this? And I want to feel that I count with the others.” There's a certain warmth in that. There's a certain something that is creative and redemptive about the sense of community, about the fellowship. Now I call your attention to two things about that. The first is that this lost sheep wasn't a bad sheep. And what he did was not a bad thing. It became a deadly thing, however. When [in eating the grass], or in quest of it, he unwittingly paid the price of being cut off from the rest.

[Drick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of sermons come primarily from sermon series Thurman did while serving as co-pastor of the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples (1944-1953) and Dean of Marsch Chapel at Boston University (1953-1965) drawing on insights from the parables of Jesus. The key themes throughout these sermons seem to focus on the presence of God in all human life, the importance of human relationships and community, and our role in helping to fulfill Jesus' promise of the Kingdom of God. While reading a sermon is much different than hearing it, one can see Thurman's creative use of language and drawing of illustrations and truths from the mundane events of everyday life. I found this book to be spiritually enriching and challenging as I seek to find the balance of my inner and outer expressions of faith.

Editors David Gowler and Kipton Jensen provide helpful introductions to each sermon as well as on overview of Thurman's life and work.

[Brad Dell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thurman’s content is brilliant, as usual, but the book itself is difficult to read. These rather raw transcripts could have used more, and more careful, editing. Even the best on-the-spot speakers could use some touch-ups and — speaking as an editor — this can be done without marring the speaker’s voice. The high volume of Thurman’s irrelevant sidenotes and editors’ typos make the reading experience feel disjointed.