In this first installment of The Search for Meaning, Howard Thurman uses the temptation of Jesus in the synoptic gospels as a framework for a conversation about those things we choose to devote our lives and energy to. Like Christ, we are no exceptions to the rule of God’s order and God’s will because of who or what we are or decide to be. Spiritual duality and internal conflict as it relates to the demands of state and country are also discussed.

Collection: The Search for Meaning (1975, Second Christian Church, Indianapolis, IN)

Tags: duality, meaning, synoptic gospels

Description by ShaCarolyn Halyard

Location: Second Christian Church, Indianapolis, Indiana

Citation: Thurman, Howard, “The Search for Meaning (I), 1975 November 2,” The Howard Thurman Digital Archive, accessed July 9, 2024, https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/items/show/229.

In this second installment of The Search for Meaning, Howard Thurman uses the demon-possessed man from the synoptic gospels as the framework for this lecture on defining the experience of self. The awareness of self is essential to determining who we are at our core. This includes our personal, spiritual, and ethical awareness. Understanding who we are, what we want, and how we propose to get is critical to outlining and protecting our inner network of values the govern our lives and our decisions.

Collection: The Search for Meaning (1975, Second Christian Church, Indianapolis, IN)

Tags: awareness, meaning, synoptic gospels, values

Description by ShaCarolyn Halyard

Location: Second Christian Church, Indianapolis, Indiana

Citation: Thurman, Howard, “The Search for Meaning in the Experience of the Self (II), 1975 November 3,” The Howard Thurman Digital Archive, accessed July 9, 2024, https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/items/show/230.

In this third lecture in the Search for Meaning, Howard Thurman discusses freedom as it relates to personal accountability. Thurman defines freedom as the ability to stand in the present that ultimately determines the future. Freedom is also defined as having a sense of option and alternative. It is the freedom of choice that keeps our soul alive. Additionally, it is our desire and ability to take responsibility for our deeds despite extenuating circumstances that give us true liberation.

Collection: The Search for Meaning (1975, Second Christian Church, Indianapolis, IN)

Tags: choice, freedom, liberty, meaning, option

Description by ShaCarolyn Halyard

Location: Second Christian Church, Indianapolis, Indiana

Citation: Thurman, Howard, “The Search for Meaning in the Experience of Freedom (III), 1975 November 4,” The Howard Thurman Digital Archive, accessed July 9, 2024, https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/items/show/231.

This fourth lecture in The Search for Meaning series is the first part of Howard Thurman’s talk on the experience of love. Here Thurman defines love as the ability to deal with another person at a point in that person that is beyond all of his faults and all of his virtues. To be loved is to have a sense of being totally dealt with, totally held, so that you can dare to be free enough in your spirit just to run the risk of being you. Howard Thurman also uses several anecdotes to demonstrate love as a function of personal worth and forgiveness in this lecture.

Part of the Collection, The Search for Meaning (1975, Second Christian Church, Indianapolis, IN)

Tags: experience, forgiveness, love, worth

Description by ShaCarolyn Halyard

Recorded in Second Christian Church, Indianapolis, Indiana

Citation: Thurman, Howard, “The Search for Meaning in the Experience of Love (IV), 1975 November 5,” The Howard Thurman Digital Archive, accessed July 9, 2024, https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/items/show/232.

In this second part of Howard Thurman’s lecture on the Experience of Love, Thurman continues his discussion on the acceptance of others in their totality. John 8:1-11 is used to highlight the importance of meeting others where they are while treating them as though they are where they should be. We do not find Refuge in material possessions; we find refuge in the heart of those who love us.

Part of the Collection, The Search for Meaning (1975, Second Christian Church, Indianapolis, IN)

Tags: experience, love, refuge

Description by ShaCarolyn Halyard

Recorded in Second Christian Church, Indianapolis, Indiana

Citation: Thurman, Howard, “The Search for Meaning in the Experience of Love (IV) (continued), 1975 November 5,” The Howard Thurman Digital Archive, accessed July 9, 2024, https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/items/show/233.

Part 1 of Jesus and the Disinherited. Begins by referring to Jesus' "working paper." Thurman's book was written about ten years prior, and he wants to take another look at these issues with consideration of all that has happened. He tells the story of his father's death and funeral when he was seven. As he grew he found he had a very intimate relationship with Jesus, even verbally discussing things with Jesus at night in the sand dunes. Jesus was a real personality to Thurman. However, he couldn't square this intimate, real "personality" Thurman had come to know with the things people said about Jesus. Later, when he traveled to India and asked why he was a Christian, when Christians had harmed the black people so terribly, even considering people like Thurman a traitor to his people by professing Christianity. That encounter led Thurman to go back and study the actual life of Jesus. He realized that Jesus was a Jew. Thurman began wondering how the Jewish people could have possibly endured all the suffering they had endured since AD 70 to the present, and in fact Jesus came out of that milieu of suffering community. He quotes Albert Schweitzer, and points out that people shall know Jesus by experience, even mystery, through the trials, sufferings and joys of life.

Part of the Collection, Jesus and the Disinherited (1959, Marsh Chapel, Boston University, Boston, MA)

Tags: Albert Schweitzer, black history, defense of Christianity, experience, father's death, India, Jesus, Jewish history, Jews, mystic, Saul Solomon Thurman, slave history, slave ship Jesus, traitor, working paper

Description by Ken Owens

Recorded in Marsh Chapel, Boston University, Boston, Massachussetts

Citation: Thurman, Howard, “Jesus and the Disinherited, Part 1, January 11, 1959,” The Howard Thurman Digital Archive, accessed July 9, 2024, https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/items/show/1017.

Part 2 of Jesus and the Disinherited. He quotes from Russell Gordon Smith from "Fugitive Papers." Thurman argues that the Jews had a sense of destiny, which was hindered by the fact of Roman rule and created a constant turmoil and sense of danger. What made Jesus, then, different? The common belief was that anyone who upends that which blocks destiny, becomes a righteous arm of God as the enemy is destroyed. The Zealots want to appear Roman, then kill it from the inside. The Essenes wanted to withdraw completely, feeling the Roman Empire to be totally polluted, and hoping that through shear naked spirituality God would overthrow Rome without anyone having to resort to violence. In the religion of Jesus, each person is responsible for their own actions in response to the environment they find themselves. Education can make God less personal and, ironically, we become more pessimistic about our destiny. God used that Jewish/Roman/Greek environment in which to shape Jesus and his community.

Part of the Collection, Jesus and the Disinherited (1959, Marsh Chapel, Boston University, Boston, MA)

Tags: Essenes, Fugitive Papers, Jews and Rome, Le Roy, Little Rock, Psalm 91, Russell Gordon Smith, seminary, Sepphoris, Temptations of Christ, World Student Volunteer Movement, Zealots

Description by Ken Owens

Recorded in Marsh Chapel, Boston University, Boston, Massachussetts

Citation: Thurman, Howard, “Jesus and the Disinherited, Part 2, January 18, 1959,” The Howard Thurman Digital Archive, accessed July 9, 2024, https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/items/show/1018.

Part 3 of Jesus and the Disinherited. He begins with a reading called "Joseph" by Clive Benson (not mentioned by name). The thrust of this piece is that God is primary, and can be trusted because God is kind. God is just and kind at the same time. There was only one real question Jesus was ever asking, "What is the will of God?" Not, "what do I want," or "how will this impact what's important to me?" He wants us to focus on this, and he tells the story of how he taught older women to ride bikes, and when they'd see a rock ahead, he'll tell them not to look at it or they would go straight at it. "Don't watch Rome so hard."

Part of the Collection, Jesus and the Disinherited (1959, Marsh Chapel, Boston University, Boston, MA)

Tags: bicycle, Clive Benson, Joseph, rock, root, will of God

Description by Ken Owens

Recorded in Marsh Chapel, Boston University, Boston, Massachussetts

Citation: Thurman, Howard, “Jesus and the Disinherited, Part 3, January 25, 1959,” The Howard Thurman Digital Archive, accessed July 9, 2024, https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/items/show/1019.