Mysticism and Social Action: Lawrence Lecture and Discussions with Dr Howard Thurman

By Richard Boeke, Luther Smith and Jr.

With a foreword by Dr Howard Thurman's biographer Dr Luther E. Smith Jr this book contains the only surviving text of the Lawrence Lectures given by Dr Thurman at California's Berkeley Unitarian Church in 1978. As such, it is a unique record of the thinking of one of America's most celebrated African-American churchmen on the potential of religious experience and god-conscious living to transform society.

Howard Thurman, as Dean of the Chapels at Howard University, and later at Boston University, was acclaimed by LIFE magasine as one of the 20th century's "Great Preachers" of America. His insights and teaching in a time of immense social upheaval influenced the lives of millions, including Martin Luther King, Jr. In the Lawrence Lecture reproduced in this book he insists that the most intense religious experience (the 'mysticism' of the title) can and should be the basis for involvement in social transformation.

Also within the book is a biographical essay entitled 'The Temple above the Clouds' by the Rev Richard F Boeke, Minister of the First Unitarian Church at Berkeley 1968-1995. It was he who was instrumental in inviting Dr Thurman to deliver the Lawrence Lectures and who preserved the content of those lectures for eventual publication. His reminiscence of his ministry during those years of rapid change in social attitudes provides both a fascinating and highly personal account in itself and also an informative background to the issues addressed by Dr Thurman.

• Language: English
• Publisher: International Association for Religious Freedom
• Release date: Sep 11, 2015
• ISBN: 9781783017034

Book preview

Mysticism and Social Action

Lawrence Lecture and Discussions with Dr Howard Thurman

October 13 and 14, 1978

DR. HOWARD THURMAN

In the 20th Century, Dr. Howard Thurman was acclaimed by LIFE magazine as one of the twelve Great Preachers of America. As Dean of the Chapels at Howard University and later at Boston University he influenced the lives of millions including Martin Luther King, Jr

In retirement, Dr. Thurman returned to San Francisco, speaking and lecturing at universities and churches throughout the United States and around the world. In 1944 he had founded and for many years served as Pastor of the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples in San Francisco.

This was the first church to be completely racially integrated in American life both in its leadership and in its membership. Author of twenty-two books, including the noted The Search for Common Ground, he appeared on both radio and television and was at home in a church, a classroom or on a lecture platform.

Mysticism and Social Action

Lawrence Lecture on Religion and Society, October 1978

ISBN (paperback) 978-0-9538172-3-8

eBook ISBN 978-1-7830170-3-4

© Copyright of the International Association for Religious Freedom 2014. All rights reserved. Use and reproduction by religious organisations permitted, with acknowledgement. Published by and permissions from IARF British Chapter:

Copies available in pounds sterling from:

IARF British Chapter

International Association for

Religious Freedom

Essex Hall

1-6 Essex Street

London

WC2R 3HY

(www.iarf.net)

Copies available in U.S. dollars from:

Unitarian Universalist Association

International Office

24 Farnsworth Street,

Boston,

MA 02210

USA

The publishers wish to acknowledge the valuable support of:

The General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches

The Unitarian Universalist Association

The World Congress of Faiths (www.worldfaiths.org)

Co-Editors: Richard Boeke Patrick Wynne-Jones

Contents

Foreword

By Luther E. Smith, Jr, Professor of Church and Community at Candler School of Theology and author of Howard Thurman : The Mystic as Prophet

Lawrence Lecture on

Religion and Society 1978

Mysticism and Social Action with Dr. Howard Thurman, Dean Emeritus of Marsh Chapel at Boston University

The Temple Above the Clouds

Berkeley, 1968-1995 by Rev. Richard F. Boeke, Minister, First Unitarian Church, Berkeley, 1973-95

Dr Luther E. Smith Jr

Dr. Smith has written numerous articles and speaks extensively on issues of church and society, congregational renewal, Christian spirituality, and the thought of Howard Thurman. His current research focuses on the writings and correspondence of Howard Thurman, advocacy on behalf of children, and a spirituality of hope. Dr. Smith is an ordained elder in the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church.

Foreword

By Luther E. Smith, Jr,

author of Howard Thurman: the Mystic as Prophet

In his Lawrence Lecture, Howard Thurman insists that the most intense personal religious experience (mysticism) can and should be the basis for involvement in social transformation. What is personal is also social—a unity that results from love binding all things into a single whole.

Thurman’s conviction not only informs this lecture, but also his twenty-three books, numerous articles, and thousands of lectures and sermons. His impact upon the activism of major social reformers (e.g., Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; Whitney Young, executive director of the National Urban League; Congresswoman Barbara Jordan; James Farmer, founder and director of the Congress on Racial Equality; Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children’s Defense Fund; and Rev. Jesse Jackson, civil rights and political activist) is well documented. Added are the innumerable readers and listeners who were inspired by Thurman to make a difference in their social settings. And in this book, Dr. Richard Boeke’s references to Thurman’s influence upon his ministry are fitting testimony to how Thurman energized activism.

As Thurman argues for the necessity of social activism as a faithful response to religious experience, he concludes, the call to social action, therefore, must never be an end in itself. A purpose of social action is to deepen one’s sense of self, meaning, and relatedness to others. And even more than personal awareness and affirmation, he concludes that what ultimately matters is that God may come to himself in his creations, a time when God will be all in all.

The transformation of self, relationships, and societies is a religious commitment that honors God’s own transforming longings and activity. What one lovingly does for self and others is integral to what God desires to experience in creation. More than an ethic of love or an aesthetic experience from love, Thurman believes that human devotion to love aligns with the ultimate meaning and purpose of existence, and love fulfils the dreams of the Creator of existence.

Thurman’s focus on immanent and transcendent power and meaning can be challenging for both: a) persons who believe that the locus of spiritual authority is totally external to the individual (both in terms of God and religious institutions), and b) persons who believe that spiritual authority only resides within each person. He refuses to limit God’s loving presence to an internal or external realm. His insights come from his religious experiences and rigorous thinking about God and reality.

As is the case with mystics, Thurman experienced God as loving presence within a oneness. Still, he recognized that there was more to God than his experience. So he could bear witness to experiences of God without claiming to have exhausted the meaning of God or even the meaning of his experiences. As should be the case with any testimony about God, Thurman exercises humility in speaking about God’s will and activity. Awe, reverence, and discerning responsiveness are central to the encounter with God. He has no interest in domesticating God with airtight theological argument.

It is possible to appreciate Howard Thurman’s vision of community and his attention to the self without agreeing with his understanding of God. Thurman has devotees across the theological spectrum. However, to embrace his vision of self and community without tarrying with his God-consciousness will result in an impoverished understanding of the foundations for his prophetic witness.

History has myriad examples of how arrogance in interpreting religious experience and implementing social change can lead to horrendous outcomes. The Lawrence Lecture and the post-lecture printed discussion provide the opportunity to hear one of the prominent religious voices of the twentieth century profess how personal religious experience and social change are bound creatively. Only in approaching the realities of experience and transformation with humility are we likely to contribute to a future worth anticipating.

By no means does the lecture entail the full range of Thurman’s thinking and action on matters of religion and society. As of this writing, The Howard Thurman Papers Project is nearing completion on publishing four volumes of his papers; the size of the collected papers is only second to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project, as a publication of an African American’s papers. Thurman’s writing and speaking address a vast number of issues and ideas. As the first African American to meet with Mohandas K. Gandhi, he returned to the United States with a message for nonviolent social change that has influenced generations. His pioneering witness in cofounding what is considered to be the first interracial and intercultural church in membership and leadership in American life indicates his vision and courage.

The