Howard Thurman and the Disinherited: A Religious Biography

A New Biography Of Howard Thurman

The African American mystic, philosopher, and spiritual guide, Howard Thurman, (1899 -- 1981) has been getting renewed attention the past few years, including this new biography by Paul Harvey, "Howard Thurman and the Disinherited: A Religious Biography" (2020). Harvey, professor of history and presidential teaching scholar at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, has written several books on American religion and race. His study of Thurman is part of a "Library of Religious Biography Series", a series aimed at a popular in addition to a scholarly audience, that aims to show how "religious biographies open a window to the sometimes surprising influence of religion on the lives of influential people and the worlds they inhabited." I had earlier read Allen Guelzo's book in this series: "Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President".

Harvey's biography tells the story of Thurman's life and of why Thurman is worth knowing. The book's focus is on Thurman's thought, which is broad and sometimes elusive, and on its influence on the Civil Rights Movement. Harvey makes extensive use of the Thurman papers at Boston University which have been edited and published over many years in five volumes of papers and two volumes of sermons and other writings under the leadership of the scholar of religion, Walter Fluker. The biography also draws upon Thurman's over twenty published books, with an emphasis on Thurman's most famous work, "Jesus and the Disinherited" (1949).

Harvey properly sees Thurman as "foremost a man of ideas" and as a lifelong spiritual seeker. He describes well how Thurman developed from his Baptist upbringing in highly segregated Daytona Beach, Florida under the influence of nature and of his grandmother, a former slave, to become a teacher of metaphysical, spiritual and communal unity. Thurman taught both the importance of both spiritual, personal contemplation and of social activism. The understanding of his thought requires thinking about how these two strands are related. Harvey's biography recognizes the more metaphysical, mystical aspects of Thurman's work but it focuses more on his activity and writing in support of civil rights and of his sympathy for a religion for those with "their backs against the wall" as expressed in "Jesus and the Disinherited".

The six chapters of Harvey's book explore Thurman's long life, his accomplishments and his writings. Harvey pays commendable attention to Thurman's second wife, Sue Bailey Thurman, whose accomplishments in her own right often are overlooked. (Thurman's first wife died from illness early in the marriage.) The opening chapter discusses Thurman's childhood and his efforts to get an education, including his reaching out to study with the Quaker mystic, Rufus Jones. Thurman had a long, influential career as Chaplain at Howard University, and took a trip to India where he met Gandhi and had a mystical vision at Khyber Pass. Thurman's trip, and his addresses and sermons from his years at Howard, are explored in the second and third chapters of Harvey's book.

Perhaps Thurman's greatest tangible accomplishment was his role as the co-founder of the first inter-racial, ecumenical church in the United States, the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples, in San Francisco. It took both courage and a spirit of restlessness for Thurman to set out on this journey and founding, which receives a great deal of attention in chapter four of Harvey's biography.

In chapter 5, Harvey discusses Thurman's service as the first African American chaplain at a non-historically black university. Thurman brought a universalist vision to bear at Boston University, which involved many interactions with future civil rights activists and with others, including the Jewish mystical teacher Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. Thurman's was a widely-known figure during this time and his sermons and addresses were other broadcast on radio. He also experienced tension between his universalist, spiritual vision and the more sectarian Protestant focus of Boston University.

The final chapter captures Thurman's busy years in retirement as he sought to expand his teachings to a still broader audience through travels and through his late writings.

Harvey's book lacks footnotes but it includes a valuable Bibliographical Essay for readers wanting to learn more about Thurman. Harvey shows much graciousness by encouraging his readers to explore an upcoming lengthier and more academically oriented biography of Thurman, "Against the Hounds of Hell" by Peter Eisenstadt, scheduled for publication in 2021.

Of the many writings and speeches of Thurman discussed in this biography, I found the following small exchange telling. While Thurman was at Boston University in the 1970s, the future theologian and university dean James Earl Massey had prepared an early biographical manuscript about Thurman and gave it to Thurman and his wife to review. Thurman candidly told Massey that the work was more an anthology of Thurman's writings than an "interpretation of their significance as the material passes through your own mind and spirit." Harvey observes on this incident.

"Thurman wanted his disciples to reflect more on their own inward journey than on repeating the words of others, even of the spiritual master. The manuscript was left unpublished. Massey later went on to publish extensively on preaching and spiritual disciplines."

My understanding of Thurman deepened from reading Harvey's book. This biography makes an excellent introduction to the active mysticism of a wise philosopher, theologian, and teacher.

Robin Friedman