With Head and Heart: The Autobiography of Howard Thurman

The Autobiography Of Howard Thurman

I became interested in Howard Thurman (1899 -- 1981) through studying Martin Luther King, Jr; and, in particular, from reading about Thurman in Gary Dorrien's 2018 book, "Breaking White Supremacy: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Black Social Gospel." Dorrien's discussion of Thurman made me want to learn more about him, and I began with Thurman's most famous book, "Jesus and the Disinherited". This brief quotation from Thurman fascinated me.

"Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."

Written in 1979, Thurman's autobiography "With Head and Heart" helped me understand how Thurman had taken his own advice; he found what made him "come alive" and went ahead to "do it". Thurman was an African American minister, civil rights activist, academic, and much more. "With Head and Heart" chronicles his career and the varied outward events of his life. Throughout the book, Thurman offers hints that his career and accomplishments, impressive as they are, do not capture what mattered and what Thurman found his life was about. Thurman comes closest to discussing what he found vital in his life in the concluding pages of his book: he discusses a lifelong and inward search for God and for an experiential knowledge of God. A philosophical and religious mystic, Thurman sought to understand in face of the many disappointments and instances of hatred in the common life "the secret door which leads into the central place where the Creator of life and the God of the human heart are on and the same. ....It is here that the meaning of the hunger of the heart is unified. The Head and the Heart at last inseparable; they are lost in wonder in the One."

The thread of the book runs through the detailed descriptions of Thurman's life, beginning from his childhood experiences in the highly segregated community of Daytona, Florida. From his youngest years, Thurman tells the reader how he felt a sense of the unity of all things through nature, observing the Atlantic Ocean, and sitting under his favorite oak tree. Thurman's great intellectual gifts were recognized early on, and he takes the reader through his educational journey through high school, Morehouse College, and the Rochester Theological Union. Thurman was married twice. When his first wife, Alice, died young after an illness, Thurman married Sue Bailey in a union that lasted for 49 years.

During his career, Thurman served as the first Dean of Rankin Chapel at Howard University and later as the Dean of Marsh Chapel at Boston University. The position Thurman held between these two, however is the most intriguing. He left a tenured, secure position at Howard to become the co-founder and minister of the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples, the first interracial, intercultural, interdenominational house of worship in the United States. I was fascinated to learn of this church and of Thurman's long role in it. Other important events of Thurman's life discussed in this book include his independent study with the Quaker philosopher and mystic Rufus Jones, his trip to India, Ceylon and Burma with his wife in 1935, and his work, after his retirement from Boston University teaching religious philosophy in Nigeria. In the trip to India, Thurman experienced religious illumination and also had what became a famous meeting with Gandhi. Throughout the book, Thurman combines the story of the outward events of his life with allusions to his deepening sense of understanding of what the events meant and of what his life was about.

The first six chapters of the book tell the events of Thurman's life in a largely chronological sequence. The final three chapters take a more thematic approach. Thurman does not discuss any of his 22 books until chapter 7 when he gives an all-too-brief summary of the factors leading him to publish and of the nature of some of his books. Thurman will probably be most remembered as an author, and I found it interesting that he apparently slighted his written work. The eighth chapter of the autobiography consists of short sections discussing various people and events in Thurman's life, including the two dogs he owned during his adult life, his meeting with Indian tribal leaders in 1962 in Canada, and his pursuits of interests in painting and music. These little sketches enhanced my appreciation of Thurman. The final section of the book, "The Binding Commitment" is the most revealing and personal as Thurman describes his search for God, his attempts through life to help other people become closer to God, and his mysticism. I also found revealing and valuable Thurman's extended discussion in the last few pages of his autobiography of his relationship to Judaism.

Thurman's relationship to Martin Luther King, Jr. does not get a great deal of attention in the autobiography. Thurman was asked to prepare a brief statement upon King's death, and the text of the statement is included in the book. Thurman was in Nigeria at the time of the death of President Kennedy. The American Ambassador to Nigeria asked Thurman to prepare a statement for use at the embassy. Thurman did so, and the text is included in the autobiography.

This book taught me a great deal about Thurman's life and about what Thurman considered important. It is an inspiring valuable work for readers interested in Thurman, biography, spirituality, or the African American experience.

Robin Friedman