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4.5 AVERAGE
4.5 AVERAGE
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
What a great positive book.
MLK carried a copy with him!
MLK carried a copy with him!
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Incredibly powerful book about how a nonviolent movement can be successful, starting in your heart and mind.
This was my first time reading Mr Thurman (Im very late!). Great resource for parents and a MUST for theologians and those in religious leadership. I see a lot of parallels with MLK's Strength to Love book and totally get how this book informed MLKs teachings and was his mentor. Id love more recommendations like this if anyone has some.
"Thurman's thesis is this: The religion of Jesus was the story of God's involvement in the transformative life available to everyone, ESPECIALLY the outsiders and outcasts, those with their backs against the wall.
"Thurman's thesis is this: The religion of Jesus was the story of God's involvement in the transformative life available to everyone, ESPECIALLY the outsiders and outcasts, those with their backs against the wall.
American Christianity has mutated and become the story of comfort for those who have privilege and power. He speaks to the power of fear, deception and hate, "the three hounds of the oppressed", and then to the power of love to overcome. But the power of love is costly and difficult, requires endurance and commitment. "
challenging
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
hopeful
informative
inspiring
I am in the minority for giving this book less than 5 stars. I found the language a bit difficult to follow. Is it the style of that era, or academese? I'm not sure, but i wasn't pulled in by the style of writing. Also, while he makes good points, to me he seems to focus on how the disinherited should respond to oppression rather than how oppressors should adjust their behavior. Maybe it's me.. or maybe i need the physical book to make notes and refer back to, because there were some gems in there i liked.
This book was gifted to me by a dear friend and mentor as I entered post-grad life and began the journey of "developing my life's working paper" as Thurman profoundly etches in the epilogue of this work.
Being one who is far from the experience of the disinherited, Thurman's expose of Christ's familiarity with the disinherited was a revealing and familiar reminder in our current moment following our country's reflection on the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.. Christ's experience with His "back against the wall" as Thurman expresses, seems to inform the way in which He proclaimed the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.
Thurman's discussion leans heavily on the incarnate experience of Jesus, being a man who lived, breathed, and existed on the plane of existence we find ourselves. Although I can see how for some that may feel like a neglecting of Christ's divinity, I would argue that the divine nature of Jesus was not the intent of this work from what I could glean, and rather an analysis of how Christ's life captures the human experience quite fully.
Fear, Deception & Hate. The hounds of Hell as Thurman personifies them. Jesus' ministry may have been surrounded by these hounds, but the Kingdom of God has no place for the reign of such oppressive and violent characters. The end of Thurman's discussion hinges on the baseline of God's character - Love. A love that in the person of Jesus extends over social, political, racial, etc. lines in order to bring to light the common thread shared amongst men and women - the image of God. Additionally, this love is not self-preserving but unifies through the work of reconciliation, forgiveness, and equity between parties.
I will return to this work for the sake of the disinherited I tend to neglect in my own periphery. Hold me accountable if you've read this far.
*My inability to engage some of Thurman's lines of thought brings my rating down to a 3.5 or 4 out of 5 for me, because I feel like I was unable to grasp all he was saying at times, but that is more a me problem than a critique of the work itself.*
Being one who is far from the experience of the disinherited, Thurman's expose of Christ's familiarity with the disinherited was a revealing and familiar reminder in our current moment following our country's reflection on the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.. Christ's experience with His "back against the wall" as Thurman expresses, seems to inform the way in which He proclaimed the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.
Thurman's discussion leans heavily on the incarnate experience of Jesus, being a man who lived, breathed, and existed on the plane of existence we find ourselves. Although I can see how for some that may feel like a neglecting of Christ's divinity, I would argue that the divine nature of Jesus was not the intent of this work from what I could glean, and rather an analysis of how Christ's life captures the human experience quite fully.
Fear, Deception & Hate. The hounds of Hell as Thurman personifies them. Jesus' ministry may have been surrounded by these hounds, but the Kingdom of God has no place for the reign of such oppressive and violent characters. The end of Thurman's discussion hinges on the baseline of God's character - Love. A love that in the person of Jesus extends over social, political, racial, etc. lines in order to bring to light the common thread shared amongst men and women - the image of God. Additionally, this love is not self-preserving but unifies through the work of reconciliation, forgiveness, and equity between parties.
I will return to this work for the sake of the disinherited I tend to neglect in my own periphery. Hold me accountable if you've read this far.
*My inability to engage some of Thurman's lines of thought brings my rating down to a 3.5 or 4 out of 5 for me, because I feel like I was unable to grasp all he was saying at times, but that is more a me problem than a critique of the work itself.*
challenging
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
Thurman provides short and to the point chapters on responding to fear, deception and hatred in a way that is based on Jesus' teachings. He really focuses on the difficulty of the responses for people whose "backs are against the wall" but challenges the responses with the call for justice in the gospel. A good read for any Christian, especially anyone from a privileged class who wants to understand the spirituality of the civil rights movement.
Jesus and the Disinherited is Howard Thurman’s vision of a religion that embraces all and brings hope to the outcast instead of empowering the oppressor. Most importantly, this book enables the individual to reclaim ownership of their own religion in the face of those that use it against them, which is both incredibly relevant for Thurman’s time period (Civil Rights) and now.
“The disinherited will know for themselves that there is a Spirit at work in life and in the hearts of men which is committed to overcoming the world. It is universal, knowing no age, no race, no culture, and no condition of men. For the privileged and underprivileged alike, if the individual puts at the disposal of the Spirit the needful dedication and discipline, he can live effectively in the chaos of the present the high destiny of a son of God.”
“The disinherited will know for themselves that there is a Spirit at work in life and in the hearts of men which is committed to overcoming the world. It is universal, knowing no age, no race, no culture, and no condition of men. For the privileged and underprivileged alike, if the individual puts at the disposal of the Spirit the needful dedication and discipline, he can live effectively in the chaos of the present the high destiny of a son of God.”
A voice from the past instructive for now, if we have ears to hear, and thereby have eyes to see.