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A review by dkatreads
Jesus and the Disinherited by Howard Thurman
5.0
I'm still processing (and likely will be for a while to come), but Thurman's classic work was much more layered than I was expecting. And in that way, much more challenging-no one can read this and feel innocent of a need to deeply self-interrogate. To ask how I might be one who disinherits others. And how I choose the rancid balms of fear, isolation, and hatred when I am disinherited.
But this book isn't written to all people. It's written to those who are truly disinherited by the world (not just in relationship, as those of us who live with access and opportunity might experience). And Thurman's message is that in fact, you are somebody. That in fact, you have profound value, even glory. That in fact, Jesus knows intimately, personally, what it's like to live with your back up against the wall. That in fact, your freedom and flourishing is possible. But it cannot come, in its truest and most liberating form, without a profound ethical demand - to love, even when your heart and body want to choose fear or surrender or hatred. For those reactions, though reasonable and even necessary for survival, ultimately corrupt. They're bankrupt. They destroy the one who wields them.
Rather, the religion of Jesus (notably, NOT Christianity - which he feels has been irredeemably disfigured by white supremacy, nationalism, and capitalism in America) offers the more costly way of love. It's a message that feels and is "unfair" in one sense. But is one that offers unparalleled access to "a future and a hope."
To be honest, even despite all of the thinking and working I've done in peacemaking over the past year and a half-considering the benefits of nonviolence, thinking about how to love the other or the enemy-this was still a challenging book. My heart wanted to disagree. To say, "But no. What's fair would be to turn the tables, to take back what was stolen." Thurman emphatically says no. Liberation isn't turning the tables, but imagining a whole new future entirely, where there's more than enough for all. The through-line from Thurman to King's Beloved Community shines.
There were moments that felt a little flat for me. And there were lines that simply sang. I'm going to be thinking about Thurman for a while.
But this book isn't written to all people. It's written to those who are truly disinherited by the world (not just in relationship, as those of us who live with access and opportunity might experience). And Thurman's message is that in fact, you are somebody. That in fact, you have profound value, even glory. That in fact, Jesus knows intimately, personally, what it's like to live with your back up against the wall. That in fact, your freedom and flourishing is possible. But it cannot come, in its truest and most liberating form, without a profound ethical demand - to love, even when your heart and body want to choose fear or surrender or hatred. For those reactions, though reasonable and even necessary for survival, ultimately corrupt. They're bankrupt. They destroy the one who wields them.
Rather, the religion of Jesus (notably, NOT Christianity - which he feels has been irredeemably disfigured by white supremacy, nationalism, and capitalism in America) offers the more costly way of love. It's a message that feels and is "unfair" in one sense. But is one that offers unparalleled access to "a future and a hope."
To be honest, even despite all of the thinking and working I've done in peacemaking over the past year and a half-considering the benefits of nonviolence, thinking about how to love the other or the enemy-this was still a challenging book. My heart wanted to disagree. To say, "But no. What's fair would be to turn the tables, to take back what was stolen." Thurman emphatically says no. Liberation isn't turning the tables, but imagining a whole new future entirely, where there's more than enough for all. The through-line from Thurman to King's Beloved Community shines.
There were moments that felt a little flat for me. And there were lines that simply sang. I'm going to be thinking about Thurman for a while.