Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by cdshannon17
Jesus and the Disinherited by Howard Thurman
4.0
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.*