Is this impotence due to a betrayal of the genius of religion, or is it due to an elementary weakness in religion itself. Discrimination, violence, and injustice were in the hearts and minds of many people in the United States, especially those "with their backs against the wall."4 Regardless. In Thurman's own words, “The importance of the religion of Jesus to people with their backs against the wall has always seemed to me crucial.
Perhaps, seventy years later, we are still betraying the genius of religion through misapplication. Instead, Thurman delves into the personal and the psychological, the private spaces of personality. As a "theo-ethicist," Thurman's "both-and" approach differed from several of the other religious, social, and political approaches of his time.
By this I mean that it is not wide open to the Spirit of the living God.”68. Needless to say, this was a bold step in the quest for the fulfillment of his inclusive vision of love and reconciliation in the Church.
ETHOS – THE PROBLEM OF HUMAN RELATEDNESS
states.97 The partnership between conservative Christianity and Republican politics in the 1980s created a negative association for much of the rest of the United States. Another reason behind these religio-political and racial divisions within the church is related to the bizarre relationship between religion and politics in the Church. First of all, in one aspect, Thurman's claim is a harsher indictment of Christianity in the United States.
112 For a thorough examination of the racial divisions within Christian Churches in the United States, see Emerson and Smith, Divided by Faith. Shared amid the Civil Rights Movement, King's claim focuses on one aspect of separation in the church: race. Even though race is often the most visible and discussed form of separatism in the church, it is not necessarily the most.
115 Michael Emerson, People of the Dream: Multiracial Congregations in the United States (Princeton, NJ: . Princeton University Press. With religion as its context, Thurman's designation of denominationalism as fundamental to discrimination in the church makes more sense. 138 Howard Thurman, "The Perils of Immature Piety," in The Papers of Howard Washington Thurman, Vol 1, 48.
In Jesus and the Disinherited, Thurman evaluates the problem of oppressive social systems and proposes a response of Jesus' ethic of love (as opposed to fear, deceit, and hatred), and in The Luminous Darkness he evaluates debilitating systems of segregation and hatred. presents a theoethical response of hope. Even though Thurman recognizes the legitimate reasons for embracing fear, deceit, and hatred in response to the situation many of the disinherited found themselves in, he still steers the reader away from these options. He writes: 'The need for love is an essential element in the structure of personality.
With both the country and the Church seemingly in a perpetual crisis of human kinship—in the past, present, and into the foreseeable future—Thurman's ideas and visions of harmony and wholeness seem simultaneously impossible, yet more necessary than ever. Thurman's career either in the practical efforts to create interracial Christian worship spaces or in the theoretical realms of his ideas expressed in his writings and sermons. Raised in the South during Jim and Jane Crow segregation, Howard Thurman understood that the various forms of separatism visible in society were not merely neutral forms of.
LOGOS – THE THEOLOGICAL INTEGRITY AND MORAL MEANING OF RECONCILIATION
In an article he wrote in 1929 entitled “Relaxation” and Race Conflict,” Thurman examines the role of “will” in creating and perpetuating the social, cultural, political, and religious climate. Theologically, soteriology is understood as the corrective to the broken relationship between God and humanity; salvation is the restoration of the. Although this synthesis of justification and sanctification is dominant within many evangelical perspectives, there are also other interpretations of the “horizontal” aspect of atonement.
Of the theological dictionaries I researched, very few included both a theological and social/ethical definition of reconciliation. In fact, one of the only theological dictionaries that includes both theological and sociopolitical. From a Christian ethical approach (and not just a theological one), it becomes important to acknowledge and incorporate these different perspectives into a definition(s) of reconciliation that acknowledges the interconnectedness and complexity of the issues at hand.
Something deep inside reminds that the intention of the Creator of life and the living. 234 Thurman, "The Power of the Spirit and the Powers of this World," in The Papers of Howard Washington Thurman, Vol 4, 23. In fact, part of the logic of Thurman's ideology is to make ethics the "subject" keep and the preservation of the social problems as.
240 Thurman, "The Power of the Spirit and the Powers of this World," in The Papers of Howard Washington Thurman, Vol 4, 25. Even though a majority of the congregation wanted to remain in the present neighborhood, Thurman used his authority and influence to initiate the move. It is from this basic underlying belief that all the social concerns arise.”250.
If Thurman, like Baldwin, had fully questioned the validity of democracy based on the actual application of democratic principles in the U.S. 275 Thurman, "The Power of the Spirit and the Powers of this World," in The Papers of Howard Washington Thurman, Vol 4, 23 .Contrary to many traditional understandings of the term, Howard Thurman believed that these "vertical" and "horizontal" aspects of reconciliation are not only congruent, but also interdependent.
PATHOS – THE BROKEN HEART OF RACISM
Thus, in examining the potentials of a theo-ethics of reconciliation, it is important to recognize the role of emotion – the pathos – in human existence and. Yet it is also necessary to distinguish between the emotional wounds of the disenfranchised compared to the feelings of the privileged and the powerful. Growing up in the segregated South, Howard Thurman was keenly aware of the various forms of pathos that plagued the social situation of the disenfranchised, including fear, deception, and hatred.
In other words, separatism acts as a co-conspirator with violence in fear and oppression of the powerless. Part of the task of reconciliation becomes reconciling these different views of the past and the present with their connection to the future. One of the most important was his prophetic vision, the ability to creatively imagine the future possibilities of humanity and the world.
Despite all the hardships, empowering narratives emerged not only in the individual lives of the disinherited, but also in their communities and institutions. The black church is a symbol of the role of blacks in self-determination in this country, but it is. For them, reconciliation is nothing more than the capitulation of the dominated to the will of the dominated.
One of the problems associated with reconciliation is that it is often defined and. The wounds of the disinherited not only remain, but are constantly remade due to the oppressive system they are a part of (the system created by the powerful and dominant). Part of the difficulty with any discourse on reconciliation within the Church is the problematic reality of separatism, injustice and inequality in the Church, in communities and in society.
One of the challenges in analyzing the ineffectiveness of the implementation of (horizontal) reconciliation within the Church is determining the origin of the cause. As a theo-ethics, reconciliation has the potential to transform some of the troubled forms of human connection within the Church and society. Within Thurman's theo-ethics of reconciliation, the engagement of the divine—theos—in religious experience becomes an essential step in this transition and potential.
THEOS – GOD, JESUS, LOVE, AND THE CHURCH
God is the object of religious experience, and the community of God's children is the object of the same experience. For those who claim to be followers of the religion of Jesus, the trials of love and reconciliation often begin in the Church with the multitude of divisions and broken relationships whether related to race or faith or some other reason for separatism. In Jesus and the Disinherited (published in 1949 while he was minister of the Fellowship Church) Howard Thurman argues that Jesus Christ, both as a historical figure and as the ideological figure of the religion that bears his name, is relevant to faith and lives. to.
The four aspects of Jesus' love ethic—love of God, love of self, love of neighbor, and love of enemy—apply to all people, but these four components are unlikely to be interpreted in the same way or implemented. for all persons. Although Thurman did not specifically define his use of the word “love,” it is important to note that he was specific about another element of this essential idea: the ethical aspect of love. By examining these different aspects of Jesus' love ethic, we will delve deeper into our understanding of his theoethic of reconciliation.
In Thurman's view of Jesus' religion, no one is beyond the reach of God's love. Thurman did not believe that God's love had a singular purpose (i.e. salvation), but his mysticism led him to an understanding of love that was more relevant to the lives of people living here on earth than some eschatological interpretation of the word. Like many traditional interpretations of the word, Thurman believed that “prayer” was an act of prayer.
Prayer is not only the participation in communication with God in the encounter of religious experiences, but it is also the "preparation" of the mind for this. He writes: “There is a direct continuity between the need to be loved, to be deeply cared for, and the heart, the pulse of the individual experience of God in the religious encounter. For Thurman, the religious experience of the divine is part of the process of correction – that by experiencing the love of God we will also learn to love ourselves.
For Thurman, one of the main obstacles for. communion with God was prejudice – the denial of the full humanity of another child of God.
