April 4 Reading Guide Thurman_ch 1 & preface
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Iowa State University *
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Religion
Date
Feb 20, 2024
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Reading Guide: Howard Thurman, Jesus and the Disinherited
(originally published 1949). Spring 2023, Theological Questions: for April 4 Please review the five tips posted in D2L for reading Howard Thurman’s book
. Foreword by Vincent Harding. (1)
What insights about Thurma
n’s book does Harding offer in his foreword that caught your attention?
Did the Foreword make you want to read the book? (2)
What did Martin Luther King, Jr., have to do with Howard Thurman? (3)
Who might be considered the community of the wall today? (4)
How does Harding explain the heavy use of masculine pronouns in Thurman’s book
(p. xvi)? Do you agree with his response or do you have a different response? Chapter 1: “Jesus—
an Interpretation.
”
(1)
After reading the chapter, come back to the first paragraph: How might the opening paragraph of this chapter contain the thesis statement regarding his interpretation of Jesus in relation to those “with their backs against the wall”
? What do you think of his related questions from the Preface
(xix)? The significance of the religion of Jesus to people who stand with their backs against the wall
has always seemed to me to be crucial . . . Why is it that Christianity seems impotent to deal radically, and therefore effectively, with the issues of discrimination and injustice on the basis of race, religion and national origin? Is this impotency due to a betrayal of the genius of the religion, or is it due to a basic weakness in the religion itself? (2)
Thurman states that Christianity emphasizes sharing, charity, help for those less fortunate . . . and asks: but what does it say to one whose “
back is against the wall
”? What does our religion say to them?” (
p. 3) Thurman states that the question
—
what does religion offer to meet their needs?
—
is “the most important religious quest of modern life” (
p. 3). Do you also find this question to be vital or do you find other religious or non-religious quests as or more important? (3)
As noted in reading TIP # 5, Thurman likes to illustrate his points through story. Why does he tell the story about his conversation with the Hindu man? What larger point does it allow him to illustrate? Who was Sir John Newton (p. 4)? (4)
List the three important facts about Jesus that Thurman points to (pages 5-8) and a key point that he makes about each of these facts. (5)
Thurman states (10) that the “one overmastering problem that the socially and politicall
y disinherited always face”: under what terms is survival possible? What might he mean by that? (6)
Why do you think Thurman tells the story about the Korean girl (11)? What point might it illustrate? (7)
What do you make of Thurman’s question that he calls “the question” for African Americans (12): What must be the attitude toward the rulers, the controllers of political, social and economic life? He notes two options: resist or not to resist. What forces are at work in our world regarding our choice of options? Thurman then writes (pp. 14-17) about the Jewish groups during Jesus’
s time
—
Sadducees, Pharisees, and Zealots
—
to exemplify ways in which those groups responded within the two options. How did the Sadducees (elites) respond? The Pharisees? The Zealots? (8)
According to Thurman (17) Jesus came forth with yet another option, different from the other three Jewish groups. What “technique of survival for the oppressed” (18) does Thurman find as Jesus’s alternative? What does it have to do with a type of humility and with developing an inner life? (9)
Thurman writes that typical Christian platitudes about salvation have long since been found unhelpful (18) to the oppressed. He states further (19): “I belong to a generation that finds very little that is meaningful or intelligent in the teachings of the Church concerning Jesus Christ.
” What is it specifically that his generation revolted against and found unhelpful about traditional views of salvation? Can you relate to the revolt of that generation or do you find that your generation is revolting against something
else? How might your social location (ethnicity-gender identity-social class) affect your reaction to these questions? (10)
Why does Thurman tell us a bit ab
out his grandmother’s life
(19-20)? Why did Thurman’s grandma dislike hearing the apostle Paul? What point does the anecdote about his grandma illustrate? Why do you think Thurman outlines ways in which Paul and Jesus were different? (11)
What do you think of Thurman’s final paragraph of this chapter in which he argues that Jesus taught basic principles of a way of life that “cut straight through to the despair of his fellows and found it groundless” (24)?
What are the principles that Thurman finds in Jesus’ te
achings? (12)
What additional questions do you have about this chapter of Thurman’s book
? What is your general impression of the book after having read the preface and first chapter?
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