Hitchhiker's Guide to Religion
Black Church

Howard Thurman

The Mystic of the Movement

Black Church Contemplative theology, mysticism, the inner life of the activist, nonviolence as spiritual practice
Attribute Value
Combat
ATK 30
DEF 90
SPR 99
SPD 60
INT 98
Rank Theologian / Mystic / Dean of Howard University School of Religion / Co-founder of the first major interracial church in the United States
Domain Contemplative theology, mysticism, the inner life of the activist, nonviolence as spiritual practice
Alignment Holy / Contemplative
Weakness His mystical and contemplative emphasis was sometimes dismissed by activists who wanted more direct political engagement -- though King kept Thurman's *Jesus and the Disinherited* in his briefcase throughout the Montgomery campaign
Key Act Born 1899 in segregated Daytona, Florida. Met Mohandas Gandhi in 1936 -- the first African American delegation to do so -- and brought back the strategic-spiritual case for nonviolence that would shape King's movement. Co-founded the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples in San Francisco (1944), one of the first intentionally interracial churches in America. Published *Jesus and the Disinherited* (1949), which Martin Luther King Jr. carried with him during the Montgomery boycott
Source Thurman, *Jesus and the Disinherited* (1949); *With Head and Heart* (autobiography, 1979); Luther Smith, *Howard Thurman: The Mystic as Prophet* (1981)

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” — Howard Thurman


1 min read

Combat Radar

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