Jesus and the Disinherited

This is such an awesome book. While it was written in the late 1940’s, it is still relevant today. The progress that we often speak of seems diminished as I read this book and look around our world today.

A very insightful book on how Christianity has lost its way in dealing with the "disinherited" of our populations. Amazed at how little we've learned since this book was written almost 50 years ago!

I recently read Martin Luther King Jr's Strength to Love, and followed it up with this book by Howard Thurman. One can see the clear and important influence Thurman had on King's thoughts and words. I recommend both books.

Book arrived in very good condition as was advertised on-line. Delivery was timely

I celebrated my 86th year in 2022. I finally understood within the bounds of my understanding a call upon my life and was ordained at age 75. This journey began when I was 9, at Calvary Baptist Church in Paterson, New Jersey when much to my and my mother's surprise, I answered the invitation and was baptized. Between then and now I served 20 years in uniform. I then sought and received BS and MA degrees, served another 20 years as a Federal Civil Servant and retired a second time. I studied under T L Lowery, Morris Cerullo, and was Certificated after studies at Princeton Theological Seminary. I never heard of Howard Thurman until a little over a month ago. I have read a lot of theologically inspired authors, and a lot of Racial equality inspired authors. Thurman has removed the veil between myself and Jesus Christ that I didn't know was there. I can only say, thank God for his vessel, Howard Thurman.

Howard Thurman is well known as one of the 20th century's great mystics, thinkers, and spiritual leaders. "Jesus and the Disinherited" may be his best known book, and it's certainly his most influential. Martin Luther King, Jr. carried a copy with him in his travels and it grounded him as much as any book. It's certainly worth the accolades.It's a small book, and its organization is basic. Thurman begins by describing people under oppression as the people "With their backs to the wall." Most of what Christians have written about the role of the teachings of Christ in conversations about oppressed people comes from the perspective of those with power who have an obligation to help those who do not have power. Thurman affirms this approach, and compares it to the perspective of Paul, who, though a Jew and regularly persecuted for the Gospel, always had the power to assert his Roman citizenship. His was a chosen powerlessness, and he occasionally chose to use his societal power.Jesus, God Incarnate, chose to take his place among those "with their backs to the wall." Thurman believes that Jesus' life and teachings can only be understood from this vantage point. He argues that those who have never been powerless cannot fully understand what it means to have society's structures and systems turned not to their benefit and protection but to their subjugation and humiliation.Thurman describes how the life and teachings of Jesus relate to the great enemies of the soul--fear, deception, and hate. He is a master not only of the faith but also of psychology and society. The final chapter is about love, and how love between those in power and those with their backs against the wall can only be the result of relationships built on mutuality. He thinks the church is the best place for such relationships to form, and laments that congregations are so segregated and do not allow such relationships to form.Love is a miracle, and all of society makes the enemies of the soul and the possibility of the love Jesus describes incredibly difficult. One of the great wonders of the Jesus story is that he is a person with his back against the wall who was able to demonstrate the possibility of living in an oppressive situation without giving in to fear, deception, or hate. Jesus was able to love, even his enemies. This fact alone gives tremendous hope that those with their backs against the wall may actually live in such a way. Thurman certainly did.Howard Thurman wrote in the midst of the Civil Rights struggle, and he talks about his conversations with a grandmother who had spent her childhood in slavery. People like me, who take our freedom and privilege for granted, should read the book, if for no other reason, to get a sense of the interior struggles others face.Our world is full of fear, deception, and hate. The kind of love Jesus demonstrates and Thurman describes is rare, indeed. This book is a training manual for those who would live in this world with souls untouched by its cruelty.

Regarding Howard Thurman's Jesus and the Disinherited, paperback.I suggest that the value of this work is less as a timeless document, as one reviewer suggests, and more as a great sermon for its time. Being great, that means it can speak to us as well, but it has a few scholarly and theological points which may have tarnished over the years. This is the situation:WW II is over, and the hints of efforts to desegregate were starting. This essay was not written as biblical scholarship or theology or sociology or psychology. Some claims from all those points of view are suggested. He wishes to influence behavior and attitudes, so that his audience can deal with their condition effectively, in a more Christian manner. He makes statements which may be historically or psychologically or scripturally inaccurate. However, most of his psychological theses are sound. The "homily" is written from the point of view of a preacher, addressing all the black people of mid-20th century America. I suspect few lay black Americans read it. Its primary role was in informing the sermons and strategies of the civil rights leaders arising in the following 15 years. His message is strengthened by the humility with which he describes the discussion which prompted his writing. It was in part written in response to a learned Hindu observation that Christianity had many sins laid at its feet. The irony is that the response is directed not to the Hindu as much as it is to Thurman's Christian contemporaries, as a remediation of the kind of reactions which would break out in American riots 20 years later and be fueled by the black power movement. Thurman never denies the racism and injustice. He makes no excuse for it. But it is also a sign of his times (1949) that he does not advocate the events which became the seeds of the integration movement 10 years later. He is describing how to make the very best of a bad situation. To his credit, he does it with no reference to sin or resurrection or the coming Parousia. I don't think he deals with it, he does relate his thoughts to domestic violence, which is not his primary subject. This shares the genre of Bonheoffer's The Cost of Discipleship, as a manual of practical Christian advice. Thurman is intent on restoring Jesus to the center of Christian life and thinking. His references to American and personal history are made to illustrate points about the psychology of the oppressor and the oppressed. They especially illuminate the sham of "separate but equal" attitude. What I liked best is that although he did not address it, he was not naive about the kind of violence we hear about in domestic abuse situations.

Bought the book to use as a reference in my study about Jesus.

I found some of the old style language a tad difficult to understand at times but over all this was a very interesting book.

Brilliant book, very deep and insightful

Thurman draws powerful parallels between the Afro-American experience and that of the Roman occupied Middle East - expounding the liberating message of Christ.

Ecelkent

arrived as described in good time