Howard Thurman’s Impact on Postmodern Liberation Theology Essay Example

religious views. The Thurman project seeks to recognize and utilize Thurman as we wrestle with these very difficult questions." (Smith, 1992)

From Howard Thurman we may learn that the Journey must deconstruct the separative categories of domination-over-nature that have been wedded to idealized patriarchy. Ideally, says contemporary patriarchy, nature is but a resource we "use." Thurman deconstructs this assumption by establishing the mystical, theological, and cosmological commonality of all that exists. Seeking to assert the Community of All, Thurman's mystic vision of communion debunks categorical atomism, political separatism, and anti-ecological economics.

A powerful deconstruction of homophobic maleness can be built upon this common foundation. Howard Thurman observed the cruel and destructive consequences of messages to people who are led to believe that "they don't count, they don't matter" when their life stories are not deemed worthy of hearing.

The social justice mission of the Catholic Church elaborated in its document are in harmony with the social justice mission as articulated by Black and Womanist liberation theologies. The distinguishing focus of postmodern liberation theology is the insistence that this mission needs to include the particular experience of Black people.

These theologies also focus on the realities that divide the human community but place emphasis on those root dynamics at the heart of Black alienation and oppression within society, namely the social sins of racism, sexism, and classism. Both the social justice mission at the heart of the Church and the social justice mission at the heart of Black and Womanist theologies is ultimately directed toward liberation, the overcoming of the oppression of human division, and communion, the visible realization of full human

communion.

The writings of prolific activist theologians and spiritual leaders born and initially nurtured in the Black community during the 20th century like Howard Thurman gave this theology its strength. His writings emphasize the continued centrality of community in the African American religious ethical tradition and the integral relationship of love, justice, and community within that tradition.

Katie Cannon has correctly observed that "for Thurman everything moves toward community."[4] Although he offered distinct interpretations and application of the concepts of imago Dei, love, and justice, he argued that love and justice are to be ordered toward community.

He insisted that all men and women, including Black men and women, were made in the image and likeness of God who is the source and means of the inter-relatedness of all human beings. Luther Smith has summarized the essence of Thurman's theological ethics as follows:

“Thurman's greatest legacy may be his vision of inclusive community: a community based on reconciliation, which recognizes and celebrates the underlying unity of life and the inter-dependence of all life forms. Justice and a sense of innate equality are ruling principles for community, and love-ethic established and maintains the community's creative character.

Person identity is affirmed while unity is sought with one's fellows. Thurman's inclusive community harbors all races, classes, faith claims and ethnic groups, for in the eyes of God, every human being is His beloved child. Difference among people are not ignored or depreciated, though their importance does not overshadow the bond of kinship between individuals.

And because of this bond, difference can be appreciated rather than feared, for the variety of truth perspective

they bring to understanding. In cultural pluralism persons come to know the many faces of God, and what God is doing in diverse ways. Hopefully, this will give individuals a proper sense of self and neighbor such that one does not fall into destructive righteousness, inclusive community confirms what Thurman understands as God's will for human relationships.

[5] As Cannon also observed, Thurman held that "mystical experience, love and community relatedness are part of the same continuum. Inclusive community is nonspatial. It is qualitative."[6] Howard Thurman's role in the Civil Rights Movement, although public, was never essentially political; rather, it was a theological and ethical movement grounded in a notion of community quite similar to that of Mohanda Karamchand Gandhi, the Indian pacifist.

Thurman's dream of the future for America and the world was expressed in his concept of "the beloved community," his metaphor for the achievement of a qualitatively inclusive community. Thurman's creative activism involved three basic strategic principles "assessing the character and logistics of the situation; naming the primary evil to be dramatized; and identifying the meaning of non-cooperation with evil."

[7] Thurman was outlining strategic principles for the achievement of political and civil rights, but the purpose of that achievement was ultimately the establishment of an inclusive human community rooted in the Judeo-Christian love ethic.

Thurman once noted: "It is true that as we struggle for freedom in America, we will have to boycott at times. But we must remember ... that a boycott is not an end in itself ... the end is reconciliation, the end is redemption, the end is the creation of the beloved community."