“Jesus and the Disinherited” was written by Howard Thurman, who was an American educator, writer, philosopher, and scientist. This book, as well as his other literary works, has helped many people gain an understanding of themselves, cognize the role of religion in human life, and they served as a starting point for their life that would be more meaningful. Nevertheless, many individuals could not understand the message of the writings or interpreted them in their personal way. In general, this author dwelled upon the way religion helped to survive the hardships of life and how self-consciousness arose from the acceptance and knowledge of God and the transcendent attitude toward Him. The purpose of this paper is to reflect critically on the book “Jesus and the Disinherited” written by this author.
Scope
In his book, Thurman intended to display the identity of Jesus and the significance of His work. To be more precise, he tried to specify the role of Jesus in His relation to the African-American community. Importantly, the author stressed the religion of Jesus to be able to address this community and inspire people to follow the Jewish tenets.1 By placing a particular emphasis on this interpretation, he wanted to provide the people with something more than did the normative postulates covered by Western Christianity.
It should be stressed that the author tried to describe the way Jesus acted on behalf of the oppressed people. Thurman wrote in the opening points of the book that Jesus resided in an oppressed environment just as the members of the community that he addressed.2 Therefore, the historical context in which the writer had placed Jesus was similar to that of the people’s experiencing colonial or enslaving oppression.
In addition, the overall score of the book can be concluded to an understanding that people should always strive for exhibiting unconditional love. On the example of Jesus, who invoked the Jewish community to base their perceptions towards Rome on moral principles, the author wanted to say that the African-American community, facing hurdles throughout history, should be driven by the moral code as well.
Thus, by alluding to the postulates proposed by Jesus, Thurman intended to inspire African-Americans to turn to their inner world and disregard the social and political difficulties experienced by people.3 In that matter, all the dissensions became irrelevant and meaningless due to the fact that the only aspect that was significant was the religion, and the love of God solely was important, and no domain should be feared. Therefore, all people should exhibit and should be driven by the love that comes from within in the same way the son of God and his progeny were.
Reflection
It should be noted that the most surprising premise that I agree with is the teaching that social justice should grow from wisdom. The writer armed the disinherited with the ecclesiastical and moral platform to free themselves from oppression and terror. This understanding is also complex in nature. In particular, the author stated that spiritual freedom would then disentangle both those who were oppressed and those who performed as oppressors. Therefore, this understanding and the underlying context of social justice was indeed insightful since it rooted in the inner world of people.4 The nonviolence was perceived as the main method of reaching security and unity of all the people, and spirituality was the main method to reach joint understanding and justice.
In general, the book serves as a significant moral construct essential for understanding and achieving harmonious and secure citizenship and, in particular, the citizenship for the African-American population. Thurman’s ideas that equality and justice should occur not from the state system but from the thinking and spirituality of humanity are fundamental and encourages people to follow universal postulates in their spirituality.5 Moreover, his interpretation that the humility and spiritual life of the African-American population would influence the oppressors themselves also carried a truly humanistic meaning, and it should be applied to practice to help implement a state based on social equality as the society’s spiritual guidelines.
Conclusion
Thus, it can be concluded that the book “Jesus and the Disinherited” written by Howard Thurman is a crucial source of information and inspiration for the people finding their way to overcome difficulties and limitations through true spirituality. The writing evidenced how the gospel could serve as the basis for the underprivileged and poor people to fight nonviolently with the hurdles they faced.
That is to say, Jesus shares the difficulties and the pains that people have to overcome, and He should serve as an example of the way spirituality should drive a person towards moral nihilism. By turning to self-love and by loving other people, the person will be able to liberate him or herself from the oppression and contribute to reconstructing the society into a more secure one in which social justice is not forced but roots naturally from the spirituality of all people.
Bibliography
Thurman, Howard. Jesus and the Disinherited. Boston: Beacon Press, 1976.
Footnotes
- Howard Thurman, Jesus and the Disinherited (Boston: Beacon Press, 1976), 19.
- Howard Thurman, Jesus and the Disinherited, 83.
- Ibid., 84.
- Ibid., 80.
- Ibid., 85.