A Need for the Mystical
Why Process Theology Needs Howard Thurman
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...a strange necessity has been laid upon me to devote my life to the central concern that transcends the walls that divide and would achieve in literal fact what is experienced as literal truth: human life is one and all men [and women] are members one of another.
-- Howard Thurman |
There is a yearning in our time, all over the world, for a way of being religious that finds the Spirit of God in the depths of life itself; that is at home in the silence of the heart as well as the passion for justice; that understands and appreciates the human need for localized religious and non-religious identities, while simultaneously welcoming a fellowship of all peoples whatever race, creed, or ethnicity.
Howard Thurman provides a model and needed wisdom. He is an interfaith, justice-oriented, spiritually-sensitive writer for our time. His outlook on life is quite similar to that of process theology, but he would never call himself a theologian, and for good reasons. Theologians are too often interested in reducing religion to belief or, worse, systems of belief. Thurman was a mystic not a theologian. He begins and ends with experience.
Yes, belief itself is a form of experience. Process theologians rightly speak of 'intellectual feelings." But experience is much more than belief, and we humans meet the Spirit in the entire range of experience, through 'physical feelings' and 'imaginative feelings' and 'anticipatory feelings' and 'hybrid feelings' of the minds of others, all of which are qualities of heart and mind (subjective forms) and ways of being related to others (forms of connection).
Indeed, the initial aims of which process theologians often speak - by which humans and other living beings can be guided by God - can be understood as fresh possibilities felt within the depths of experience through hybrid prehensions. Hybrid prehensions are physical feelings of the mental poles of other living beings, in this instance the mental pole of a loving God, consisting as it does of aims for the world.
If process theology is to be understood as a way of living that includes, but is also more than, a collection of wise beliefs, then process theology needs Howard Thurman. It needs what we might call "the mystical."
Of course some process theologians, Bruce Epperly in particular, do in fact speak to the mystical, Epperly has written an excellent book called The Mystic in You: Discovering a God-Filled World in which he links process theology with many of the West's notably spiritual guides: St. Francis of Assisi, the desert mothers and fathers, Benedict of Nursia, the Celtic mystics, Hildegard of Bingen, Mechthild of Magdeburg, Brother Lawrence, the Baal Shem Tov, Howard Thurman, Etty Hillesum, Rumi, and Julian of Norwich. A companion to his book needs to be written that links process theology to Asian, African, Pagan, and Indigenous wisdom-teachers.
Of course this raises the question: And what do we mean by mysticism. By the mystical I have in mind the thirty-seven qualities of heart and mind identified by the world's most inclusive interfaith resource: Spirituality and Practice. These are what the Center for Process Spirituality mean by spirituality. In the language of process theology they are subjective forms: ways of touching, and being touched by, the Spirit of life and love. Some, such as justice and peace and kindness and love, are deeply connected to our lives in society. And some, such as wonder and a sense of mystery and silence can seem a little more 'inward' in nature. But all are important.
A Christian might call them forms of abundant living. A Jew might call them forms of shalom. A Muslim might call them forms of ihsan (feeling and doing the beautiful). A Buddhist might call them forms of enlightened living. Someone who is spiritual but not religious might call them forms of wholeness. An atheist might call them emotionally meaningful strategies for survival. All can be embraced by process theologians, as guided by Howard Thurman.
Howard Thurman's Outlook on Life: Ten Key Ideas
1. Process: Life is a creative, unfinished, process. We human beings are creatures among creatures in the larger web of inter-becoming. Nature is creative and alive, fluid and open-ended.
2. Unity of Nature: The web of inter-becoming is unified in that each entity depends on every other. Each being is unique but no entity is an island.
3. God is the Spirit of Life: God is the Spirit of Life who dwells within each creature even as God also more than all creatures. God is closer to us than our own breathing.
4. The Need to Become Fully Alive: We are called by the indwelling Spirit to become fully alive relative to our contexts by surrender our will into the intimacy of the Spirit.
5. The Poor and Powerless: The Spirit has a moral valence: a special love for the poor, powerless, marginalized, and forsaken. The test of a healthy religion is how it helps people with "their backs to the wall."
6. Race and Context: It is not enough to address the timeless questions of human existence, divorced from local context. Questions of race and privilege cannot be avoided: "a man and his black skin must face the ‘timeless issues of the human spirit’ together."
7. Spirituality transcends Dogma: We need not and ought not make a god of institutional religions or of doctrines. Life and feeling have priority over institutions and doctrines.
8. Silence and Action: We find our life in God, not only in action in the world, but in the silence of the heart.
9. Commitment: From the silence, and also from our relations with others, we can creatively surrender our will to the promptings of the Spirit, moment by moment, and help heal a broken world.
10. Empowerment: When we surrender our will to the Spirit, we do not lose our self-respect and integrity, we become even more self-respectful, even more creative, even more empowered, than we would otherwise be. We become fully alive, fully human.
The Process Way (Thurmanized)
Howard Thurman is a spiritual writer for the twenty-first century. Author of 21 books and hundreds of sermons, he was a spiritual mentor for Martin Luther King, Jr. and many others.
He is a guide for me, too, and others who are influenced by process theology. Thurman does not need a Whiteheadian metaphysic to ground his thought; he is quite fine on his own. The beauty of his perspective would be lost if it were reduced to abstract ideas in a Whiteheadian grid But for those of us drawn to Whitehead's perspective, we cannot help but hear a good bit of Whitehead in the talks he gives. The ten ideas above can easily be understood as Whiteheadian ideas even as they are Thurman ideas. He provides a vivid and vital illustration of what it might mean to live the process way. But not just for us. For all in the open horizons tradition: Christian open theists, generously orthodox Christians, ecumenical Buddhists, progressive Jews, humanistic Muslims. And, yes, those who are spiritually interested but not religiously affiliated.
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In a world filled with tragedy, many well-meaning people around the world feel a sense of urgency to act in constructive, life-nourishing ways. They critique oppressive social structures and work to build local communities that are creative, compassionate, inclusive, with no one left behind. They talk about the need for new stories that might help change the world, and they try to live out those stories in their daily lives.
Howard Thurman believed in this kind of change; he was a socialist at heart. And yet he also believed that social change is impossible without, at the same time, changing one's inner spirit. He knew that, without a liberation of the spirit from the shackles of greed and hatred, there can be no lasting change. This liberation does not happen by withdrawing from life, but rather by entering more deeply into the vibrancy of life and its source. He writes:
“…this is a living world; life is alive, and as expressions of life we, too, are alive and sustained by the characteristic vitality of life itself. God is the source of the vitality, the life, of all living things. His energy is available to plants, to animals, and to our own bodies if the conditions are met. Life is a responsible activity. What is true for our bodies is also true for the mind and spirit. At these levels God is immediately available to us if the door is opened to Him. The door is opened by yielding to Him that nerve center where we feel consent or the withholding of it most centrally. Thus, if a man [sic] makes his deliberate self-conscious intention the offering to God of his central consent and obedience, then he becomes energized by the living Spirit of the living God.” (Disciplines of the Spirit, 22)
He added that this living Spirit is itself sustaining in times of trial:
“It is good to remember that God has not left himself without a witness in our spirits. There is a Spirit in us that contains our spirit, that provides the secondary consolations which float the big anxieties, that sustains the effort beyond the calculated endurance, that makes the case for the good impulse when the rational judgement sends the mind spinning in the opposite way, that brooks over all weariness and all despair until the change comes and the heart is revived, that holds the confidence in the integrity of the self when the deeds that contradict will not be stilled and the act that destroys goes on its relentless way--it is good to remember that God has not left Himself without a witness in our spirits.” (The Inward Journey, 133)
Howard Thurman reminds us that the religion of life transcends the religion of dogma, and that life is always in process, always becoming more than it was. The spiritual journey is a process of being open to an inner voice which is simultaneously a cosmic voice, whose name is Love and whose presence, within and between human beings, unfolds through contagion. We "catch" love the way we catch the measles. As a process theologian might put it, we experience love, first and foremost, by feeling loved by others through a "vector transmission of feeling."
To the degree that we are animated by this Love, says Thurman, we sense a unity to all creation and yet we simultaneously identify with the vulnerable: those whose backs are against the wall. We become "open" in the senses of this prayer, written by Thurman:
Open unto me — light for my darkness.
Open unto me — courage for my fear.
Open unto me — hope for my despair.
Open unto me — peace for my turmoil.
Open unto me — joy for my sorrow.
Open unto me — strength for my weakness.
Open unto me — wisdom for my confusion.
Open unto me — forgiveness for my sins.
Open unto me — love for my hates.
Open unto me — thy Self for my self.
Lord, Lord, open unto me!
Amen.
He is a guide for me, too, and others who are influenced by process theology. Thurman does not need a Whiteheadian metaphysic to ground his thought; he is quite fine on his own. The beauty of his perspective would be lost if it were reduced to abstract ideas in a Whiteheadian grid But for those of us drawn to Whitehead's perspective, we cannot help but hear a good bit of Whitehead in the talks he gives. The ten ideas above can easily be understood as Whiteheadian ideas even as they are Thurman ideas. He provides a vivid and vital illustration of what it might mean to live the process way. But not just for us. For all in the open horizons tradition: Christian open theists, generously orthodox Christians, ecumenical Buddhists, progressive Jews, humanistic Muslims. And, yes, those who are spiritually interested but not religiously affiliated.
*
In a world filled with tragedy, many well-meaning people around the world feel a sense of urgency to act in constructive, life-nourishing ways. They critique oppressive social structures and work to build local communities that are creative, compassionate, inclusive, with no one left behind. They talk about the need for new stories that might help change the world, and they try to live out those stories in their daily lives.
Howard Thurman believed in this kind of change; he was a socialist at heart. And yet he also believed that social change is impossible without, at the same time, changing one's inner spirit. He knew that, without a liberation of the spirit from the shackles of greed and hatred, there can be no lasting change. This liberation does not happen by withdrawing from life, but rather by entering more deeply into the vibrancy of life and its source. He writes:
“…this is a living world; life is alive, and as expressions of life we, too, are alive and sustained by the characteristic vitality of life itself. God is the source of the vitality, the life, of all living things. His energy is available to plants, to animals, and to our own bodies if the conditions are met. Life is a responsible activity. What is true for our bodies is also true for the mind and spirit. At these levels God is immediately available to us if the door is opened to Him. The door is opened by yielding to Him that nerve center where we feel consent or the withholding of it most centrally. Thus, if a man [sic] makes his deliberate self-conscious intention the offering to God of his central consent and obedience, then he becomes energized by the living Spirit of the living God.” (Disciplines of the Spirit, 22)
He added that this living Spirit is itself sustaining in times of trial:
“It is good to remember that God has not left himself without a witness in our spirits. There is a Spirit in us that contains our spirit, that provides the secondary consolations which float the big anxieties, that sustains the effort beyond the calculated endurance, that makes the case for the good impulse when the rational judgement sends the mind spinning in the opposite way, that brooks over all weariness and all despair until the change comes and the heart is revived, that holds the confidence in the integrity of the self when the deeds that contradict will not be stilled and the act that destroys goes on its relentless way--it is good to remember that God has not left Himself without a witness in our spirits.” (The Inward Journey, 133)
Howard Thurman reminds us that the religion of life transcends the religion of dogma, and that life is always in process, always becoming more than it was. The spiritual journey is a process of being open to an inner voice which is simultaneously a cosmic voice, whose name is Love and whose presence, within and between human beings, unfolds through contagion. We "catch" love the way we catch the measles. As a process theologian might put it, we experience love, first and foremost, by feeling loved by others through a "vector transmission of feeling."
To the degree that we are animated by this Love, says Thurman, we sense a unity to all creation and yet we simultaneously identify with the vulnerable: those whose backs are against the wall. We become "open" in the senses of this prayer, written by Thurman:
Open unto me — light for my darkness.
Open unto me — courage for my fear.
Open unto me — hope for my despair.
Open unto me — peace for my turmoil.
Open unto me — joy for my sorrow.
Open unto me — strength for my weakness.
Open unto me — wisdom for my confusion.
Open unto me — forgiveness for my sins.
Open unto me — love for my hates.
Open unto me — thy Self for my self.
Lord, Lord, open unto me!
Amen.
Videos and Audios
Conversations with Howard Thurman (Part I)The Radical TestBacks Against the Wall |
Conversations with Howard Thurman (Part II)Short interview on ReligionWhat do you really want? |
Talks and Sermons
Listen to Howard Thurman:
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"The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples is an interfaith, interracial, intercultural community of seekers dedicated to personal empowerment and social transformation through an ever deepening relationship with the Spirit of God in All Life. The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples was founded in 1944 by Dr. Howard Thurman and Dr. Alfred Fisk as the nation’s first interracial interfaith congregation, and for over 70 years the church has helped people to discover God’s purpose for their lives."
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