In the session "Exploring the Interreligious Legacy of Rev. Howard Thurman" at the Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground of Boston University, participants will explore the interreligious and social justice legacy of Rev. Howard Thurman.
Rev. Howard Thurman was a distinguished African American preacher, writer, educator, and communal leader who played a key role in the civil rights movement and was a pioneer in interreligious and cross-cultural engagement. He founded the first major interracial, interdenominational church in the United States. In 1953, he became the Dean of the Marsh Chapel and the first African American Dean at a majority-white University.
Thurman’s 1949 book Jesus and the Disinherited became a foundational text for many civil rights activists, religious leaders and intellectuals including Martin Luther King Jr., a graduate student at Boston University during Thurman’s tenure.
Together, we will view the recently documentary film Back Against the Wall: The Howard Thurman Story. We will engage in discussion with Thurman scholars, educators, and organizers and explore the ways that the Thurman Center is carrying on his legacy, we all seek to integrate Thurman’s teachings in our world today.
