By Darvin Adams
Fear is one of the persistent hounds of hell that dog the footsteps of the poor, the dispossessed, the disinherited. There is nothing new or recent about fear—it is doubtless as old as the life of man on the planet. Fears are of many kinds — fear of objects, fear of people, fear of the future, fear of nature, fear of the unknown, fear of old age, fear of disease, and fear of life itself. Then there is fear which has to do with aspects of experience and detailed states of mind. Our homes, institutions, prisons, churches, are crowded with people who are hounded by day and harrowed by night because of some fear that lurks ready to spring into action as soon as one is alone, or as soon as the lights go out, or as soon as one’s social defenses are temporarily removed.[1]
Introduction
With the biblical understanding that God did not give believers the spirit of fear (2 Tim 1:7), it must be stated that there is still much to be contemplated theologically and otherwise when it comes to describing the oppressive conditions of present-day humanity. The poor, the migrants and the homeless included. Unfortunately, as we celebrate the 75th anniversary of Howard Thurman’s first publishing of his theological masterpiece, Jesus and the Disinherited (1949), the United States of America is still ghastly choked by the internalized fears associated with capitalistic, social, political, economic, educational and religious unrest. Even among the people of Christian faith or people who attend church on Sunday mornings, there exist a penetrating fear that causes God’s people to be confused and mystified in the visual materialization of their worst nightmares—nightmares that normally take place inside the denominational church body. The fear that results from these horrifying nightmares also takes place in the public/secular square. Theologically, Martin Luther King, Jr., is still correct in his ascertaining of capitalism, racism and militarism[2] being the headliners of the human oppression now in the United States and the world abroad. Sadly, the demonic outreaches of political power continue to actively hide out in white nationalism, white supremacy, terrorist bullying by larger countries, and the global threat of nuclear destruction.
But that is not the end of the national and world nightmares of human fear. It is actually just the beginning. While a number of good Christian folk are sleeping through the televised revolution and participating in the demonic outreaches, the blatant practice of sin and evil includes people being terrifyingly gripped with fears of more homelessness and poverty, fears of early and untimely death, fears of race wars, fears of dictatorial leadership in the White House, fears of a growing systemic evil and other forms of capitalistic idolatry that are committed to destroying innocent people, fears of public school buildings dictating the building of new prisons, fears of new age segregation and contemporary outreaches of Jim Crow, fears of unnecessary violence being done to people of color, fears of newly-created examples of capital punishment, fears of the free world becoming an incarcerated world, and fears of empirical church nepotism, global warming, rising costs and low-paying jobs. Here, these ever-present fears that “beset the vast poor, the economically and socially insecure, is still a different breed.”[3] Our current fears represent a different breed of fear that a lot of people are afraid to address publicly and discuss privately.
In the nuanced mind of Thurman:
The fear of poverty is a complex and pervasive issue that affects millions of people worldwide. It is a fear that is difficult to pinpoint, yet it is always present, like the fog in San Francisco or London. It is a mood that is distilled from the acrid conflict between the weak and the strong, between those who control the environment and those who are controlled by it. The fear of poverty is a fear of the unknown, a fear of the future, and a fear of the present. It is a fear that is rooted deep in the heart of the relations between the poor and the rich, the haves and the have-nots. It is a fear that is both personal and societal, and it is a fear that must be addressed if we are to create a more just and equitable world.[4]
Thurman’s conceptual notion of the fear of poverty is engulfed by images of the social, political, economic, and geographical nuance. Just as Dr. King presents injustice as a systemic evil that is anywhere and everywhere, Thurman presents the spread of fear in the forms of climate, fog, mood, conflict, roots and environment. He also illumines the fact that fear is both a national and international phenomenon. Lastly and most telling, Thurman introduces the spread of fear as one that torments the economically-deprived, start fights while creating conflicts between the like-minded, and creates opportunities for unnecessary suffering (evil) to take place. These acts of confusion are designed to increase the quality f life gap between the stronger haves and the weaker have-nots.
Thurman then describes the actual fears of poverty as founded in people’s fear of violence:
In a society in which certain people or groups — by virtue of economic, social, or political power — have dead-weight advantages over others who are essentially without that kind of power, those who are thus disadvantaged know that they cannot fight back effectively, that they cannot protect themselves, and that they cannot demand protection from their persecutors. Any slight conflict, any alleged insult, any vague whim, any unrelated frustration, may bring down upon the head of the defenseless the full weight of naked physical violence. Even in such a circumstance it is not the fear of death that is most often at work; it is the deep humiliation arising from dying without benefit of cause or purpose. No high end is served. There is no trumpet blast to stir the blood and to anesthetize the agony. Here, there is no going down to the grave with a shout; it is merely being killed or being beaten in utter wrath or indifferent sadism, without the dignity of being on the receiving end of a premeditated act hammered out in the white heat of a transcendent moral passion. The whole experience attacks the fundamental sense of self-respect and personal dignity, without which a man is no man.[5]
The exploratory way that Thurman conceptualizes the notion of human fear in the late 1940s is theologically telling on many fronts. He first examines the fear that a sizable number of human beings have in the sphere of power. In presenting fear as one that comes from the lack of social, political and economic power, Thurman describes the innocent fearful as those who are powerless, helpless, unprotected and disadvantaged. Here, Thurman understands how easy it is for the powerless to be overpowered to the points of violence and death. He sees how the fear of violence and death disallows people from respecting and loving themselves in the face of internalizing such perils as dishonor, indecency, insignificance, worthlessness. For Thurman, the painful truth of dying without physically being able to do something about it is the oppressive embodiment of being powerless. To some degree, Thurman conceives the evil of suffering due to fear as something in which our Creator God does intervene.
In my PhD dissertation entitled ‘Cause De Spirit Spoke to Me: Conversations on Black Liberation Theology Amidst Economic Deprivation[6], Jesus and the Disinherited concluded my study on theology and racism in the United States. At its core, Thurman’s magnum opus demonstrates how the gospel of Jesus Christ may be interpreted as a blueprint of resistance for the oppressed. For Thurman, Jesus is a partner in the growing pain of the poor and the example of his life offers a solution to ones experiencing of racism and poverty. According to Thurman, hatred does not empower people; it decays and disengages them from living a fruitful life. In viewing hatred as a form of fear, Thurman is convinced that only through self-love and love of one another can God’s justice prevail in the face of structural evil. As Black people continue to struggle with issues of poverty, racism and spiritual disengagement, Thurman presents a theological construction of Jesus’ love and communal empowerment. Following in the theoretical lineage of W. E. B. Du Bois’ opinion that the racism (or the color line) is the preeminent issue of the 20th century, I am certain that economic/material poverty is the foremost issue of the 21st century. Jointly, poverty and racism are systemically locked arm-in-arm for the purpose of scaring innocent people.
While Thurman understands how racism affects Black people in the United States, his competing vision of love is found in the life of Jesus Christ, the savior of the world. For Thurman, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is sufficient to deal with the hatred of racism. This is because Jesus himself embodies the disinherited for us and with us. His suffering, bleeding and dying showed Jesus as one who was born in solidarity with the disinherited (Luke 1). Hence, “disinherited” was Jesus’ identity as well. The earthly Jesus took on the responsibility of being disinherited; and by his suffering, bleeding, dying and resurrection, he conquered oppression and made a way for other oppressed people to do the same. For Thurman, embodying the love of Jesus is the appropriate response to the experience of dehumanization and racism. Concomitantly, the disinherited are those who have been victimized by the perils of racism and poverty. Thurman, the Christian theologian, believes the transcendent greatness of Jesus’ earthly ministry is redemptive enough to combat and respond to the idolatry of both issues.
If there were ever a group of people that needed the Holy Spirit to pray for them with groans too deep to expressed in words, it would be the African slaves. Set up by their own ancestors and kidnapped by white colonizers, African slaves were forced to come to a place they did not want to be. And for Black people, in critique of how African slaves were unjustly uprooted from their native land, Howard Thurman poses the question: What might have happened if Jesus, so perfect a flower from the brooding spirit of God in the soul of Israel, had been permitted to remain where his roots would have been fed by the distilled elements accumulated from Israel’s wrestling with God?[7] With a theological brilliance foreign to the late 1940s context, Thurman uses analytical language to speak specifically to Jesus’ socioeconomic context—his primary identification with the disinherited. He states that “Jesus was a poor Jew.”[8]
What this means is that:
…the economic predicament with which he was identified in birth placed him initially with the great mass of men on earth. If we dare take the position that in Jesus, there was at work some racial destiny. It would be safe to say that in his poverty he was more truly Son of man than he would have been if the incident of family or birth had made him a rich son of Israel. It is not a point to be labored; for again and again men have transcended circumstance of birth and training; but it is an observation not without merit.[9]
Allow me to put it another way. Thurman intentionally depicts Jesus as a poor member of an ethnic minority living in a colony of the Roman empire, who spoke directly to the oppressed. This theological Jesus preached against the temptations of fear, deception and hatred with a message of the dignity and worth of all people. Most of all, he preached love. “Love of the enemy means that a fundamental attack must first be made on the enemy status,”[10] Here, Thurman believed that “The privileged and the underprivileged” must meet in places without hierarchy in order to overcome it. “The experience of the common worship of God is such a moment.”[11] While I could not find any specific quotes by Thurman on the poverty of Black people in the United States and Africa, he argues in Jesus and the Disinherited that Jesus himself was a member of an oppressed minority and that his teachings are fundamentally about empowering the oppressed and marginalized. Even as the teachings of Jesus Christ are designed to encourage and inspire the disinherited, Thurman’s conceptual notion of fear comes with thick descriptions that convey the message of a visible nightmare that is saturated in human tragedy and a conscientious hope in God.
Thurman uses these words to conceptualize the anticipation of violence as the creator of fear:
The threat of violence within a framework of well-nigh limitless power is a weapon by which the weak are held in check. Artificial limitations are placed upon them, restricting freedom of movement, of employment, and of participation in the common life. These limitations are given formal or informal expression in general or specific policies of separateness or segregation. These policies tend to freeze the social status of the insecure. The threat of violence may be implemented not only by constituted authority but also by anyone acting in behalf of the established order. Every member of the controllers’ group is in a sense a special deputy, authorised by the mores to enforce the pattern. This fact tends to create fear, which works on behalf of the proscriptions and guarantees them. The anticipation of possible violence makes it very difficult for any escape from the pattern to be effective.[12]
Perhaps Thurman’s conception of human fear includes the presumed notion that fear is designed to make weak people a weaker people and poor people a poorer people. In Thurman’s descriptive analysis, we see hints of the oppressors’ strategy in how they use the violent element of fear to disengage and take back the biblical and constitutional rights of various groups of people. Thurman helps us to see how the anticipation of violence is always preceded by the dreaded threat of a deep-seated fear that was already present. For many people, the fear of violence was always there.
Components of Thurman’s Far-Reaching Spirituality in the Midst of Fear
Gene Zubovich’s article “Revisiting the Legacy of Howard Thurman, the Mystic of the Civil Rights Movement,” presents Thurman as a prominent African American theologian, educator and civil rights leader. However, in viewing numerous documentaries, movies, plays and culturally-centered depictions of the Civil Rights Movement during the 1950s and 1960s, I never saw Thurman’s body and face or heard his voice in real time or in a Black actor’s portrayal of him. As one of the first Black theologians who traveled in India to see Mahatma Gandhi and be in conversation with him about the applicable tenets of nonviolent civil disobedience, one would think that Thurman’s presence would be consistent with that of Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph Abernathy, Andrew Young, Jesse Jackson, John Lewis, Bayard Rustin, Roy Wilkins and others. After all, Thurman was born during the last single year of the 19th century (1899), some 34 years after the end of the Civil War. In addition to being the first African American dean of chapel at a traditionally white American university (Boston University), Thurman had a profound influence on King’s faith and activism. He was one of the first pastors to inspire King to merge Gandhi’s philosophy of nonviolent resistance with the civil rights movement. It goes without saying that Thurman’s concepts about nonviolence and Jesus are peppered throughout King’s writings. But I never saw Howard Thurman’s body physically marching in the streets or participating in nonviolent sit-ins or other types of peaceful demonstrations. Why is that? Was Thurman so filled with the very notions of fear he conceptualized theologically that he was not willing to put his body in harm’s way for the sacrificial cause of the greater Movement? Maybe. Maybe not.
Even though Thurman did not engage in the dramatic public activism that some other leaders did, the fact remains that he played a significant role in shaping the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. Instead of thinking that Thurman was fearful in his lack of physical activism, I would argue that Thurman’s spirituality was greater than his fear of putting himself in harm’s way. That is not to say I do not believe that he did not have some type of working fear in place. Because I am sure Thurman did, given the dangerous racial climates of the 1950s and 1960s. But as a Black liberation theologian, I am led to believe that Thurman’s spiritual resolve sustained him during those very difficult times.
Let’s explore why I say that. Thurman’s experiences in India shaped his understanding of the latent spiritual power within oppressed communities. Thurman was certain that the first step toward social change was transforming one’s individual internal spirit. In other words, his contemplative approach emphasized inner transformation and the authenticity of personal experience. Rather than front-line protesting, Thurman focused on nurturing the spiritual essence of the Movement. Here, with Jesus and the Disinherited in full view, it is important to note that Thurman was committed to his own spiritual disciplines and foundations. His teachings emphasized the latent spiritual power within most socially oppressed individuals. What this means is that Thurman’s theological legacy extended beyond visible activism or just one form of protest and resistance.
While critics and pundits labeled him a “backbencher” due to his lack of front-line protesting, Thurman’s impact extended far beyond public demonstrations. His role was not that of a street marcher. But rather, Thurman’s role was that of an inspirational figure, providing the philosophical basis for the Movement. Here, his mystical meanderings and exploratory emphasis on inner transformation contributed significantly to the Civil Rights Movement. Thurman is referred to by many as the Dean of the Civil Rights Movement. While he is often associated with the Civil Rights Movement, Thurman’s legacy extends beyond it. Again, that is not to say that he did possess any fear of racial violence as he brilliantly outlines in Chapter 2 of Jesus and the Disinherited. But rather, while dealing with his own personal fears, Thurman decided to focus his creative energies on helping to develop the spiritual foundation of the Movement. One could argue that this important action of exemplifying spiritual wisdom is neither the absence nor the presence of fear but is an underestimated act of a powerful faith.
Historical Context: The United States in 1949
Jesus and the Disinherited was published in 1949. Four years removed from the end of World War II, this was a time when Americans were suffering, bleeding and dying at an expedited rate. This was also a time when late capitalism was beginning to bloom nationally and internationally. By then, Black people in all parts of the country were experiencing mortality rates comparable to those that whites had experienced 25 years earlier (1924). According to many studies, heart disease, cancer, stroke, accidents and certain diseases of early infancy were the main causes of death. Ills associated with economic/material poverty also played major roles in the death of a sizable number of Black Americans. This is due to the fact that the lack of economic resources increases one’s chance of developing certain diseases that lead to early death. Also, according to a study by the University of Wisconsin, the poverty rate in the United States was 40.5 percent in 1949. The poverty rate varied widely based on the major socioeconomic correlates of poverty such as age, race or ethnicity, sex of the household head, family size, educational achievement of the household head.
On the national scene, some important things happened in 1949. Oliver Marcell (June 21, 1895 – June 12, 1949), nicknamed “Ghost,” an American third baseman in the Negro leagues for a number of teams around the league from 1918 to 1931, died in poverty in 1949 in Denver, Colorado. Even worse, on September 6, 1949 Howard Barton Unruh, a World War II veteran, killed 13 neighbors in Camden, New Jersey, with a souvenir Luger to become America’s first single-episode mass murderer. Barton shot and killed 13 people, many of whom were Black Americans, during a 12-minute walk through his neighborhood in Camden, New Jersey. This horrifying incident became known as the Walk of Death. Unruh was found criminally insane and died in 2009 at the age of 88 after a lengthy illness following 60 years of confinement. The shooting remains the deadliest mass shooting in New Jersey history, and is one of the first examples of a mass shooting in post-World War II U.S. history.[13] As the result of this deadly shooting spree, many parts of the United States were paralyzed with a gripping fear as people wondered about the possibility of their own lives being cut short due to gun violence. This was a time when the fear of untimely death spread like wildfire.
The last year of the 1940s was indicative of the time when racial segregation in several prominent American cities and communities was premeditated for the purpose of lumping poor Black families in underdeveloped areas. According to many housing policy experts, federal government policies created the suburbs and the inner-city neighborhoods. Also, in 1949 the South African Citizenship Act suspended the granting of citizenship to Commonwealth of Nations immigrants after five years, and imposed a ban on mixed marriages. This was the same year that the last U.S. troops withdrew from South Korea. Sadly, the Inglewood race riot, or Peoria Street riot, was one of many post-World War II race riots in Chicago, Illinois, that took place in November 1949. Whites in the neighborhood rioted, attacking other whites, partially based on rumors and misinformation that Blacks were meeting to take over their neighborhood. A 1949 letter to a friend from President Harry Truman reflects the opposition he faced in efforts to create a national health care plan, in particular the American Medical Association misrepresenting his proposal as “socialized medicine.” Sadly, a national program providing support for some lower-income and older people was not accomplished until more than a decade-and-a-half later. During this time, Black and white Americans suffered greatly in the hands of a negligent and violent United States.
Conclusion
In Jesus and the Disinherited, Howard Thurman describes fear as one of the hounds of hell that dogs the footsteps of the poor because fear paralyzes innocent human beings into an existential experience of hell on earth. Like vicious dogs that bite to kill, steal and destroy, fear negatively conditions the hearts of poor people into an instantaneous paralysis. In dogging the footsteps of the poor, fear follows those who are economically deprived like the desperate robber follows those he or she thinks are easy targets. Like dangerous dogs, fear bites into the skin of the poor for the purposes of creating pain, hell on earth and ultimately death. Fear has footsteps too. Its footsteps are bigger, larger, longer, richer, sturdier and more powerful than the dehumanized footsteps of the poor. They have the ability to scare the living daylights out of those who have weaker footsteps. The footsteps of fear are those of the opinion that they are superior to those of the inferior poor. I liken the hounds of hell that dog the footsteps of the poor to a dark shadow that follows those who are in desperate need of light. This dogged following is demonic in that its sole purpose is to keep the poor away from any type of light. One sure way that the hounds of hell instill a petrifying fear into the hearts of the smaller, weaker poor is by brute force and unmatched violence. In the same way King listed racism, capitalism and militarism as the three evils, Thurman recognized fear, poverty and violence as barriers to humanity’s quest for freedom and equality. He then makes the case for Christianity as an authoritative and useful ideology in the face of oppression and argues for an interpretation of Jesus’,moral teachings as politically relevant and centered on “the love-ethic.”[14] Says Thurman:
When the basis of such fear is analyzed, it is clear that it (fear) arises out of the sense of isolation and helplessness in the face of the varied dimensions of violence to which the underprivileged are exposed. Violence, precipitate and stark, is the sire of the fear of such people. It is spawned by the perpetual threat of violence everywhere. One can almost see the desperation creep into the quivering, pulsing body of the frightened animal. It is one-sided violence. If two men equally matched, or even relatively matched, are in deadly combat, the violence is clear-cut though terrible; there is gross equality of advantage. But when the power and the tools of violence are on one side, the fact that there is no available and recognized protection from violence makes the resulting fear deeply terrifying.[15]
Thurman seems certain that human fear can result from being considered inferior in a way that one knows for sure that they would not survive or succeed in an unevenly matched contest. In viewing the weaker culture as a frightened animal, Thurman brings to mind the fact the African slaves and Black Americans have for a long time been deemed as inferior and sub-human. What has never been explored in this racialized dichotomy of human perspective is that a sizable number of Black people have become like animals not because they needed to, but because they were afraid to die in an unmatched battle. Thurman gets it right when he describes the fight to death as one-sided violence with a gross inequality of advantage. When there is always a clear advantage on the side of the oppressor, the oppressed is consumed with fear of their human fate. This is what fear does to human beings. It makes them afraid of the outcomes in battle with a more powerful entity, as Thurmond writes:
Fear is a constant psychological symptom among the disinherited. It is a product of violence and the looming threat of violence on the part of the oppressor, and it takes a significant toll on the psyches of both the individual and the community. Fear is reified and passed on to children, robbing them of childhood innocence and creating a cycle of harm and anxiety. Thurman contends that the Christian belief that humans are children of God can build self-worth and act as a bulwark against fear. Faith can overcome fear, and it is therefore a particularly useful tool for the disinherited.[16]
Thurman conceptualizes fear as one that negatively impacts the psyche of the disinherited—both the individual disinherited and the communal disinherited. His analysis brings to mind Albert Memmi’s book, The Colonizer and the Colonized,[17] where Memmi concludes that human oppression does great harm to both the oppressed and the oppressor. Thurman’s work also brings to mind two more things. 1. How Black leaders participated in the forced kidnapping of Africans to be the working slaves of the white slave master. 2. How white capitalists are willing to sacrifice their own and do economic harm to their own brothers and sisters just to make sure they keep Black and brown in fear of their own poverty situation. In both accounts, violence, fear and the promise of death are included in the experience of being disinherited and oppressed.
By all accounts, fear is a powerful force that can oppress the disenfranchised. In Jesus and the Disinherited, Howard Thurman delves into the impact of fear on those who face oppression and violence. In Chapter 2, Thurman conceptualizes the notion of fear in three realms:
- The Primary Nature of Fear: Victimizing the Innocent with Overwhelming Power
- In a society where certain groups hold economic, social or political power, the disadvantaged know they are not numerically or militarily strong enough to demand protection from their persecutors. The politics of fear intentionally goes against the minority groups.
- It’s not just the fear of death that plagues the disinherited; it’s also the deep humiliation of dying without a sense of purpose or just cause.
- The integrity of physical violence degrades by contemptuously disregarding personhood. One group of people defines humanity and the other groups are considered as less than human.
- The True Threat of Violence: Unending Harm
- Even without actual violence, the threat alone can wreak havoc in the souls of the poor. It does psychological and spiritual harm.
- The mere rumor or historical precedent of violence under similar circumstances is enough to make the threat effective. Here, the threat of violence has “hang” time as it causes pain and suffering without being visibly present.
- Like a dog yelping before being hit by objects that cut into their skin, fear perpetuates itself.
- Jesus’ Liberating Message for the Disinherited: The Work of the Holy Spirit:
- Thurman references Jesus’ life as a practical and spiritual remedy for fear.
- Jesus’ teachings emphasize abandoning fear of each other and fearing only God.
- The call to liberation is an unending search for truth and righteousness.
In his article, “Howard Thurman and the Problem of Faithlessness,” D’Ondre Swails asks the important question:
Why does the average man or woman who can barely pay rent or buy groceries still choose to go to work every day? What keeps them from resorting to crime or choosing to escape their miserable condition by turning to drugs or alcohol? The answer is faith. These people have been convinced—either by carrot or stick—that it is best to follow the prescribed means of American society. Under these conditions, the flawed Christian doctrine to which Thurman initially refers shows up as either 1.) a blinder, compelling believers to accept a Candide-like optimism about this being the best of all possible worlds, or 2.) a salve, treating their bruised spirits with the promise of better in the next life.[18]
On these critical points, Thurman concludes “The whole experience attacks the fundamental sense of self-respect and personal dignity, without which a man is no man.”[19] Even with faith in God, those who are systemically oppressed are also forced to bear the burdens of fear and violence as co-inhabitants that are designed to kill, steal and destroy (John 10:10). The faith of the innocent is not materialized in the sacred purpose of fighting against the hegemonic outreaches of evil. While I do agree with Thurman when he states that faith is the answer, I cannot help but ponder the dire consequences of one’s thought process in regards to what it means to defend himself or herself while attempting to protect their respective families. What does faith in God have to do with one’s decision to fight against those who are determined to send innocent people to their untimely death? Especially when the Bible says that the battle is not ours; it belongs to the LORD (2 Chron. 2:15).
According to Christian Collins Winn:
Thurman’s gambit was that Jesus, subject to the same temptations as every dispossessed person, pursued a path distinct from the perils of adopting fear, deception or hatred as a means of survival. According to Thurman, Jesus began with the simple idea that, “Every man is potentially every other man’s neighbor,” that “Neighborliness is nonspatial; it is qualitative. A man must love his neighbor directly, clearly, permitting no barriers between.” From Thurman’s perspective, wherever the spirit of Jesus “appears, the oppressed gathers fresh courage; for he announced the good news that fear, hypocrisy, and hatred, the three hounds of hell that track the trail of the disinherited, need have no dominion over them.”[20]
As a Black sagest theologian of the mid-20th century, Thurman conceptualizes the notion of fear with a vision of hope, faith and fearlessness. He teaches modern-day, liberation theologians and Black church practitioners that to be fearless in the midst of facing one’s deep-seated fears presupposes their commitment to the spiritual foundations of God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Jesus and the Disinherited is a powerful critique of the way Christianity has been used to justify the materialistic oppression of the poor and marginalized. The United States in 2024 would do well in taking heed of Thurman’s conceptualizing the notion of human fear. Seventy-five years after its first publishing in 1949, Jesus and the Disinherited is even more relevant today than it was in the mid-20th century. The 2024 version of the United States is one that is still filled with fear, death, hate, oppression and violence. Even today, Thurman’s work is as relevant as it has ever been. The Bible reminds us that instead of giving believers the spirit of fear, God gave us the spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind (2 Tim 1:7).
With Thurman’s conceptual notion of fear in view, I am reminded by the Holy Spirit that fear, death, hate, oppression and violence do not represent the end of our human fate. In stating that life does in fact go on, Thurman teaches us that there is something in the world that is greater than evil and the evildoers. This greater transcendence guarantees that our lives matter to God in Christ and have value in the love of the Holy Spirit. Despite how some of our ancestors have fallen to the hands of hate and violence, they still live on in our hearts, even as life in God goes on for those who have survived.
May Thurman’s poignant words remind us of the precious value of life, help us celebrate it, and protect our souls from the “contagion of inner disintegration” during these turbulent times[21] of human fear. To be sure, the hellish violence that dogs the footsteps of the poor is not greater than the power of the Holy Spirit.
— Rev. Darvin A. Adams I, PhD is Pastor of the Lane Tabernacle CME Church in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. He is a widely known speaker and prolific writer and serves as Dean of the Evansville-Hopkinsville District of the Kentucky Region Conference and Scholar-in-Residence of the Second Episcopal District.
[2] On many social occasions and in a number of his most important speeches, Dr. King made reference to what he termed the three evils in the world—racism, capitalism and militarism. All of which in the mind of Thurman, created a materialized spirit of fear among Black Americans and poor white Americans too. The demonic presence of all three evils is what prompted King to speak out against the Vietnam War in 1967.
[3] Howard Thurman, Jesus and the Disinherited, 26.
[4] Ibid., 26-27.
[5] Ibid., 27-28.
[6] I successfully defended my PhD dissertation in April 2018 at the Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. My dissertation committee consisted of Drs. Stephen G. Ray, Dwight N. Hopkins, Nancy E. Bedford, and Larry G. Murphy. My areas of study were theology and ethics (Economic Theory).
[7] Howard Thurman, Jesus and the Disinherited, 16.
[8] Ibid., 17.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Jared Hudson quoting Howard Thurman, “What’s the Matter with Vassar,” Para. 36, Footnote 24.
[11] Gene Zubovich, “Revisiting the Legacy of Howard Thurman, the Mystic of the Civil Rights Movement,” Para. 8.
[12] Howard Thurman, Jesus and the Disinherited, 35.
[13] See Wikipedia: 1949
[14] Ibid., 89.
[15] Ibid., 27.
[16] https://www.supersummary.com/jesus-and-the-disinherited.summary/ Para. 5.
[17] Albert Memmi, The Colonizer and the Colonized (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1991).
[18] D’Ondre Swails, “Howard Thurman and the Problem of Faithlessness,” Para. 7.
[19] Howard Thurman, “Fear: An Excerpt from Jesus and the Disinherited” Para. 2.
[20] Christian Collins Winn, “Jesus and the Disinherited: Howard Thurman still speaks to the church.,” Para. 6.
[21] Rhon Manigault-Bryant, ““Life Goes On:” A Meditation from Howard Thurman,” Para. 6.
