Quieting the Noise

Howard Thurman and Seeking God

https://sova.si.edu/details/NMAH.AC.0618.S04.01?s=0&n=10&t=A&q=howard+thurman&i=0#ref4002

I’ve been working on the theology section of my dissertation this week, looking at the mystical theology of Rufus Jones and Howard Thurman. Thurman (1899-1981) was a pastor and a professor. He was an important figure in the Civil Rights movement and mentored many famous figures within it including Martin Luther King Jr.

One scholar defines mysticism as, “an experiential, direct, nonabstract, unmediated, loving knowing of God, a knowing or seeing so direct as to be called union with God.”

For Thurman mysticism is not conjuring a visitation from God, but rather becoming aware of the divine presence that is always there. He says, “The insistence is not so much that something invades the life of man from without, but rather that through quietness and inner solitariness the individual becomes conscious of what it is that he has in him all the time.” We do not invite the presence of God into us, we quiet the noise and discover God is already there.

In a lecture he gave in California (which you can listen to here!), Thurman tells the story of a street in Rochester, NY where as he walked late one night he was able to hear the water of the Erie Canal flowing underneath it. In the noise of daytime, he had never heard it and had no idea it was there. To hear it, he needed silence. This is central to the theology of Thurman who advocated for stillness and solitude in the midst of an increasingly loud and busy society.

Thurman goes on to clarify what can be heard when we silently commune with God. He posits that God has purposes in the world. And since this is true he says, “If I may enter into communion with such a God, such a Creator, then as a result of that communion I may be exposed to the vision of His purposes.” Communion with God through silence gives us the ability to discern God’s purposes in the world and therefore partner in these purposes.

Are you taking time to silence the noise and listen to God? What have you heard?