The Search for Common Ground by Howard Thurman

There seems to be a principle of rationality in all existence, and the significance of this can be found in the order in life. Existence itself is construed as divine activity. 'The religious basis for such an interpretation of community is the affirmation, which to me is categorical, that the Mind of God realizes Itself in time, and that there are observable patterns or sequences in all.

Thurman gives a broad, metaphysical and religious cast to the search for community. As a religious thinker, Thurman does not stop with human community but rather finds that the 'intuitive human urge for community reflects a characteristic of all life'. Thus, individual life involves an ever-expanding search for community. Thurman finds that each individual person has a need to be with others to overcome loneliness and to realize potential. The critical part of the book is the opening chapter 'Concerning the Search' in which Thurman sets forth the goal of the book in broad, philosophical terms. The book consists of six short chapters together with a Preface. It is valuable to hear Thurman expound this position in this short, eloquent, and difficult book. Many people do not share Thurman's mysticism and sense of the continuity of all being. This quest makes Thurman a philosophical monist and with his strongly experiential, religious orientation it makes him a mystic. He discusses life as the quest by the lonely, finite individual to find meaning through understanding his relationship to other persons and, more broadly, to the whole of reality. In this short, spare book, Thurman described his quest to find unity and wholeness in life and the sources of that quest. However, Thurman described this 1971 book, 'The Search for Common Ground' as 'constituting my lifelong working paper'. Thurman is best-known for his 1949 book, 'Jesus and the Disinherited' which influenced Martin Luther King. Dorrien's book kindled my interest in Thurman. The African American religious thinker Howard Thurman (1899 - 1981) has been receiving attention of late with the release of a PBS documentary, 'Backs against the Wall' devoted to Thurman's life together with news articles and books, including Gary Dorrien's study 'Breaking White Supremacy: Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Binding is tight and square, no creases to spine or cover. Cover has very mild surface and edge wear. Solid copy with a minor amount of underlining, and notes in margins. Size: 5x0x8 Previous owners name written on first page.

The Search for Common Ground by Howard Thurman