Moral Struggle and the Prophets (Walking with God: The Sermon Series of Howard Thurman, Volume 1)

First time in print: The Sermon Series of the preacher who influenced Martin Luther King, Jr.

Howard Thurman (1899-1981) one of the leading religious thinkers of 20th-century America, was a mentor to the leaders of the civil rights movement, and a mystic who pioneered influential innovations in worship and spirituality. Thurman devised a way of preaching to a congregation that sought “support, strength, and guidance” using what he called a “sermon series,” a group of sermons organized around a common theme. Walking with God will assemble the best of Thurman’s “sermon series,” all previously unpublished.

This volume begins with Thurman’s series on “Man and the Moral Struggle,” offering sketches of individuals from history and literature (from Albert Schweitzer to Melville’s Moby Dick) involved in life-transforming “moral struggles” in which “at stake is the ultimate destiny” of their lives. In “The Message of the Prophets” he examines the great biblical prophets, whose mission and message challenge our own time as much as their own.

Walter Earl Fluker, senior editor and director of the Howard Thurman Papers Project, is Martin Luther King, Jr., Professor of Ethical Leadership Emeritus at Boston University School of Theology.

Peter Eisenstadt has been associated with the Howard Thurman Papers Project since 1995, and has been the associate editor on all of the volumes of the Papers of Howard Thurman.