A strange freedom

Hailed by Life magazine as one of the great preachers of the twentieth century; a spiritual advisor to Martin Luther King, Jr., Sherwood Eddy, James Farmer, A. J. Musty, and Pauli Murray; the first black dean at a white university; cofounder of the first interracially pastored, intercultural church in the United States; Howard Thurman was a man of penetrating foresight and astonishing charisma.

His vision of the world - one united in civility and bound by a relationship to God that overwhelmed the constructs of racism in favor of a democratic camaraderie born of faith - formed the basis of one of the most critical moments in our nation's history, the Civil Rights Movement. This collection of select published and unpublished works offers a look at the evolution of Thurman's thought as he struggled with the particular manifestations of violence and hatred that have marked the twentieth century.