With Head and Heart: The Autobiography of Howard Thurman

This book is the best kept secret regarding Dr. Howard Thurman, a little known household name. If you ever wondered who inspired great leaders such as Dr. Martin L. King, Jr., Jesse Jackson, and the list goes on...read With Head and Heart. It is truly a story worth reading; one of sacrifice, perseverance, and success.

In becoming better acquainted, through reading, with a man some of my friends have encouraged me to become familiar with, I have found an incredible gift in the form of Hward Thurman, whose message is not only inspiring, but timely, interfaith, intercultural and, most of all one, thatif taken to heart and put into practice, could change the world. I often wonder why such messages are read, spoken from various platforms and then passed over and and remembered only as inspirational words as we forge ahead in the world doing things the same way over and over again. I recommend the message in this book to everyone who will care enough to not only learn about an incredible human being who was with us for a while, left us with a vision, and challenged us to see things in a new light. I invite us to see the wisdom he shared and put it into action. It is an autobiography and so we must accept it as written, staying free f rom judgement as to style, etc. It is a man's heart, gifted to those who will read and those whom he has influenced and those who could gain so much from sharing in the vision.

I recently returned to Thurman's autobiography after 15 years. I am developing a course in Composition/African-American Literature. Thurman's words will be the springboard. His prose is elegant and concise; his sensitivity to nature, a poetic model; his expansive spirit, inspirational. Many chapters will serve as exercises for writing; e.g.: his instruction for the preparation of sermons. In fine, his response to life is a guidline for good writing and holy living.

Howard Thurman's autobiography is a defining, powerful collection of one man's life-stories that inspire family, schools, churches, nations and gives timely revelations into the transforming power of God's grace that spans the many gulfs that we call racial, economic, religious, political lines. This is a must read text.

Consistently written from a space of incredible compassion and profound understanding of the human condition, Dr. Howard Thurman's extraordinary path unfolds as if it were any man's path. He was mentor to the young Martin Luther King, friend and confidante of Mahatma Gandhi, and founder of San Francisco's Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples; all performed while living the experience of a black man during America's most racially turbulent years. Though he comes from a Christian background and is steeped in Christian theology, his understanding is that of the mystic; seeing the heart of truth in all the world's belief systems. Dr. Thurman is not widely known, but should be on the reading list of anyone who seeks insight into how to move the heart into the world. I will never be without Dr. Thurman's guidance in my life again