Howard Thurman, a former Dean of Marsh Chapel, was influential to Boston University’s culture in a variety of ways. The university’s student cultural center, The Howard Thurman Center, is named after him and is dedicated to constructing a culture on campus that attempts to live out his values. These values are Thurman’s philosophy of Common Ground.
According to the Howard Thurman Center’s website, the philosophy of Common Ground is built up on three different ideas. The first idea is that, in the quiet reflections of ourselves—once we have become secure in who we are—we will find ourselves in all other humans. The second value within Thurman’s Common Ground philosophy is that of community. Thurman believed that humanity’s natural state is in community. Finally, Thurman believed that when people share experiences with others, the divisive human boundaries they artificially construct between themselves will over time give way to the Common Ground that binds all of humanity. This third value rests neatly on the first and second values; that is, community with those often deemed the other becomes possible when you see the common bonds between yourself and other human beings. Intentional community with the other, then, breaks down our divides and allows the true bonds to become clearer.
While this is a beautiful idea—and as a Boston University student myself, I sit within this school of thought—is this philosophy applicable to the myriad of current social justice issues and outgroup conflicts that pervade contemporary society today? Contemporary conversations have become very divisive, and it feels as though it is all too easy to demonize those with whom we disagree. The power imbalances that exist within many challenges in social justice contexts also muddle the conversation further. Many would argue that, no, Thurman’s views are not relevant anymore. At their best, Thurman’s views are idealistic and impossible; at their worst, Thurman’s philosophy leads to complacency.
Despite such claims, I disagree.
I believe that Howard Thurman’s ideals are not only relevant today but also the surest way toward the realization of the common good in our modern society. Whether it is issues of social justice, or simply the ideal of working in intercultural and interfaith contexts, I believe that Howard Thurman’s philosophy continues to be powerful.
In my last blog post, I argued that a baseline ethic that can be used in engagement with the challenges and problems of contemporary life begins with the claim that there is infinite, immeasurable value in the outpouring of oneself. Using some concepts from Paul Tillich’s theology, Hegelian philosophy, and modern psychoanalysis, I argued that courage is the act of outpouring oneself for existence and that love is the outpouring of oneself for an object. The immense value is hard to pinpoint in concrete terms, but the act of outpouring oneself has intrinsic value. Often, the most moving depictions of art within our cultures display an individual outpouring themselves, either for Being-Itself, for a cause, or for another. This is what I call the Ethic of Courage, or the Ethic of the Cross.
The act of working toward common ground is scary, as it denotes that one must be vulnerable. In being vulnerable, it is very easy to be hurt, dismissed, or attacked. It is much easier to reject the other and to conclude that they are evil, we are good, and we need to overpower them in conflict.
But the Ethic of Courage says otherwise. One must outpour oneself to the other, for the other’s sake. All human beings have the mark of the divine in them. When one outpours oneself for the other’s sake, one affirms the other’s humanity and imbues a divine mark of commonality between them. This is the first step toward common ground, and it is what we ought to do.
This is not merely an ideal but a theological reality that can be embodied and lived out, now, in the real world. For instance, there is an ecumenical, intentional community in Ithaca, New York, called the Lindisfarne Community that has a prayer that, as a religious value, is immensely useful for this work. Their prayer is “That I may be as Christ to those I meet; that I may find Christ within them.” Such a prayer, in denoting ultimate divinity, from a particular cultural context, infinitely lifts the humanity in the other. While doing this, the prayer also calls the individual to assume the particular divine hospitality in the face of the other, regardless of who the other is. When one lives into this prayer by incorporating it into one’s spiritual life, true engagement with the other is possible. This is a way into common ground.
The immense value that the Ethic of Courage illuminates, when combined with the values of Howard Thurman, can become a potent force for social change. It does not deny that there is real evil and injustice in this world, but it does lift up and affirm the New Being in all other beings. This is important in the many challenges our society faces today because, as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn notes, “The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either, but right through every human heart.”
And with this in mind, may we outpour ourselves and lift up the good within one another.
Image: The Cross in the Midst of Absurdity, painting by author.