Adult Education

Beginning April 27, Pastor Mark Peake will lead a study of Howard Thurman's Jesus and the Disinherited, a short yet profoundly influential interpretation of Jesus’ ministry. Thurman (1899-1981) grew up in Daytona, where he developed his faith while reading the Bible aloud to his grandmother, a formerly enslaved, deeply spiritual woman. At age 14, Thurman left home for Jacksonville to attend one of the only three Florida high schools then open to black students. He studied at Morehouse College and Rochester Theological Seminary, each time graduating valedictorian. During his career, he served as a seminary professor, Dean of the chapels at Howard and Boston universities, and leader of interfaith and interracial projects. Leading a delegation of African Americans to Southeast Asia and India, he met with Mohandas Gandhi who pushed him to think through the philosophy and strategy of nonviolent resistance. Thurman’s thinking guided Martin Luther King, Jr. and others during the mid-twentieth-century Civil Rights Movement. Thurman also cofounded the first interracial, interfaith congregation in the US, the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples in San Francisco.

While not required, we encourage you to read Thurman’s book, the text of which is available online here. You may order a paper, hardback, or audio copy here or on other online sites.