Jesus and the Disinherited

Jesus and the Disinherited was written by Howard Thurman and published in 1949. Thurman spoke on the book’s subject at various universities and Christian conferences throughout the 1930s and 1940s. A series of lectures he delivered at the Mary L. Smith Memorial at Samuel Huston College in Austin, Texas, in 1948 serve as the foundation of Jesus and the Disinherited.

Howard Thurman was a notable religious figure during the social justice movements of the early 20th century, as well as an educator, philosopher, and writer. He was known for being a mentor to Martin Luther King, Jr., and King cited Jesus and the Disinherited as a text that profoundly influenced his work.

Summary

Over five chapters—"Jesus, an Interpretation,” “Fear,” “Deception,” “Hate,” and “Love”—Howard Thurman lays out a typology of challenges and phenomena (indicated in the chapter titles) that determine the lives of oppressed populations, who he refers to as “the disinherited.” He makes the case for Christianity as an authoritative and useful ideology in the face of oppression and argues for an interpretation of Jesus’s moral teachings as politically relevant and centered on “the love-ethic” (89).

In the first chapter, “Jesus—An Interpretation,” Thurman acknowledges the failures of the contemporary Christian church to address the disinherited, particularly African Americans. He offers, through a series of personal, biblical, and historical examples, a defense of Jesus as a champion of the poor. Jesus was a Jewish person in occupied Roman territory and was clearly cognizant of the scope of Roman oppression. He taught charity, love, and forgiveness and preached faith in God over the state. Thurman contrasts Jesus’s radical message with the toned-down words of the apostle Paul, whose status as a Roman citizen gave him a more favorable view of authority.

Fear is a constant psychological symptom among the disinherited. It is a product of violence and the looming threat of violence on the part of the oppressor, and it takes a significant toll on the psyches of both the individual and the community. Fear is reified and passed on to children, robbing them of childhood innocence and creating a cycle of harm and anxiety. Thurman contends that the Christian belief that humans are children of God can build self-worth and act as a bulwark against fear. Faith can overcome fear, and it is therefore a particularly useful tool for the disinherited.

In his chapter on deception, Thurman explains how the weak have learned to deceive the strong in order to survive. He considers the moral elements of this phenomenon and gives credence to the fact that deception often seems to be the only option when “the choice seems to be the ghetto or suicide” (67). Thurman argues, however, that deception eventually corrodes the soul, and sincerity is both drastically better aligned with God’s wishes and more likely to achieve social equality in the long term.

Hate, according to Thurman, arises in situations “in which there is contact without fellowship” (75). The strong hate and therefore persecute the weak, and the weak hate the strong for their unjust actions. Again, Thurman understands the attraction of hatred. It seems to serve as a generative force for the disinherited and allows for an otherwise absent sense of resolve. Hatred, however, does not discriminate and ends up destroying all parties involved. Therefore, Thurman argues for the practice, application, and eventual triumph of love over hate. He presents Jesus’s life and teachings as examples of love and forgiveness for the enemy. Love requires situations in which mutual humanity can be recognized and social context put aside. Thurman condemns segregation because of its inherent inequality, but also because it precludes such humanizing situations. Thurman concludes with an appeal to the disciplined practice of love and forgiveness on the part of the disinherited because it will lead to salvation in the eyes of God and offers long-term viability as a strategy for liberation.