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The Search for Common Ground
Howard Thurman writes about building community. He calls us at once to affirm our own identity, but also to look beyond that identity to that which we have in common with all of life.
108 pages, Paperback
First published April 30, 1986
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About the author
Howard Thurman
68 books346 followersHoward Washington Thurman was an author, philosopher, theologian, educator, and civil rights leader. As a prominent religious figure, he played a leading role in many social justice movements and organizations of the twentieth century.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
November 19, 2025
Howard Thurman's Search For Community
The African American religious thinker Howard Thurman (1899 -- 1981) has been receiving attention of late with the release of a PBS documentary, "Backs against the Wall" devoted to Thurman's life together with news articles and books, including Gary Dorrien's study "Breaking White Supremacy: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Black Social Gospel". Dorrien's book kindled my interest in Thurman.
Thurman is best-known for his 1949 book, "Jesus and the Disinherited" which influenced Martin Luther King. However, Thurman described this 1971 book, "The Search for Common Ground" as "constituting my lifelong working paper". In this short, spare book, Thurman described his quest to find unity and wholeness in life and the sources of that quest. He discusses life as the quest by the lonely, finite individual to find meaning through understanding his relationship to other persons and, more broadly, to the whole of reality. This quest makes Thurman a philosophical monist and with his strongly experiential, religious orientation it makes him a mystic. Many people do not share Thurman's mysticism and sense of the continuity of all being. It is valuable to hear Thurman expound this position in this short, eloquent, and difficult book.
The book consists of six short chapters together with a Preface. The critical part of the book is the opening chapter "Concerning the Search" in which Thurman sets forth the goal of the book in broad, philosophical terms. Thurman finds that each individual person has a need to be with others to overcome loneliness and to realize potential. Thus, individual life involves an ever-expanding search for community. As a religious thinker, Thurman does not stop with human community but rather finds that the "intuitive human urge for community reflects a characteristic of all life". Thurman gives a broad, metaphysical and religious cast to the search for community. He writes:
"The religious basis for such an interpretation of community is the affirmation, which to me is categorical, that the Mind of God realizes Itself in time, and that there are observable patterns or sequences in all. ... Existence itself is construed as divine activity. There seems to be a principle of rationality in all existence, and the significance of this can be found in the order in life. True, what seems to be a principle of rationality as expressed in observable order in life may be a limitation of mind itself. Yet it is the assumption of inherent logic in the functioning of mind that makes comprehension of the external world possible."
In the following four chapters, Thurman applies his search for commonality and unity to four broad areas of life. In "The Search into Beginnings", Thurman finds a universal human need for wholeness and restoration from division expressed in religious myths. He examines the Biblical story of creation as well as a discussion of the creation story of the Hopi tribe. The following chapter "The Search into Beginnings" finds a universal shared process of life in scientific theory from cosmology through evolution. In a broad, provocative claim Thurman states that "God stands in relation to all existence somewhat as the mind of man stands in relation to his time-space existence".
In "The Search for the Prophet's Dream" Thurman explores a variety of sources, including the Bible, Plato's "Republic" and Thomas More. The goal is to show recognition of the fragmented character of life torn by divisions and hatreds and to explore ways in which various utopian thinkers have argued that this fragmentation could be overcome. In a chapter titled "The Search for Common Consciousness" Thurman argues that a common consciousness and mind is shared not only among human beings but rather among all life. Much of the chapter involves instances of human interactions with animals to suggest what this common consciousness might mean.
Thurman states that he had a difficult time writing the final chapter of the book and relating it to what proceeded it. The book's final chapter, "The Search for Identity" is the book's longest and deals with social philosophy in the United States with an emphasis on the African American struggle for civil rights. Thurman offers a detailed depiction about the importance of participation in a secular community as a means for attaining wholeness and union, both on an individual and on a societal level. He discusses the status of African Americans as outsiders beginning with slavery and continuing through the Civil War, Reconstruction and Jim Crow. He sees African Americans as gradually attaining the power and the ability to demand full inclusion in the community. The central figure in Thurman's account is Martin Luther King, Jr. As mentioned earlier, King had himself been greatly influenced by Thurman's book "Jesus and the Disinherited". Thurman argues, that after King, African Americans had split with some favoring separatist movements, including those advocating for Black Power. Thurman understands the force of the separatist movement but he rejects it as inconsistent with a society based on unity and wholeness. He writes: "It is my considered judgment that the present solution is a stop-gap, a halt in the line of march toward full community or, at most, a time of bivouac on a promontory overlooking the entire landscape of American society. .... Men, all men belong to each other, and he who shuts himself away diminishes himself, and he who shuts another away from him destroys himself."
I have learned a great deal from studying Thurman. I have been moved by his mysticism, his search for unity, and for individual human development. I have learned from how Thurman uses his broad metaphysical and religious beliefs to develop an activist mysticism which recognizes the human equality and fellowship of all people and groups.
Robin Friedman
The African American religious thinker Howard Thurman (1899 -- 1981) has been receiving attention of late with the release of a PBS documentary, "Backs against the Wall" devoted to Thurman's life together with news articles and books, including Gary Dorrien's study "Breaking White Supremacy: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Black Social Gospel". Dorrien's book kindled my interest in Thurman.
Thurman is best-known for his 1949 book, "Jesus and the Disinherited" which influenced Martin Luther King. However, Thurman described this 1971 book, "The Search for Common Ground" as "constituting my lifelong working paper". In this short, spare book, Thurman described his quest to find unity and wholeness in life and the sources of that quest. He discusses life as the quest by the lonely, finite individual to find meaning through understanding his relationship to other persons and, more broadly, to the whole of reality. This quest makes Thurman a philosophical monist and with his strongly experiential, religious orientation it makes him a mystic. Many people do not share Thurman's mysticism and sense of the continuity of all being. It is valuable to hear Thurman expound this position in this short, eloquent, and difficult book.
The book consists of six short chapters together with a Preface. The critical part of the book is the opening chapter "Concerning the Search" in which Thurman sets forth the goal of the book in broad, philosophical terms. Thurman finds that each individual person has a need to be with others to overcome loneliness and to realize potential. Thus, individual life involves an ever-expanding search for community. As a religious thinker, Thurman does not stop with human community but rather finds that the "intuitive human urge for community reflects a characteristic of all life". Thurman gives a broad, metaphysical and religious cast to the search for community. He writes:
"The religious basis for such an interpretation of community is the affirmation, which to me is categorical, that the Mind of God realizes Itself in time, and that there are observable patterns or sequences in all. ... Existence itself is construed as divine activity. There seems to be a principle of rationality in all existence, and the significance of this can be found in the order in life. True, what seems to be a principle of rationality as expressed in observable order in life may be a limitation of mind itself. Yet it is the assumption of inherent logic in the functioning of mind that makes comprehension of the external world possible."
In the following four chapters, Thurman applies his search for commonality and unity to four broad areas of life. In "The Search into Beginnings", Thurman finds a universal human need for wholeness and restoration from division expressed in religious myths. He examines the Biblical story of creation as well as a discussion of the creation story of the Hopi tribe. The following chapter "The Search into Beginnings" finds a universal shared process of life in scientific theory from cosmology through evolution. In a broad, provocative claim Thurman states that "God stands in relation to all existence somewhat as the mind of man stands in relation to his time-space existence".
In "The Search for the Prophet's Dream" Thurman explores a variety of sources, including the Bible, Plato's "Republic" and Thomas More. The goal is to show recognition of the fragmented character of life torn by divisions and hatreds and to explore ways in which various utopian thinkers have argued that this fragmentation could be overcome. In a chapter titled "The Search for Common Consciousness" Thurman argues that a common consciousness and mind is shared not only among human beings but rather among all life. Much of the chapter involves instances of human interactions with animals to suggest what this common consciousness might mean.
Thurman states that he had a difficult time writing the final chapter of the book and relating it to what proceeded it. The book's final chapter, "The Search for Identity" is the book's longest and deals with social philosophy in the United States with an emphasis on the African American struggle for civil rights. Thurman offers a detailed depiction about the importance of participation in a secular community as a means for attaining wholeness and union, both on an individual and on a societal level. He discusses the status of African Americans as outsiders beginning with slavery and continuing through the Civil War, Reconstruction and Jim Crow. He sees African Americans as gradually attaining the power and the ability to demand full inclusion in the community. The central figure in Thurman's account is Martin Luther King, Jr. As mentioned earlier, King had himself been greatly influenced by Thurman's book "Jesus and the Disinherited". Thurman argues, that after King, African Americans had split with some favoring separatist movements, including those advocating for Black Power. Thurman understands the force of the separatist movement but he rejects it as inconsistent with a society based on unity and wholeness. He writes: "It is my considered judgment that the present solution is a stop-gap, a halt in the line of march toward full community or, at most, a time of bivouac on a promontory overlooking the entire landscape of American society. .... Men, all men belong to each other, and he who shuts himself away diminishes himself, and he who shuts another away from him destroys himself."
I have learned a great deal from studying Thurman. I have been moved by his mysticism, his search for unity, and for individual human development. I have learned from how Thurman uses his broad metaphysical and religious beliefs to develop an activist mysticism which recognizes the human equality and fellowship of all people and groups.
Robin Friedman
February 16, 2018
I think this in a reality more of a 4 star read, but I had a hard time understanding it, making for a less than 4 star reading experience. I think I will probably reread it in a few years and more fully appreciate it.
December 26, 2019
In this 1971 book Howard Thurman explores the grounds and foundation of community, starting with the Garden of Eden and ending with a discussion of the blacks in America. In between he shows how the search for community is intrinsic to all of life, including the human beings interaction with nature, and within the cells of the human body. At times philosophical, he ends with a powerful analysis of the Black Power movement as an assertion of dignity in a white society that dehumanizes. While nearly 40 years old, I found it to still speak clearly to the needs of people of color, especially African Americans but not solely, in our current state of affairs with the strong white backlash.
Dec 2019 - I reread this book and was impressed that this is the most complex book of Thurman's I read. He connects ecology to the need for human community, which then is applied to the current (1971) state of Black America. As stated above the relevance of this need todayis a s great as it was then.
Dec 2019 - I reread this book and was impressed that this is the most complex book of Thurman's I read. He connects ecology to the need for human community, which then is applied to the current (1971) state of Black America. As stated above the relevance of this need todayis a s great as it was then.
November 24, 2020
Found this book because it was on AOC's reading list. There was a good part where he explained society taking care of each other (similar to democratic socialist ideas).
The subject matter was relatively interesting, but it was hard to me to concentration and focus on - I think it was the writing style.
I enjoyed the comparison of the Hopi Indian creation story vs the Biblical one.
The parts about speaking to animals seemed rather long-winded and rambled on.
I liked the last chapter "The Search in Identity".
I'm curious to read more of Thurman's works - I'm going to read Jesus and the Disinherited next.
"Men, all men, belong to each other and he who shuts himself away diminishes himself, and he who shuts another away from him destroys himself."
The subject matter was relatively interesting, but it was hard to me to concentration and focus on - I think it was the writing style.
I enjoyed the comparison of the Hopi Indian creation story vs the Biblical one.
The parts about speaking to animals seemed rather long-winded and rambled on.
I liked the last chapter "The Search in Identity".
I'm curious to read more of Thurman's works - I'm going to read Jesus and the Disinherited next.
"Men, all men, belong to each other and he who shuts himself away diminishes himself, and he who shuts another away from him destroys himself."
July 11, 2017
This is only my second Howard Thurman book. My first being 'Jesus and the Disinherited'. I'm quite taken with Dr. Thurman. Insightful. Wise. Critically Reflective. Poignant. Prescient. Though written in 1971, his thoughts are neither dated nor proved tried and left wanting. Because of this book, I suspect, 'The Luminous Darkness' will be my next of his.
I fear I lack the ability to do justice to this book by way of review. So, I leave you with part of the closing paragraph of his work.
''Men, all men belong to each other, and he who shuts himself away diminishes himself, and he who shuts another away from him destroys himself.'
I fear I lack the ability to do justice to this book by way of review. So, I leave you with part of the closing paragraph of his work.
''Men, all men belong to each other, and he who shuts himself away diminishes himself, and he who shuts another away from him destroys himself.'
October 1, 2018
I can't remember when I first heard his name, but suffice it to say, I kept hearing it. As I was going through boxes of books my mother was getting rid of, I found several of his works. A few stood out and I kept them. I wish that I had kept them all.
Howard Thurman is described as a poet, mystic, philosopher, and theologian. And through most of this book, which was heavy on the theology part, those monikers were apt. He was also a voice during the civil rights movement and wrote about his own experiences through the lenses above.
That said, about two-thirds of this book was theology. Don't get me wrong, there were certainly passages and quotes that I underlined. But, a lot more of the connections happened at the end of the book for me where he got much more explicit about racism in America and focused less explicitly on the theology.
For instance, "The role of minorities in the modern state is crucial not only for the state as a community among world states, but also for the experience of community on the part of the minorities themselves. As suggested earlier, wherever citizens are denied the freedom of access to the resources that make for a sense of belonging, a sense of being totally dealt with, the environment closes in around them, resulting in the schizophrenic dilemma of being inside and outside at one and the same time. Or worse still, they are subject to the acute trauma of not knowing at any given moment whether they are outsiders or insiders. Such is the terrifying fate not only of the Afro-American but also of the Mexican-Latin American, the American Indian, and all those ethnic strains that make up the so-called Third World." (p. 88)
Or this, "It broke down decisively and with devastating results, however, at one critical point–with the white community. The residue that accumulated in the collective and individual psyche of the black man from the awful sense, that always, under any and all circumstances, his life was utterly at the mercy of the white world, is the most important, single clue to the phenomena of the present. The most vicious, cruel, and amoral manifestation of this fact was lynching. The heartrending years when hundreds of Negros were lynched, burned, and butchered by white men whose women and children were often special spectators of the inhuman ceremony are conveniently forgotten. It is scarcely remembered how long it took to pass antilynch legislation. The bodies of Negros remember, and their psyches can never forget this vast desecration of personality. The boundaries of any sense of community, the effectiveness of one's life as a person, the breakdown of the instinctual tendency toward whole-making, the personality violence from aggression, thwarted and turned in on one's self, the searching felt in the presence of the humiliation of heroes, the guilt inspired by anonymous fears that live in the environment–these are some of the shadows, the unconscious reaction to which must be understood as we try to find community in the presence of the grim confrontations facing American society." (pages 92 - 93)
It's really exquisite writing. I highly recommend his work. (You might be asking why only 3 stars? The answer is that I only started to see how good he was once he moved more explicitly away from the theology. Which probably has deeper meaning that I have not understood because it deserves a second reading.)
Howard Thurman is described as a poet, mystic, philosopher, and theologian. And through most of this book, which was heavy on the theology part, those monikers were apt. He was also a voice during the civil rights movement and wrote about his own experiences through the lenses above.
That said, about two-thirds of this book was theology. Don't get me wrong, there were certainly passages and quotes that I underlined. But, a lot more of the connections happened at the end of the book for me where he got much more explicit about racism in America and focused less explicitly on the theology.
For instance, "The role of minorities in the modern state is crucial not only for the state as a community among world states, but also for the experience of community on the part of the minorities themselves. As suggested earlier, wherever citizens are denied the freedom of access to the resources that make for a sense of belonging, a sense of being totally dealt with, the environment closes in around them, resulting in the schizophrenic dilemma of being inside and outside at one and the same time. Or worse still, they are subject to the acute trauma of not knowing at any given moment whether they are outsiders or insiders. Such is the terrifying fate not only of the Afro-American but also of the Mexican-Latin American, the American Indian, and all those ethnic strains that make up the so-called Third World." (p. 88)
Or this, "It broke down decisively and with devastating results, however, at one critical point–with the white community. The residue that accumulated in the collective and individual psyche of the black man from the awful sense, that always, under any and all circumstances, his life was utterly at the mercy of the white world, is the most important, single clue to the phenomena of the present. The most vicious, cruel, and amoral manifestation of this fact was lynching. The heartrending years when hundreds of Negros were lynched, burned, and butchered by white men whose women and children were often special spectators of the inhuman ceremony are conveniently forgotten. It is scarcely remembered how long it took to pass antilynch legislation. The bodies of Negros remember, and their psyches can never forget this vast desecration of personality. The boundaries of any sense of community, the effectiveness of one's life as a person, the breakdown of the instinctual tendency toward whole-making, the personality violence from aggression, thwarted and turned in on one's self, the searching felt in the presence of the humiliation of heroes, the guilt inspired by anonymous fears that live in the environment–these are some of the shadows, the unconscious reaction to which must be understood as we try to find community in the presence of the grim confrontations facing American society." (pages 92 - 93)
It's really exquisite writing. I highly recommend his work. (You might be asking why only 3 stars? The answer is that I only started to see how good he was once he moved more explicitly away from the theology. Which probably has deeper meaning that I have not understood because it deserves a second reading.)
October 13, 2021
Written in 1971, still so true, sadly.
Beautifully written, well argued search for generous, sensitive, aware humanity. Search for awareness of the damage we inflict in the interest of self-first.
Would we took the time to reason that is demonstrated here. Would we took the time to care for where we are, who we are with, who we are without, what we impact, why disparities so prevail.
Beautifully written, well argued search for generous, sensitive, aware humanity. Search for awareness of the damage we inflict in the interest of self-first.
Would we took the time to reason that is demonstrated here. Would we took the time to care for where we are, who we are with, who we are without, what we impact, why disparities so prevail.
May 29, 2021
Haven't read much Thurman since my grad school days; now slowly making my way through his work again. I found chapter 5, "The Search in Common Consciousness", particularly moving.
July 25, 2021
I read this years ago. So grateful to go back to it again.
December 20, 2021
Started great and ended great. Middle lost me a bit.
September 8, 2022
Exploration of the need of individuals for connection to the universe.
July 14, 2023
This work ponders what makes community and how/why humankind is drawn to and built for it. His mysticism shines through quite a bit, which I like and find intriguing.
January 16, 2017
Excellent.
January 25, 2016
I found most of the book interesting but a little too philosophical for my taste. I do like the author's writing so it was nonetheless easy to read. tHe last chapter did a great job, however, of tying together the earlier discussions and making them seem very relevant to today. This earned back the fourth star. Considering when this book was written, I'm amazed (and perhaps a little depressed) that so much of the author's insight into racial issues remains relevant today.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews