Lexington Books Howard Thurman's Philosophical Mysticism: Love against Fragmentation

African American Philosophy and African American Philosophers have played a central role in understanding and also shaping what it means to be black in America. Some of their conclusions were reactions to the mistreatment they received from the majority population, but other of their conclusions were extensions and/or novel positions taken with a view through past perceptual lenses. Yet, with the mass exodus of black students from HBCU's after the civil rights era, many of the important figures and their inquiries have been little or poorly studied. The significance of this work is found in its attempt to grapple with one such seminal figure, his memory of his ancestors, and the education he received from Morehouse College (in the Atlanta University Center), all of which formed the roots of the ideas he later produced. Howard Thurman, former Dean of Marsh Chapel at Boston University, and mentor to figures such as Martin Luther King, Jr., left quite a large ideological footprint; however, just as others of his milieu, his ideas have been largely overlooked. Thurman's deep-rooted knowledge of black culture, particularly black religious ideas as they existed during the period of African enslavement in the United States and as they were exhibited in the Negro Spirituals, shaped his thinking and allowed him to produce a body of work grounded in the musings and traditions of his ancestors. This volume investigates, forms an analysis, and even critiques Thurman's work such that others can benefit from the profundity of his thoughts while also taking note of their relevance for today's philosophers concerned with humanity. Review Anthony Neal has written the authoritative text on the meaning and substance of Howard Thurman's philosophy. Anthony Neal did not simply write a careful exegesis of Howard Thurman's pre-existing work, he wrote a book that leads the reader through an understanding of Black philosophy as active thinking--as a multi-leveled consciousness about the potential in the world, the obstacles to its more perfect end, and the mysticism that justifies the belief in the unrealized. Thurman often ended his books with a multi-titled designation of himself as a "Poet, Mystic, Philosopher, and Theologian." The fineness of Neal's writing about Thurman's thought undoubtedly takes possession of those designations that Thurman once called his own.--Tommy J. Curry, Texas A&M University In Howard Thurman's Philosophical Mysticism: Love against Fragmentation, Anthony Sean Neal convincingly makes the case for Howard Thurman being an unduly neglected African American philosopher who sought to improve the lived conditions of black people in the United States, as well as affirm their God-given worth during what Neal calls the "Modern Era of the African American Freedom Struggle" (1896-1975). Neal also explains how Thurman synthesized a vast array of personal, philosophical, and theological sources--ranging from his Grandma Nancy's slave religiosity and the Negro Spirituals to black theology to poetics to Neoplatonism, intuitionism, and process thought--into an eclectic yet coherent philosophical theology that makes sense of his own experiences as a black mystic philosopher, poet, and pastor living in a racially segregated United States. It is well worth reading!--Dwayne Tunstall, Grand Valley State University About the Author Anthony Sean Neal is assistant professor of philosophy at Mississippi State University.