The religion of the inner life, or mysticism, is life affirming and reaches its highest goal in love.

5 stars: It is Howard Thurman! Like other mystical traditions, Quakers want to claim him as their own. He studied under Rufus Jones at Haverford.

This pamphlet (which would have benefited with some clarifying formatting) was originally The Rufus Jones Lecture given at Friends General Conference in 1961.

As the title states, the pamphlet begins with mysticism and slowly morphs into love. Our inherent ability to communicate directly with God is true. It cannot be proven qualitatively, but for those who do, it is real. It cannot be touched. It must be taken on faith, and through love. Through our willingness to be known we are loved. And our willingness to love allows us to know the other. And this, indeed, is the path to God. ( )

1961 Rufus Jones Lecture, slightly revised for print.

This is a wonderful pamphlet on mysticism, written out of his experience. Thurman, a Friend of Color, says "I have sought a way of life that would... be infused by the fruits of the inner life. The cruel vicissitudes of the social situation in which I have been forced to live in American society have made it vital for me to seek beyond all the ravages inflicted on it by the brutalities of the social order. To live under siege, with the equilibrium and tranquility of peace, to prevent the springs of my being from being polluted by the... climate of violence... and to seek the experience of community, all of this... is to walk through a door that no man can shut." ( )

PHP #115