Howard Thurman–Rufus Jones relationship

The relationship between Howard Thurman and Rufus Jones began with a book and became a decisive period of study. In 1929, Thurman spent a semester at Haverford College working independently with Jones, whose teaching introduced him to sustained study of mystical religion. Thurman later called the experience a watershed in his life and connected it with much of the thought and work to which he committed himself thereafter.

The Book That Led to Haverford

Before meeting Jones, Thurman was serving as a Baptist minister and developing his preaching. While attending a conference on religious education, he bought Jones’s book Finding the Trail of Life in College. He sat on the steps of the church where the conference was held and read it from beginning to end without stopping. The encounter made a practical demand on him: Thurman decided that he needed to study with Jones.

A friend made an inquiry on Thurman’s behalf, and Jones responded with a letter inviting him to Haverford College for a semester of independent study. Accepting meant leaving his church. At the same time, Thurman’s wife, advised by her doctor to seek a warmer climate while recovering from illness, returned to Atlanta with their daughter. The study thus began amid changes in Thurman’s ministerial and family circumstances, not as a casual addition to his existing work.

A Semester of Apprenticeship

Thurman arrived at Haverford in January 1929. He received a grant from the National Council for Religion in Higher Education and lived in the graduate student dormitory during the semester. He attended all of Jones’s lectures and joined a seminar on Meister Eckhart, an experience he described as unusually stimulating. Jones also gave him reading assignments on mystical religion, and the two met regularly to discuss what Thurman was studying. Thurman wrote several papers on well-known mystics as part of this work.

The apprenticeship extended beyond formal lectures. On Wednesday evenings, Thurman often attended Quaker meetings, where he was frequently asked to speak. The combination of Jones’s instruction, independent reading, written work, conversation, and participation in meetings gave the semester a breadth that went beyond receiving information from a teacher. Thurman was studying mystical traditions while also encountering religious practice in a community setting.

A Watershed for Thurman’s Work

At the end of the semester, Thurman wrote an evaluation that made the significance of the relationship explicit: “My study at Haverford was a crucial experience, a watershed from which flowed much of the thought and endeavor to which I was to commit the rest of my working life.” The book that had first stirred his interest had led, through Jones’s invitation and guidance, to a concentrated course of study that Thurman regarded as foundational rather than incidental.

The book’s account links this education to Thurman’s lasting emphasis on a deep awareness of God’s presence and identifies that concern as consequential in many areas of his ministry. The evidence describes Jones as teacher, reading guide, seminar leader, and regular conversation partner; Thurman’s own retrospective judgment supplies the measure of the relationship’s importance. Its central legacy was not simply acquaintance with mystics, but a formative intellectual and spiritual orientation that Thurman carried into his subsequent work.