The Disinherited in an Inherited Context: Thurman’s Jesus and the Disinherited Reconsidered

Abstract

In Jesus and the Disinheriled (1949), Howard Thurman presented a socio-spiritual Jesus within the context of oppression, injustice, and inequality. A careful survey ofworks within the Jesus studies shows that Thurman's work is not fully appreciated and publicized in Jesus studies today despite that it has greatly influenced American people and brought radical changes within the human rights activists, particularly Martin Luther King Jr and many others, in the American society. Given that Thurman's work has influenced the American society, this work analyses Jesus and the Disinheriled from a ditlerent perspective, that is, the inherited being dominated and oppressed by people who do not possess inheritance as witnessed in the Nigerian context within various religious circles. This paper sees Thurman's work as a viable tool for solving the segregation and injustice which exist between poor and the rich in any arm of the human society. It would also aim at becoming a voice against the religio-political and socio-economic struggles between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria.