As has been noted, prophets often stand both within and without the traditions that shape them. In most cases, this is because the tradition itself engenders the thirst for justice, mercy, and goodness that the prophet articulates. In the Christian New Testament, Jesus notably declares that “prophets are not without honor, except in their own hometown, among their own kin, and in their own house” (Mark 6:4). It is the nature of the prophet to critique the errors in her or his own tradition precisely because of their respect and love for it.

1 After watching the five Prophetic Voices films, what would you say are some of the primary differences between the traditions of each of these figures—- dissenting Lutheranism (Bonhoeffer); Roman Catholicism (Day); Reformed Church, now United Church of Christ (Niebuhr); Baptist (Thurman); Conservative Judaism (Heschel)?

2. Compare the upbringings of each of these figures. How did the religious environment of their early years - or lack thereof - impact the choices they made in terms of a religious life?

You might consider that Dietrich Bonhoeffer was raised in a family that was political but not very religious. On the other hand, Reinhold Niebuhr was the son of a pastor and he, his brother H. Richard, and their sister Hulda all became noted religious scholars. As a young boy, Howard Thurman swore he would never enter religious life after an itinerant preacher - presiding at his father’s funeral - suggested Thurman’s father was going to Hell. Yet only a few years later, Thurman entered the ministry.

Dorothy Day was raised in a non-practicing Episcopalian household. Early on, she realized that she would have to satisfy her deep hunger for spiritual things on her own—-through the study of the saints and a blossoming love of Church hymns.

By contrast, Abraham Joshua Heschel’s religious vocation seemed pre-determined, and he never questioned its reality:

“Because of his ancestry and the role of a rebbe in a community as the leader, adults would rise when he would enter the room. He would be lifted up on a table and he would give a sermon at the age of 5, 6, 7 years old. A little boy and he would speak. He was brilliant.” -Susannah Heschel

3. Can you identify specific moments or interactions in these figures’ lives that shaped their choice of ministry?

4. What persons, texts, or practices in or outside these figures’ traditions shaped their thought and work? Were you surprised by any of these?

5. What did you learn about the individual upbringing of these characters that might be worth reflecting on in your own life and choice of ministry or vocation?

6. Considering the five Prophetic Voices figures together, what do you learn from them about the nature of a life of ministry and the various forms it can take? Does this open a new way of thinking or a new avenue for ministry in your own life?

7. Each of these figures faced pushback, in one way or another, from their own religious traditions. In his twenties, Bonhoeffer was shocked and distressed to learn that his church leadership was generally supportive of the Nazi regime. Reinhold Niebuhr and Abraham Heschel were often criticized by colleagues for their stands on social issues, civil rights, and American involvement in Vietnam. Catholic Church leaders openly challenged Dorothy Day to remove the word “Catholic” from her organization. (She refused.) And Howard Thurman was sometimes at odds with school administrations and church members over his inclusive and progressive religious practices.

What do you learn from these films and these figures about the nature of life within religious institutions and organizations? Do the challenges these figures faced make you disappointed or do they offer you a useful dose of stark realism, understanding that religious institutions—like secular institutions—are imperfect, malleable, human constructions. We work within them in hopes of bettering them and of being bettered by them.

8. Considering the criticisms each of these figures faced from within their own traditions, how do you think it possible that people from the same tradition, who study the same sacred texts and worship the same God, can have such different understandings of how to apply their faith to contemporary issues?

9. Do you think it is part of the prophet’s role to be willing to stand up to his or her own faith tradition when they believe it is wrong?

9. If each of the Prophetic Voices figures faced criticism from within their own traditions, they also received support and care from them. Identify the kinds of support each figure received from his/her tradition and from those outside of it? Can you discern any patterns?

11. One of the great legacies of these figures is that they were willing to engage persons and ideas from other traditions. Dorothy Day received help from those outside of Catholicism; Dietrich Bonhoeffer received support from friends in America and at Union Theological Seminary, in particular; Reinhold Niebuhr engaged colleagues from different traditions and cultures, as did Howard Thurman; Abraham Heschel marched with Martin Luther King, Jr and the activist priests Daniel and Philip Berrigan.

1. How does the example of these figures impact your own thinking about engagement with people from other traditions?

1. The late Buddhist teacher and writer Thich Nhat Hanh once stated that his goal in engaging with Christians and Jews was not to convert them to Buddhism, but to help them become better Christians and Jews. Do you think that the engagement of Bonhoeffer, Day, Niebuhr, Thurman, and Heschel across traditional religious boundaries made them better, more committed exemplars of their own faiths?

2. Do you see a danger of religious pluralism or of muddying one’s own religious commitment in this kind of interreligious engagement? If so, why?