IN his first address to the Montgomery Improvement Association on 5 December 1955, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. concluded his speech pointing out that, ‘We are here this evening because we are tired now. And I want to say that we are not advocating violence. We have never done that. I want it to be known throughout Montgomery as throughout this nation that we are a Christian people. We believe in the Christian religion. We believe in the teachings of Jesus. That’s all.’¹ This statement, at the start of his formal career as a civil rights activist combines a call for change, a devotion to non-violence, and a strong declaration of his Christian faith. This final aspect of King’s life is important to understand the full breadth of his philosophical and theological system.

There are numerous reasons why it is important to consider the role of Christianity in the formation of King’s thought. First, while the American Civil Rights Movement was influenced by a diverse set of players in civil society, religious institutions – especially black churches and religious organizations – played a central role in the struggle. Besides King, many of the movement’s guiding lights were religious leaders and the language of the movement was suffused with religious images, symbols, and stories.²

Furthermore, we cannot remove religion – especially Christianity – from considerations of the Civil Rights Movement because it has played such an important role in shaping American culture, society and public life. Christianity has also played a particularly important role in the life of the black community. From the days of American slavery, the Christian church provided a unique space for blacks to organize, hold leadership positions, and express themselves without extensive control by the white majority.

 

Another reason to consider King’s Christianity is that he was an active member of the Christian clergy with a PhD in Systematic Theology from Boston University. The son, grandson, and great-grandson of preachers, King frequently invoked his vocation when reflecting on his actions. He felt that the preacher had a duty to speak about injustice. In 1968 King told his audience, ‘Who is it that is supposed to articulate the longings and aspirations of the people more than the preacher? Somehow the preacher must have a kind of fire shut up in his bones, and whenever injustice is around he must tell it.’³

In his speech of 1967 declaring his opposition to the Vietnam War, King stated that, besides the fact that the war directly affects those he represents, to remain silent would be a betrayal of his ministry. He wrote: ‘To me, the relationship of this ministry to the making of peace is so obvious that I sometimes marvel at those who ask me why I am speaking against the war… Have they forgotten that my ministry is an obedience to the one who loved his enemies so full that he died for them? What then can I say to the Vietcong or to Castro or to Mao as a faithful minister of this one? Can I threaten them with death or must I not share with them my life?’⁴

Beyond direct references to Christianity, King framed civil rights, economic inequality and his opposition to the Vietnam War as moral issues. In a speech in Washington, D.C. in 1957, King points out that, ‘The civil rights issue is not an ephemeral, evanescent domestic issue that can be kicked about by reactionary guardians of the status quo; it is rather an eternal moral issue which may well determine the destiny of our nation in the ideological struggle with communism.’⁵ This formulation is canny because it places civil rights into broader discourses on morality and fears of communism, and thus appealing to the broader American public in a way that talking of civil rights in isolation would not.

 

A final reason to consider King’s Christianity is that in his rhetoric, he often interwove references to God, the Church, and the United States together. In his ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’, King writes that, ‘One day the South will know that when these disinherited children of God sat down at lunch counters, they were in reality standing up for what is best in the American dream and for the most sacred values in our Judeo-Christian heritage, thereby bringing our nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the founding fathers in their formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.’⁶ In an early speech, he declared that ‘…if we are wrong, the Constitution of the United States is wrong. If we are wrong, God Almighty is wrong. If we are wrong, Jesus of Nazareth was merely a utopian dreamer that never came down to earth.’⁷

This connection between religion and nation is an important line of continuity in King’s writings. The idea of America having a special relationship with God (with a special responsibility to be morally upright) is not a new idea but goes back to the early 17th century to the Puritan settlers in Massachusetts who called their colony a ‘City Upon the Hill’. This idea is invoked by American politicians and intellectuals to describe America’s unique providential role in history and the phrase has subconsciously shaped much of American self-conception.

 

This essay examines some of the basic elements of King’s Christian theological vision through a selection of his public writings, sermons and speeches. For the purposes of this essay, I will focus only on public works – mostly speeches and sermons but also from his landmark ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’. Furthermore, the essay will not draw from secondary material but examine his theology on its own terms. And given the length of this essay, the fullness of King’s theological ideas cannot be examined here (i.e., the redemptive power of unearned suffering, King’s use of Martin Buber’s distinction between I and Thou). While these caveats may limit the scope of the essay, we should note that King was a public theologian whose primary mode of communication was the sermon. And though his sermons may seem deceptively simple, they were the result of immense labour, sometimes taking over fifteen hours to craft. Furthermore, because King returned frequently to similar themes in his sermons and writings throughout his career, we can get a good idea of his broader framework from a selection of his most well-known speeches and writings.

We will look at his theology in three parts. First, the use of Biblical narratives as models for history and action, which provides a symbolic matrix to interpret the world. Second, King’s conception of God, humanity, and the creative relationship between the two. Finally, at the way the first and second parts are connected to what is arguably the central concept of King’s theology: love expressed in action. Taken together, we see King’s vision of a providential history with a God working with humanity to affect change and bring about justice through love.

 

The narrative of Exodus – the liberation of the Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt and their eventual arrival in the Promised Land of Canaan – has served as one of the primary points of interpretive reference for Judaism and Christianity. It also has deep resonance in the black community, most of whom are the descendants of African slaves brought to America.

In a 1957 sermon on the independence of Ghana from British rule titled ‘Birth of a New Nation’, King uses the narrative of Exodus to help his audience understand the connection between Ghana’s independence, the American civil rights struggle, and the eventual liberation of all peoples from oppression: ‘[Exodus] is something of the story of every people struggling for freedom. It is the first story of man’s explicit quest for freedom. And it demonstrates the stages that seem to inevitably follow the quest for freedom.’⁸ For King, all human liberation follows that Exodus pattern. First humanity lives in captivity and bondage. Then it is liberated by God. Humanity proceeds to wander through wilderness on its way to the Promised Land.

 

This use of a Biblical story, motif or symbol to help us understand the present is an example of typology. Typologies such as this provide crucial matrices for King’s writings and it is impossible to understand his thought without seeing the potential of these narratives. Consider the following example from the same sermon where King declares: ‘There is something in the soul that cries out for freedom. There is something deep down within the very soul of man that reaches out for Canaan. Men cannot be satisfied with Egypt. They tried to adjust to it for a while. Many men have vested interests in Egypt, and they are slow to leave. Egypt makes it profitable for them, some people profit by Egypt. The vast majority, the masses of people never profit by Egypt, and they are never content with it. And eventually they rise up and begin to cry out for Canaan’s land.’⁹

In King’s formulation, ‘Egypt’ becomes Empire, domination, and the oppressor in all societies and ‘Canaan’ is the Promised Land we are all heading towards. These metaphors of ‘Egypt’ and ‘Canaan’ help the listener understand the dynamics between the oppressor and the oppressed. The oppressed may adapt to the conditions of Egypt and quite a few people may even gain from structures of oppression but humanity naturally longs for the freedom to be found in Canaan. Exodus helps King create a liminal space to explore present conditions and give them a deeper meaning that would bind the audience together through the struggle. And Exodus provides a road map for humanity to understand its ultimate path. Things may seem difficult now while humanity is in the wilderness, but God assures humanity that it would eventually reach the Promised Land.

 

One can also see the use of typologies in the way that King discusses his own place within the movement. In his ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’, King casts himself in the role of a prophet who is required to bring the message of God to the world, for ‘just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco-Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own hometown.’¹⁰ Perhaps the most moving (and some would say prophetic) instance of this can be seen in the conclusion of his last public speech given on 3 April 1968, the day before his assassination in Memphis, Tennessee.

In what would be his final public words, King concludes: ‘Well, I don’t know what will happen now; we’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life – longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. And I’m so happy tonight; I’m not worried about anything; I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.’¹¹

Here King alludes to the death of Moses, who led the Israelites to Canaan only to die on Mount Nebo overlooking the Promised Land. While one must be careful about reading the events of the next day back into this statement, we can see that this story of Moses (used many times before by King) was a way for him to interpret the present. And in the aftermath of his death, it permanently cast King as an American prophet, rejected by his own people, who would see the Promised Land of reconciliation that he would not live to enter.

 

The next pillar of King’s theology is his understanding of the relationship between an active God and humanity made in his image. Perhaps the defining story of western monotheism is that of an omniscient, omnipotent God outside of time who comes into history and enters a covenant with a distinct human community. Exodus is the story of a God who directly liberates his chosen people from slavery. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is the story of God’s eternal logos, or Word, coming into the world to break the power of sin and death. This entrance of the divine into the world is often portrayed by theologians and religious thinkers as a shocking event that rips apart the fabric of the universe and alters it forever.

But what does the coming of the divine into the world mean practically? It means that in the struggle for justice, humanity is not alone: ‘Let us realize that as we struggle for justice and freedom, we have cosmic companionship. This is the long faith of the Hebraic-Christian tradition: that God is not some Aristotelian "unmoved mover" who merely contemplates Himself. He is not merely a self-knowing God, but an other-loving God forever working through history for the establishment of His kingdom.’¹²

 

Another element underpinning the relationship of God and humanity is the concept of the imago dei, which declares that mankind is made in the image of God.¹³ This essential concept is the lodestone for much of Christian ethics, speaking to the essential equality of all humanity and the sacredness of all life. Speaking at a music hall in Detroit in 1963, King playfully declared that ‘his [the negro’s] religion revealed to him, that God loves all His children, and that all men are made in His image, and that figuratively speaking, every man from a bass black to a treble white is significant on God’s keyboard.’¹⁴ Since all are made in the image of God, all humans have the same value and an essential role to play in creation.

The relationship between God and humanity is essentially a creative one. On one hand, God will ultimately see that the demands of justice will be fulfilled because, ‘the God of the universe eventually takes a stand.’¹⁵ But this is not done alone. Civil rights will not come from remaining passive. They will not come as a natural consequence of time. In his ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’, King writes, ‘Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation.’¹⁶

God will bring justice through creative cooperation with humanity, that cannot sit passive and wait for justice to come. For if humanity is made in the image of God, then humanity has the power and co-creation with God and is responsible for its own liberation. This is a hopeful image of a humanity capable of affecting change, as stated in his Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech in 1964: ‘I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsam and jetsam in the river of life, unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him.’¹⁷ For King, humanity has the agency to realize that state of freedom which the soul naturally longs for.

 

The creative relationship between God and humanity sits on what is the bedrock of King’s theology: the idea of love expressed through action. Love is perhaps the central Christian theological concept. In the First Epistle of John from the New Testament, the writer simply declares that ‘God is Love’. But what is this love? King articulates the classical Christian distinction between three different types of love: eros, phila, and agape: ‘Now, I am not talking about a sentimental, shallow kind of love. I’m not talking about eros, which is a sort of aesthetic, romantic love. I’m not even talking about philia, which is a sort of intimate affection between personal friends. But I’m talking about agape. I’m talking about love of God in the hearts of men. I’m talking about the type of love which will cause you to love the person who does the evil deed while hating the deed that person does. We’ve got to love.’¹⁸

 

Love is the foundation of all true actions. In his 1967 speech titled ‘Where Do We Go From Here?’ King draws from a reading of 1 Corinthians 13, and declares that even noble actions without love will come to naught, or as he so eloquently puts it: ‘man may be self-centred in his self-denial and self-righteous in his self-sacrifice.’¹⁹ This love allows us to have empathy for others. In his final speech, King talked about the parable of the Good Samaritan.²⁰ He pointed out that the proper question one should ask when they see someone suffering is not, ‘If I don’t help him, what happens to me?’ but, ‘If I don’t help him, what happens to him?’²¹ Love helps us go beyond mere self-concern.

This love in action has other ramifications. It is central to King’s conception of justice. They are two sides of the same coin, for ‘justice is really love in calculation. Justice is love correcting that which revolts against love.’²² Through agape, humanity can create a base for reconciliation after justice is achieved. Love as articulated in King’s Christianity goes beyond the church and can serve as an ecumenical ground for all people seeking liberation. Love is ‘that force which all the great religions have seen as the same unifying principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality.’²³ King’s vision of love was not only about civil rights for blacks in America but was essential to his global vision of a world without racism, militarism and economic exploitation, for ‘God is not interested merely in the freedom of black men and brown men and yellow men. God is interested in the freedom of the whole human race.’²⁴

 

This liberation, through non-violence, brings humanity through the wilderness to the Promised Land, where it can build the Beloved Community, King’s eschatological vision of a reconciled human community without bitterness or rancour and united in love. ‘The aftermath of non-violence is the creation of the beloved community. The aftermath of non-violence is redemption. The aftermath of non-violence is reconciliation. The aftermath of violence is emptiness and bitterness.’²⁵ King’s vision of liberation and reconciliation is a message for the whole world deeply rooted in his Christian theological vision. It is built on the conviction that while we will suffer through its trails in the wilderness, humanity would eventually reach the Promised Land where we shall live in a true community brought together through justice and love.

 

* All Bible quotes are from the New Revised Standard Version.

** All quotations from Martin Luther King, Jr., unless otherwise noted, are from Clyborne Carson and Kris Shepard (eds.), A Call to Conscience: The Landmark Speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Hachette Books, New York, 2001. Cited years in subsequent footnotes refer to the year the speech or sermon was given.

Footnotes:

1. M.L. King, ‘Address to the First Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) Mass Meeting’ in Clyborne Carson and Kris Shepard (eds.), A Call to Conscience: The Landmark Speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Hachette Books, New York, 1955.

2. While heavily Protestant, the American Civil Rights movement was by no means led only by leaders of Protestant Christian churches. There were leaders from Judaism, Roman Catholicism, and even Orthodox Christianity who were active in the movement. And figures like Malcolm X and organizations like the Nation of Islam show the diversity of religious activism during this period.

3. M.L King, ‘I’ve Been to the Mountaintop’ in Clyborne Carson and Kris Shepard (eds.), A Call to Conscience: The Landmark Speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Hachette Books, New York, 1968.

4. M.L. King, ‘Beyond Vietnam’ in Clyborne Carson and Kris Shepard (eds.), A Call to Conscience: The Landmark Speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Hachette Books, New York, 1967a.

5. M.L. King, ‘Give Us the Ballot’ in Clyborne Carson and Kris Shepard (eds.), A Call to Conscience: The Landmark Speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Hachette Books, New York, 1957b.

6. M.L. King, ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’ in Why We Can’t Wait. Beacon Hill Press, Boston, 1963b.

7. M.L. King, 1955, op. cit., fn. 1.

8. M.L. King, ‘The Birth of a New Nation’ in Clyborne Carson and Kris Shepard (eds.), A Call to Conscience: The Landmark Speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Hachette Books, New York, 1957a.

9. Ibid.

10. M.L. King, 1963b, op. cit., fn. 6. As Jesus noted in Luke 4:24: ‘Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown’ – reflecting King’s current situation as a prophet imprisoned in the Birmingham City Jail.

11. M.L. King, 1968, op. cit., fn. 3.

12. M.L. King, 1957b, op. cit., fn. 5.

13. This comes out of a reading of a passage from Genesis: ‘Then God said, "Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness" …so God created human kind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.’ (1:26-27)

14. M.L. King, ‘Address at the Freedom Rally in Cobo Hall’ in Clyborne Carson and Kris Shepard (eds.), A Call to Conscience: The Landmark Speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Hachette Books, New York, 1963a.

15. M.L. King, 1957a, op. cit., fn. 8.

16. M.L. King, 1963b, op. cit., fn. 6.

17. M.L. King, ‘Acceptance Address for the Nobel Peace Prize’ in Clyborne Carson and Kris Shepard, (eds.), A Call to Conscience: The Landmark Speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Hachette Books, New York, 1964.

18. M.L. King, 1957b, op. cit., fn. 5.

19. One of the most frequently quoted sections of the New Testament, Paul writes in 1 Corinthians that ‘If I speak in the tongues of mortal and angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.’ (13:1-3). M.L. King, ‘Where Do We Go From Here?’ in Clyborne Carson and Kris Shepard, (eds.), A Call to Conscience: The Landmark Speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Hachette Books, New York, 1967b.

20. The parable of the Good Samaritan can be found in Luke 10:25-37. In the parable, Jesus describes a man who was injured on the road to Jericho. A holy man and a rich man pass by the injured stranger and refuse to help him. But a Samaritan (a member of a community that had separated from Judaism and would have been seen in Jesus’ time as a outcast) picked up the injured man and took care of him. This parable was narrated in response to the question, ‘Who is my neighbour?’

21. M.L. King, 1968, op. cit., fn. 3.

22. M.L. King, 1955, op. cit., fn. 1.

23. M.L. King, 1967a, op. cit., fn. 4.

24. M.L. King, 1963a, op. cit., fn. 14.

25. M.L. King, 1957a, op. cit., fn. 8.