King’s interpretation of the scriptures was not a literal one, in The Humanity and Divinity of Jesus, he clearly explains how he interpreted Jesus: “the orthodox attempt to explain the divinity of Jesus in terms of an inherent metaphysical substance within him to me seems inadequate… In an attempt to expand his understanding of God, and apply it to his life, King searched for the deeper significance of the history and context of the Bible, suggesting, “we should delve into deeper meaning… and somehow strip them of their literal interpretation”.
By searching for a deeper interpretation of the events of the bible, King was able to extract a sense of meaning from Jesus’ life. For King, God’s giving of his only son, came to represent
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King applied this concept to his teachings by stressing the idea of brotherhood, that everyman must love his neighbor, ““We must learn to live together as brothers or we will perish together as fools” . This notion of brotherhood, combined with his non-violent approach inspired by Gandhi, was why King stressed unity and equality, instead of simply more rights for black people. King did not advocate that African American’s should have more power over their oppressors, instead he fought to end oppression and discrimination universally.
Australia is a western, multicultural nation; however injustice and discrimination still occurs. Australian’s hold prejudice against Aboriginal people for the same reasons that white citizens discriminated against African Americans; because it is ingrained in our cultural norm to view them as inferior, unable to handle government support, or live a ‘civilized’ life. Because of the similarities between the societies, Australian’s can gain wisdom and insight from King’s religious responses to life questions. King used his theology and Christian Theism to respond to the racism in his society. Because he interpreted the bible in a deeper, less literal way, King was able to extract the spiritual concepts of his religion and use them to inspire a
King was an inspiration to all! I agree with Mr. King’s philosophy of civil disobedience and nonviolence. I agree with this because then you are just hating the enemy. I don’t think that you should fight hate with hate. If we fight like this then the result will just be even more hate. I think that Mr. King thought that we should fight peace with hate so that in the end peaceful will overpower the hate. MLK once said , “ I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.” Mr.King was also very brave to stand up for what he believed in and continuing to do this even after the threats he was getting. Know matter how bad he was being treated by white people he still picked up his head. Another quote that relates to what I am saying was also by MLK. “ Let no man pull you low enough to hate him.” - Martin Luther
He talked about racism, a non-violent approach, freedom and what should be demanded by the government. King showed these topics go hand in hand and you can't talk about one without bringing up another. Like explaining racism and all the things happening to his brothers and sisters it was almost inevitable that he mentioned how him and followers were able to used a peaceful protest to make a statement against violence, instead of reacting out of emotions with violence. King then talked about freedom should be granted, no matter the race. King thought that nobody should stand for being the last to receive what’s technically was theirs when it came to freedom, he believed we shouldn’t wait for the government, but demand freedom from the government.“Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds”(King page 1). He felt that living in the USA, freedom is
He knew what African Americans needed and deserved, and that’s what he fought for. According to Document#4, King states that in order to have a “healing context” in the classroom, all races needed to be together. This means that separating black and white people wasn’t going to help, it was only going to harm and he didn’t want that. His ideas for African-Americans were the best because he’d set good goals to achieve complete equality and liberation for black people. In addition, he knew that responding with violence would’ve been counterproductive and a bad idea for African Americans.This shows that he really knew that in order to achieve equality, black and white people couldn’t be separated and he also knew that violence was not a
His train of thought was the polar opposite of Nietzsche. King believed that everyone should have equal opportunity and that you should treat people the way you would like to be treated. On top of that everyone should be treated with dignity, no matter what skin color or what ethnicity you are being it White, Black, Mexican, Asian, Native American and anything else everyone deserves the simple things in life respect, dignity, and most importantly equal opportunity. While King was sitting in that cramped, dirty jail cell after being arrested for civil disobedience, he wrote the now famous “Letters from Birmingham”. In “Letters from Birmingham” King writes about a number of horrific experiences that he has been through and other people who have also been through what he has been through and how they have also used civil disobedience to protest peacefully. One of the topics King also mention one major thing which is that if the white man agrees with the actions of Shadrach Meshach, and Abednego than that cannot criticize King’s actions for protesting in the same manner. Another viewpoint that King was an indisputable one which is that if we’re assuming that democracy is good and therefore everyone is equal, then if that’s the point then everyone should be treated equally. By King saying this he’s saying that if the consensus is that everyone should be treated as everyone else, which once you look
In the beginning of his letter, King explained, through the use of ethos, the challenges he dealt with and how he overcame those challenges of injustice. For example, when King was in the Birmingham Jail, many people confronted him, and those encounters influenced his ideas about different subjects and topics. King explains in his letter his opportunity “of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every Southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia (King 1).” He wanted to establish his authority with the people he met. The main point for this was to urge everyone to take one day at a time and count every day as a blessing. The reason is that all of this could change in an instance.
After earning a divinity degree from Pennsylvania’s Crozer Theological Seminary, King attended graduate school at Boston University, where he received his Ph.D. degree in 1955. The title of his dissertation was “A Comparison of the Conceptions of God in the Thinking of Paul Tillich and Henry Nelson Wieman.”
‘Nothing mattered more to king than being an outstanding preacher. Martin Luther King had an exceptional personal some state. He was a very proud and an outspoken man. He had been ‘conditioned’ from the mere age of nine and ordained in a black church for later life purposes (1). At a young age racism surrounded him and was affected first hand. He was abused by a white mill owner purely on the colour of his skin. He also witnessed other black people suffering from violence when he saw a white mob attack and barbarically murder a black man. King was a very opinionated person and became a lead figure head publicly known on a national scale. This came to be
King then sums up this passage by turning his voice back to the clergymen he's addressing and says, "Then you will understand why we find it difficult to
King also uses quotes from the Bible to further involve the emotional attachment of the people with the Bible. He compares himself with Apostle Paul when he says that he is going to carry the gospel of freedom to the places beyond his native town. This served two purposes. On one hand, he could reach out to the illiterate people who knew of Paul through churches, and on the other hand, he made it clear that he was undertaking a big mission. So, the whites were expected to come to support him in the name of god. Besides using the name of god to appeal to the people, King presents the real scenario of the life of the African American people to arouse sympathy
King’s audience is the clergy, men who are familiar with biblical figures and events. His allusions to religion
After going through such self-purification and nonviolence training, then King elaborates on how they planned out the timing of the action. He
Another style King presented quite well was ethos, which is his credibility on his speech. Of course he portrayed this effectively because he himself is an African American, and he knows exactly what kind of segregation and discrimination his black brothers are experiencing. King gives an example by saying, "We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities…as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one." He goes on to say, "Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells…from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality." Not a day would go by that somewhere a black person was treated unequally because of the color of his skin. Martin Luther King addressed to the people such real
King brings in examples from his religion to further his argument that one must oppose unjust laws using nonviolent direct action. King is accused of being an extremist, to which he responds: “Will we be extremists for hate or for love?” (King 26). A bold statement, phrasing action as having two distinct sides. King strongly disavows the white moderate who stands to the side and waits for justice to come with time, instead of fighting for justice in the moment. He is quick to refer to the Bible when addressing the clergymen: “Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel?” (King 25). Using a rhetorical question with a biblical reference to make those who consider him an extremist, rethink if being an extremist is such an ill position to be in. He continues to use biblical imagery to support his point, citing that he is an extremist for love as so many were before him, including several prominent figures from Christianity. Even Jesus Christ, he states “was an extremist for love, truth and goodness” (King 26). By using this symbolism King is able to converse with his fellow clergymen in a way that is familiar to them all, pointing out the flaws in their
So this morning it is important for us to consider together the question: What about this king, this Jesus? What can we say about his kingship; what kind of king is he; what is it that makes this king unique, that makes him worthy of our worship? What difference does it make—or perhaps what difference should it make in our lives—that we proclaim him as king?
King’s ethical philosophy is at the heart of his recognition to the rights, dignity, destiny and potential of Black people. King saw that unless we believe in ourselves, we could not believe in or