Although countless books have been devoted to the life and work of Martin Luther King, Jr., few, if any, have focused on King's appropriation of, and contribution to, the intellectual tradition of personalism. Burrow argues that King's adoption of personalism represented the fusion of his black Christian faith and his commitment not only to the social gospel of Walter Rauschenbusch, but most especially to the social gospel practiced by his grandfather, his father, and black preacher-scholars at Morehouse College. Burrow devotes much-needed attention both to King's conviction that the universe...

Although countless books have been devoted to the life and work of Martin Luther King, Jr., few, if any, have focused on King's appropriation of, and contribution to, the intellectual tradition of personalism. Emerging as a philosophical movement in the early 1900s, personalism is a type of philosophical idealism that has a number of affinities with Christianity, such as a focus on a personal God and the sanctity of persons. Burrow points to similarities and dissimilarities between personalism and the social gospel movement with its call to churchgoers to involve themselves in the welfare of...

The Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. explores the development of Dr. King's understanding of the relationship among religion, morality, law, and politics. This fascinating work is part of a broader effort by scholars in various fields to examine unexplored areas in the life, thought, and activism of Martin Luther King, Jr., and it represents the first book-length treatment of how King united moral-religious convictions and political activity. This timely study is also the first in-depth analysis of King's views on the roles that religion and morality ought to play, not only in public...

The Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. explores the development of Dr. King s understanding of the relationship among religion, morality, law, and politics. This fascinating work is part of a broader effort by scholars in various fields to examine unexplored areas in the life, thought, and activism of Martin Luther King, Jr., and it represents the first book-length treatment of how King united moral-religious convictions and political activity. This timely study is also the first in-depth analysis of King s views on the roles that religion and morality ought to play, not only in public...

Examines King's roots in Black popular culture and their role as the source of his power and vision.

This book is a conscious effort to explore the dimensions of King's cultural legacy, and aspires to demonstrate how King's vision gradually transcended southern particularism to assume national and international implications.

There is no more detailed resource about the relationship between Martin King and Malcolm X. The depth of scholarship in this volume extends even to the extraordinary amount of information relegated to footnotes, themselves a gold mine of documentation for all readers interested in the interface between faith claims, politics, and social and cultural transformation.

About the Contributor(s): Lewis V. Baldwin is Professor of Religious Studies at Vanderbilt University. He is the author or editor of eleven books on Martin Luther King, Jr., including The Voice of Conscience: The Church in the Mind of Martin Luther King, Jr. (2010). Rufus Burrow Jr. is Indiana Professor of Christian Thought at Christian Theological Seminary. He has authored or coauthored three books on King, including Martin Luther King, Jr. for Armchair Theologians (2009).

Martin Luther King, Jr. is celebrated widely as the quintessential model of Christian activism in his time, but his understanding of and vision for the church has been surprisingly neglected. In this book, Lewis V. Baldwin contends that King was fundamentally a man of the church. Beginning with King's roots in Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church, Baldwin traces the evolution of King's attitude toward the church through his college, seminary, graduate school, and civil rights years. The emphasis is on King's concept of the church as "the voice of conscience." Baldwin persuasively claims that...

Description: The scholarship on Martin Luther King Jr. has too often cast him in the image of the Southern black preacher and the American Gandhi, while ignoring or trivializing his global connections and significance. This groundbreaking work, written by scholars, religious leaders, and activists of different backgrounds, addresses this glaring pattern of neglect in King studies. King is treated here as both a global figure and a forerunner of much of what is currently associated with contemporary globalization theory and praxis. The contributors to this volume agree that King must be...