- Collection:
- Atlanta University and Clark Atlanta University Theses and Dissertations
- Title:
- The implications of spirituality in the writing of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'Letter from a Birmingham City jail', 1998
- Creator:
- Hooks, Lana M.
- Date of Original:
- 1998-07-01
- Subject:
- Degrees, Academic
Dissertations, Academic - Location:
- United States, Georgia, Fulton County, Atlanta, 33.749, -84.38798
- Medium:
- theses
- Type:
- Text
- Format:
- application/pdf
- Description:
- This study observes that Dr. King's letter advocated changes in the religious perception of several social and spiritual issues related to 'Civil Rights' struggles to abolish segregation required by law. Focal attention is given to the letter's discussion of the church as an institution; the legislative process, the individual and group processes of an encounter with God which transcends ordinary piety, and the potential for spiritual transformation of individual and of the human community.King argued that the Negroes' historic and current dehumanized role in society forced them to re-define and re-create 'spirituality' in order to find worth, meaning and purpose for their lives. The letter deplores the 'comfortable theology' of the church, and explores the hypocrisy in America's secular values (such as are found in the Declaration of Independence); King chastises the churches for rejecting an eternal mandate to be the conscience of society rather than its captive. A review of King's speeches and his references to essays of other noted historians and theologians illuminates his repetitive, consistent focus in his ultimate motive: to create a human community of persons transformed by love. This essay concludes that King's philosophy of nonviolent direct action believed as Jesus the Christ did, that redemptive love demonstrated by transformed human beings would one day create the 'Beloved Community.'
- External Identifiers:
- Metadata URL:
- http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12322/cau.td:1998_hooks_lana_m.pdf
- Rights Holder:
- Clark Atlanta University
- Holding Institution:
- Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library
- Rights:
-
