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| Open Theism Discussion Board > Public Forums > Tearing down walls > Martin Luther King's Philosophy of Love | Forum Quick Jump
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kingsaint
Registered Member
Date Joined Oct 2003
Total Posts : 80
| Posted 1/27/2004 4:46 AM (GMT -6) |   | Cornel West is an admirer of Thomas Jefferson, and when confronted with the sad fact that Jefferson owned slaves, he simply replied that we have to "out-Jefferson Jefferson", that is, we can criticize Jefferson using Jeffersonian principles. Martin Luther King's philosophy of love is rightly admired, nurtured as it was in the Church, for its decisive role in the struggle for civil rights. However, I suggest that there is a subtle deficiency, perhaps a deficiency only in emphasis, in King's philosophy of love.
In his "canonical" writings at least, King tended to define love negatively, as nonviolent resistence or passive resistence. You love your enemy by not returning evil with evil. However, there is a big difference between this negative formulation and the more positive command of returning evil with good. It is interesting that in both Stride Toward Freedom and in his Letter from Birmingham City Jail, King quotes Jesus' teaching on loving enemies. The passage King quotes appears to be Luke 6:27 (cf. Matthew 5:44), but he omits the phrase "do good to those who hate you". This is not to say King's omission is deliberate, for he probably quotes by memory and in a 1957 sermon he seems to conflate the Luke passage with the Matthew parallel.
There are indications that King was aware that love was a broader concept than nonviolence. He tended to view nonviolence as merely a technique, tactic, method, or strategy. He even said that Gandhi furnished the method (nonviolence), but Christ furnished the spirit and motivation (love). King realized that nonviolent resistence was only a means to an end. On the surface, nonviolent resistence is still resistence and the Bible has some things to say about that (Romans 13, I Peter 2--but, the Bible also has the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, a story from which King explicity drew). I am reminded of what the Eddie character (Cedric the Entertainer) says in The Barbershop when he questions the importance of Rosa Parks.
Perhaps King emphasized the negative formulation of love, because he thought a positive formulation would be confused with an impossibly lived sentimentality. King constantly taught that to love (agape) one's enemies was not to have sentimental feelings (eros or philia) for them; you need not like your enemies to love them.
On the other hand, King did talk of love in positive terms. Love is understanding, creative, redemptive good will to all. Love is also selfless and other-concerned. However, these statements are not concretized ("let's bake a cake for Bull Connor") in behavioral prescriptions.
For King, the purpose of nonviolent resistence is to awaken moral shame in the oppressor, the goal of which is redemption and reconciliation leading to the beloved community. How much more shame would whites feel if positive acts of charity and love were consistently coupled with the power of nonviolent resistence? King said that the African-American "must love the white man, because the white man needs his love to remove his tensions, insecurities, and fears."
The problem with my ideas is that they could be used to return to the "let time have its way"--a feeling King rejected, or used to denigrate the heroism and courage of those who actually struggled against evil--which I hope does not happen. King knew that progress was not inevitable and evil needed to be faught (was he a proto-open theist?). But, I do think that the positive apects of love have been downed-played in the struggle for civil rights. It is time for all of us to be audacious KINGdom builders; it is time to out-King King.
"Nobody who omits doing good works nowadays does so in order not to be tempted to become self-righteous; he omits it because it is easier."
--Philip Merlan, "Toward the Understanding of Kierkegaard" | | Back to Top | | |
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