In Strength to Love, we are treated to the sermons of Martin Luther King, Jr. However, within his religious sermons King often has harsh words of criticism for ChristianityÆs and the Catholic Churches historical support of prejudice and racism. KingÆs main premise is that all human beings are tied together in an inextricable web of ômutuality.ö Because of this, King underscores his foundation of theology and action, nonviolence. King also maintains that the most difficult command of JesusÆ to obey is top love oneÆs enemy. Yet King argues there is a significant reason why we must do so. This analysis will review KingÆs book, including comparing and contrasting it to the ideas and theories offered by James M. Cone in A Black Theology of Liberation.
In Strength to Love, Martin Luther King, Jr.Æs sermons are provided, ones that range in topic from communism and the life of Jesus to nonviolence and the interconnection of the human community. The style of the book is to present the different sermons and principles of KingÆs theology and philosophy through fifteen chapters. A forward is provided by KingÆs daughter, Coretta Scott King. King (p. 23) maintains that individuals often think of themselves as riding a moral high horse, when Jesus said ôThe publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.ö In other words, King is preaching that no human being ever becomes all-righteous because the highest morality of God is just beyond the full grasp of human beings. All we can do is act toward God through obeying the example and words of the life of Jesus.
King also maintains that one must love oneÆs enemies, for that is the only way to affirm through love the mutuality and interconnectedness of the human community. Only when all humans view one another with more tolerance and perpetuate more acts of kindness toward each other will the kingdom proscribed by Jesus exist on earth. King (p
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