Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Theologie der Freiheit und Gerechtigkeit

Schwarze Kirche, Südstaatenbaptismus und Bostoner Personalismus

Abstract

Martin Luther King was as much a theologian as a political activist. His theology of freedom and social justice originated within a specific „black“ American Baptist environment, which stands self-consciously in association with other such churches in the Afro-American tradition. In spirituality and theology, the elements of suffering, slavery and liberation are particularly emphasized. King’s relatively liberal theological positions led him to pose critical questions regarding the virgin birth, the bodily resurrection and substitutionary atonement. Yet the Baptist covenant theology and a congregationalist ecclesiology remained influential on King. He combined elements of traditional black Baptist theology with concepts of the Social Gospel and Boston Personalism to develop his theology of love, liberation and justice. Thus, he can be understood, borrowing a phrase from Schleiermacher, as a Baptist of higher order.