Event Title
The Philosophical Grounds of Personalism in Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Thinking
Location
Student Union 307
Type of Presentation
50 minute presentation
Audience Type
High school students, High school teachers or counselors, College students, College teachers or advisors, High school parents, College parents, Other
Description
While many might not realize it, King studied philosophy at Morehouse College and also completed a Masters in Philosophy from Boston University before completing his doctorate in theology. Having studied under L. Harold DeWolf (with whom he had written his dissertation) and Edgar Brightman, two Methodists philosophers known as “personalists” King claimed in his My Pilgrimage to Nonviolence, that these two philosophers formed the entire backdrop of his thinking. In King’s own words,
"I studied philosophy and theology at Boston University under Edgar S. Brightman and L. Harold De Wolf. Both men greatly stimulated my thinking. It was mainly under these teachers that I studied personalistic philosophy—the theory that the clue to the meaning of ultimate reality is found in personality. This personal idealism remains today my basic philosophical position. Personalism’s insistence that only personality – finite and infinite – is ultimately strengthened me in two convictions: it gave me metaphysical and philosophical grounding for the idea of a personal God, and it gave me a metaphysical basis for the dignity and worth of all human personality."
I will speak specifically to the two claims above. (1) I will address how personalism can give “a metaphysical and philosophical ground for the idea of a personal God,” and (2) how personalism provides a basis for the “metaphysical basis for the dignity and worth of all human personality.” In such thinking, we will find that King’s thinking is ethico-religious in such a way that his philosophy cannot be disentangled from his theological commitments.
The Philosophical Grounds of Personalism in Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Thinking
Student Union 307
While many might not realize it, King studied philosophy at Morehouse College and also completed a Masters in Philosophy from Boston University before completing his doctorate in theology. Having studied under L. Harold DeWolf (with whom he had written his dissertation) and Edgar Brightman, two Methodists philosophers known as “personalists” King claimed in his My Pilgrimage to Nonviolence, that these two philosophers formed the entire backdrop of his thinking. In King’s own words,
"I studied philosophy and theology at Boston University under Edgar S. Brightman and L. Harold De Wolf. Both men greatly stimulated my thinking. It was mainly under these teachers that I studied personalistic philosophy—the theory that the clue to the meaning of ultimate reality is found in personality. This personal idealism remains today my basic philosophical position. Personalism’s insistence that only personality – finite and infinite – is ultimately strengthened me in two convictions: it gave me metaphysical and philosophical grounding for the idea of a personal God, and it gave me a metaphysical basis for the dignity and worth of all human personality."
I will speak specifically to the two claims above. (1) I will address how personalism can give “a metaphysical and philosophical ground for the idea of a personal God,” and (2) how personalism provides a basis for the “metaphysical basis for the dignity and worth of all human personality.” In such thinking, we will find that King’s thinking is ethico-religious in such a way that his philosophy cannot be disentangled from his theological commitments.