Martin Luther King's Love Ethic

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What is love? If someone were to ask you to define it, chances are you might say love cannot be defined. That statement might be true if there weren’t different levels of love. A person might not love their parents the same way they love their husband or wife, or their child. Love differs between different levels of both action and feeling, and in order to understand or define love one must discover each level. Martin Luther King felt the need to address such an issue, and felt that the working idea of love was important to the philosophy of a non-violent protest. Throughout this essay, I will explore the dimensions of King’s love ethic and focus on the sources that helped shape his development.
It was once said that a great leader doesn’t …show more content…

During his time at Boston University, he received a Ph.D. degree in philosophical theology in 1955. While there, King was influenced by Edgar Brightman and Harold DeWolf who inspired him to study personalistic philosophy. The philosophy of personalism describes the clue to life’s meaning and the ultimate reality is found within the human personality (King & Carlson 31). Personalism’s principle that only personality-finite and infinite showed King the value and worth of human character and gave him the basis for the idea of a personal God. These beliefs were rooted at home throughout King’s family upbringing and teachings. Hence why King carried these ideas to the study of personalism, which later provided the philosophical foundation King was …show more content…

He explains that it is important to fight through any fight using Christian approaches and Christian weapons rather than sinking into the temptation of resentment and hatred. This highest good of life, according to King is love and the book of John states that God is love. Which caused King to place God at the focus of his way of life and teach others that he who loves is a contributor in God’s being and he who show hatred does not know God. Dr. King believed that a person can know for sure if they are practicing agape love by loving a person who won’t treat them right, but instead will be unfriendly towards them. Without the power of God, it would be impossible to love your enemies. This teaching sheds light on the concept that using violence and hatred as a means for social change simply leads to a never-ending cycle of violence, hate, lack of change, and

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