Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Witness of the Black Freedom Church (video)

Posted on September 22, 2020 by PLT Staff

Lecture given by Nathan Walton at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA (September 2020). The lecture begins at 9:55. How did Martin Luther King, Jr. become Martin Luther King, Jr.? How should we understand him in terms of history and of today’s conversations around social justice? Walton places King within the history of the black church, and how the church shaped King’s theological outlook and social engagement. Walton then examines how King was a byproduct of the black church and other social traditions. A Q&A session follows at 57:00, and addresses King in relation to the Black Lives Matter movement, ownership of narratives, the concept of American exceptionalism, and the importance of self-awareness and intellectual rigor.To find a listing of all our Occasional Lectures, click here.

Excerpt: “King was often asking the big-picture question, ‘What do the specific claims and events from the Bible mean for the world? And what do they mean specifically for us?’”

  • Video Information
  • Date Recorded:September 16, 2020
  • Location Recorded:Charlottesville, VA
This video is published by the Project on Lived Theology (PLT). For any questions related to its use, please contact PLT (https://www.livedtheology.org//contact/). Copy available for use subject to Creative Commons License CC-BY-NC-ND (Attribution required, Non-Commercial use, No Derivatives, 3.0, Unported).

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