New Topographies in King Studies

This paper argues that King's later theological work is imbued with a latent yet robust theology of "moral injury" that can inform theologies of social healing in the 21st century.  King distinctly and seamlessly linked the personal, the social, and the political in a radical praxis of liberation: he clearly characterizes the racist social sinning of peoples racialized as white--who are formed by an insidious ideology of white supremacy--as a kind of moral injury that must be addressed in order to realize Beloved Community.  King strikes a delicate theological balance of prioritizing the imminent liberation of Black peoples with diagnosing a cause of this oppression in the morally injured conscience of whites. So, for Black peoples to be fully liberated there must be a concomitant repentance, repair, and healing among those racialized as white, a claim with far-reaching implications for theology and ministry.

There is a sacred aspect to Selma, Alabama as a place where collective blood was shed for the sin of America–the original sin of slavery–in the same way Jesus shed blood for the sins of humankind. A throng of people joined in the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s decision to take up the cross. This paper will also describe how Selma was, and remains, a modern-day Nazareth of ordinary folks living on the margins, but who yet made a difference that changed the world. 

Thus, there is a significance to Selma that is spiritual in nature in that the Edmund Pettus Bridge is itself a crucifix that continues to be crossed by thousands.

Drawing on the work of Keri Day, I argue that the Azusa Street Revival represents a stream of the Black radical tradition. Further, I contend that the civil rights movement associated with Martin Luther King Jr. represented a continuation of this stream. Specifically, I argue that the Azusa Street Revival and the Beloved Community as envisioned and built by King formed what I call anti-political communities.