Jonathan Eig offers interested readers a fast-paced account of the life and death of Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968; Ph.D. in theology, Boston University, 1955) in his massively researched new 2023 book King: A Biography (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). However, the interested reader might want to also read John J. Ansbro's deeply researched, well-organized, and well-developed 1982 intellectual biography of Dr. King.

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Duluth, Minnesota (OpEdNews) June 28, 2023: In Jonathan Eig's new 2023 biography King: A Life (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), he highlights the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King's repeated womanizing (pp. 5, 72-73,104, 190, 242, 270-273, 325-326, 352-355, 389-391, 396-398, 400, 405, 425, 451, 512, 516, 535, and 555) - and his repeated practice of plagiarism (pp. 51, 68, 76, 111-112, and 202).

Fortunately, Eig also emphasizes King philosophy of nonviolence (pp. 4, 31, 33, 60, 78, 84, 162, 165-168, 170, 178, 188, 207, 209, 211-213, 216, 221, 226, 229, 253, 264, 265, 267-269, 280, 287, 296, 299, 303, 374, 384, 401, 432, 455, 459-460, 462, 467- 468, 476-477, 485, 487, 488, 494-495, 499, 509, 514, 520, 528, 532, 534, 541, and 544-545).

Because the black Baptist minister King was noteworthy for articulating his philosophy and practice of nonviolence, the American philosophy professor John J. Ansbro set out to study King's academic education in his 1982 book Martin Luther King, Jr.: The Making of a Mind (Orbis Books) - a work that Eig does not refer to. The dust jacket on Ansbro's 1982 book features glowing burbs about it by (in alphabetical order) John C. Bennett, Julian Bond, Ramsey Clark, William Sloane Coffin, Jr., Richard A. Long, Walter G. Muelder, and Bayard Rustin.

On the back inside flap of the dust jacket on Ansbro's 1982 book, we are told that Ansbro, with the financial assistance of a travel grant from the Ford Foundation, "interviewed Dr. King's professors at Morehouse College, Crozer theological Seminary, and Boston University, and his colleagues in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference" - in addition to studying "Dr. King's papers in the King Collection at the Mugar Memorial Library of Boston University, and source material at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change."

In the detailed table of "Contents" in Ansbro's 1982 book (pp. xi-xii), we learn that Chapter 1: "The Redemptive Power of Agape [Love]" (pp. 1-36) includes subsections "Davis's Conception of the Necessity of Agape [Love]" (pp. 15-17) and "DeWolf's Comprehensive Conception of Agape [Love]" (pp. 18-26).

Similarly, Chapter 2: "The Dimensions of Divine Providence" (pp. 37-70) includes the subsections "DeWolf's Conception of the God Who Sustains His Creatures" (pp. 38-60) and "Davis's Conception of the God in Control of History" (pp. 63-70).

Eig notes that George W. Davis "taught King for 30 of his 110 course hours" at the Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania (p. 82). Eig notes that L. Harold DeWolf was subsequently King's "dissertation adviser" at Boston University (p. 111) - in which King plagiarized part of the text.

Now, in Ansbro's subsection "Davis's Conception of the God in Control of History," he says, "He [Davis] affirmed the validity of the Hebraic-Christian linear conception of history as progress toward a predetermined goal, and [Davis also] rejected the ancient Greek conception of history as a process destined to bend back upon itself in endless cyclic repetition" (p. 63).

Concerning the ancient Greek cyclic conception, see Lynne Ballew's book Straight and Circular: A Study in Greek Philosophy (Van Gorcum, 1979).

The classic study of ancient cyclic thought is Mircea Eliade's book The Myth of the Eternal Return, translated from the French by Willard Trask (Pantheon Books, 1954; orig. ed., 1949).

But also see the American Jesuit Walter J. Ong's essay "Evolution and Cyclicism in Our Time" in the now-defunct Jesuit-sponsored journal Thought: A Review of Culture and Idea (Fordham University), volume 34, serial number 135 (Winter 1959-1960); pp. 547-568; Ong reprinted it in his 1967 book In the Human Grain: Further Explorations of Contemporary Culture (Macmillan, pp. 61-82); it is also reprinted in volume two of Ong's Faith and Contexts, edited by Thomas J. Farrell and Paul A. Soukup (Scholars Press, 1992b, pp. 85-103).

In any event, according to Ansbro, "The first major shift Davis discovered in the historical process was the transition from external controls to inner sanctions" (p. 63; italics in Ansbro's text).

"The second major shift that for Davis was evidence of God's control of history was the transition from the impersonal to the personal" (p. 64; italics in Ansbro's text).

"While acknowledging the existence of absolutism and autocracy and their effect on millions of persons, Davis maintained that the thirds major shift in history was the transition from rank individualism to the solidarity of the social group, which enhances the realization of the personal" (p. 66; italics in Ansbro's text).

Because King was also influenced by Walter Rauschenbusch's social gospel, perhaps we can align the historical emergence of the social gospel with the third historical transition that Davis discusses. In any event, we can definitely align King's ideal of the beloved community with Davis's third historical transition.

In addition, we can also align the historical emergence of Catholic social thought with Davis's third historical transition. For a recent discussion of Catholic social teaching, see the book Siblings All, Sign of the Times: The Social Teachings of Pope Francis by the Canadian Jesuit Cardinal Michael Czerny and Christian Barone, who teaches theology at the Jesuit-sponsored Gregorian University in Rome (Orbis Books, 2022).

The American Jesuit Walter Ong, mentioned above, did not advocate anything so bold as the beloved community that King envisioned. However, Ong did go on the record as believing in the unity of the human race - in his essay "Orality-Literacy Studies and the Unity of the Human Race" in the journal Oral Tradition, volume 2, number 1 (January 1987): pp. 371-382; it is reprinted in volume one of Ong's Faith and Contexts, edited by Thomas J. Farrell and Paul A. Soukup (Scholars Press, 1992a, pp. 209-218).

Now, in Ansbro's subsection "The Affirmation of the Individual in Existentialism" in Chapter 3: "The Sacredness of Human Personality" in his 1982 book Martin Luther King, Jr.: The Making of a Mind (pp. 62-106), he discusses King's discussion of the French Catholic philosopher and playwright Gabriel Marcel's distinction between belief "that" (a certain propositional statement is true) and belief "in" (a person) (pp. 104-106). Ansbro says the following:

"Although in his description of his intellectual formation King did not mention the philosopher Gabriel Marcel as one of the existentialists who influenced his thinking, he did refer to Marcel in [his 1963 sermon collection] Strength to Love as he examined the implications of religious faith in the life of the individual believer. King indicated that the Scriptures speak of two types of faith. In one type 'the mind's faith' is directed toward a theory when the intellect assents to a belief that God exists. In the other type 'the heart's faith' is centered in a Person when the believer makes a total commitment to God in a trusting act of self-surrender. This latter faith does not rest content with a theory about a Person. King felt that a true relationship to God has to include this faith. He appealed to the claim of Marcel that 'faith is believing in, not believing that. He perceived the value of Marcel's notion that faith may be compared to 'opening a credit, which puts me at the disposal of the one in whom I believe.'

"When Marcel in The Mystery of Being introduced this notion of opening a credit as an example of belief, he warned that we should not be hypnotized by the material aspect of this [credit] operation in the business world. He quickly moved beyond the restrictions inherent in the [business] notion of credit, and asserted that when my belief places me at the disposal of someone, this means that I pledge not only what I have but also what I am. Marcel supplemented the notion of credit with the metaphor of 'rallying.' 'If I believe in, I rally to; with that sort of interior gathering of oneself which the act of rallying implies' [Ansbro is here quoting Marcel]. He thus contended that the strongest or most living belief is one which absorbs most fully all of the powers of our being. He claimed that this act of faith and trust in God rescues the individual from the anxiety, confusion, and even despair that arises from the uncertainty and instability of the human condition. In the act of faith, the believer no longer regards God as an objective entity separate from himself, but rather is open to God as 'incarnate' in himself [or in herself], in others, and in the material world. King shared this insight when he affirmed, 'We shall be delivered from the accumulated weight of evil only when we permit the energy of God to come upon our souls.' Marcel compared the believer to a lover who offers his [or her] own self and the world to his [or her] beloved. In an act of 'consecration,' the believer offers all to God as his [or her] freedom responds to God's freedom. Marcel saw this act of consecration as an act of restitution since God is the creator of the very gift that the believer offers Him. As King proclaimed the condition for world peace, he revealed that he shared Marcel's vision of the need for men [and women] to be open to the gift of God's presence [as King himself indicates in the following passage that Ansbro quotes from p. 125 of Strength to Love:

"'Our age-old and noble dream of a world of peace may yet become a reality, but it will come neither by man [or woman] working alone nor by God destroying the wicked schemes of men [and women], but when men [and women] so open their lives to God that He [or She] may fill them with love, mutual respect, understanding, and goodwill. Social salvation will come only through man's [and woman's] willing acceptance of God's mighty gift'" (pp. 104-106; all italics here are in Ansbro's text).

Now, the American Jesuit Walter Ong, mentioned above, characterized his work as phenomenological and personalist in cast. As both Ansbro and Eig note, Martin Luther King, Jr., went to Boston University for his graduate studies in theology because he wanted to study personalism under Edgar S. Brightman there - which he did up until the time of Brightman's death. For specific page references to King's personalism, see the "Index" entry on personalism in Ansbro's book Martin Luther King, Jr.: The Making of a Mind (1982, p. 348). However, I am not aware of even one reference to Dr. King in Ong's 400 or so distinct publications (not counting translations and reprintings as distinct publications).

Now, Ong published his essay "Voice as Summons for Belief: Literature, Faith, and the Divided Self" in the now-defunct Jesuit-sponsored journal Thought: A Review of Culture and Idea (Fordham University), volume 33, serial number 128 (Spring 1958): pp. 43-61. Ong reprinted it in his 1962 book The Barbarian Within: And Other Fugitive Essays and Studies (Macmillan, pp. 49-67). It is also reprinted in An Ong Reader: Challenges for Further Inquiry, edited by Thomas J. Farrell and Paul A. Soukup (Hampton Press, 2002, pp. 259-275).

In Ong's essay "Voice as Summons for Belief: Literature, Faith, and the Divided Self," he draws on the distinction between belief "that" (some propositional statement is true) and belief "in" (a person) that the French Catholic existentialist philosopher and playwright Gabriel Marcel makes in his essay "Opinion and Faith" in volume two of his two-volume work titled The Mystery of Being, translated by R. Hague (Henry Regnery, 1951, pp. 68-84).

In Ansbro's subsection "Niebuhr's Demand for Resistance to Collective Evil" in Chapter 4: "The Moral Obligation to Resist Collective Evil" [e.g., Trump and his white supporters] in his 1982 book Martin Luther King, Jr.: The Making of a Mind (pp. 151-160), Ansbro says, "King's acceptance of this correction [by Walter Muelder] to Niebuhr's view of agape [love] by Personalism was crucial to the formation of his philosophy of nonviolent resistance. Inspired by the Personalist vision he derived from DeWolf, Brightman, Bertocci, Muelder, and others [at Boston University], King could combine an emphasis on the power of agape [love] to create genuine community with a reliance on the nonviolent methods of protest for active resistance to the recalcitrant forces of evil in society, industry, and government [e.g., Trump and his white supporters]" (p. 158).

In Ansbro's subsection on "The Challenge and Limitations of Communism" in Chapter 5: "The Social Mission of the Christian Church" in his 1982 book (pp. 183-187), he says that "on his own initiative as a student at Crozer Theological Seminary, he studied The Communist Manifesto and Das Capital as well as some interpretative works on Marx and Lenin. He resumed his study of Marx in a course on the philosophy of history at the University of Pennsylvania and in courses at Crozer on Tillich and Niebuhr, whose early works were influenced by Marx. In Stride for Freedom [The Montgomery Story (Harper & Row, 1958, pp. 92, 93, and 95)], he later explained that he had read Marx, as he had read other influential historical thinkers, from a dialectical point of view, combining a partial yes and a partial no with the result that, even though he regarded Communism as 'basically evil' and stated that his response to it was 'negative,' he claimed that he found challenging points in Communism" (p. 183).

In Ansbro's subsection "The Immorality and Impracticality of violence: in Chapter 7: "King's Rejection of Violent Resistance" of his 1982 book (pp. 231-240), he says, "King in effect reaffirmed the insight of Socrates that one who injures another injures himself [or herself] spiritually since he [or she] disrupts the harmony within his [or her] own soul, whereas the soul of his [or her] victim may remain intact" (p. 232).

Ansbro also says, "King considered rioting not as revolutionary but as reactionary since it invites defeat: 'A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard. It is the desperate, suicidal cry of one who is so fed up with the powerlessness of his [or her] cave existence that he [or she] asserts that he [or she] would rather be dead than ignored'" (p. 233).

In Ansbro's subsection "The Necessity of Exposing the Violence of Racism" in Chapter 7: "King's Rejection of Violent Resistance" in his 1982 book (pp. 240-250), he says that "he [King] was able to claim, 'Fewer people have been killed in ten years of nonviolent demonstrations across the South than were killed in one night of rioting in Watts.' He explained that a minimum of whites were casualties in the demonstrations because the demonstrators were trained not to engage in retaliatory violence, and that a minimum of clacks were casualties because their white oppressors were aware that the world was watching their actions and because for the first time these whites were being confronted by blacks who did not display fear" (p. 245).

In conclusion, Eig's new 2023 biography King: A Life does not do justice to King's rich intellectual development. Consequently, Ansbro's 1982 intellectual biography of King still has much to offer interested readers. It is a deeply researched, well-organized, and well-developed book.

Authors Website: http://www.d.umn.edu/~tfarrell

Authors Bio:

Thomas James Farrell is professor emeritus of writing studies at the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD). He started teaching at UMD in Fall 1987, and he retired from UMD at the end of May 2009. He was born in 1944. He holds three degrees from Saint Louis University (SLU): B.A. in English, 1966; M.A.(T) in English 1968; Ph.D.in higher education, 1974. On May 16, 1969, the editors of the SLU student newspaper named him Man of the Year, an honor customarily conferred on an administrator or a faculty member, not on a graduate student -- nor on a woman up to that time. He is the proud author of the book WALTER ONG'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO CULTURAL STUDIES: THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF THE WORD AND I-THOU COMMUNICATION (Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 2000; 2nd ed. 2009, forthcoming). The first edition won the 2001 Marshall McLuhan Award for Outstanding Book in the Field of Media Ecology conferred by the Media Ecology Association. For further information about his education and his publications, see his UMD homepage: Click here to visit Dr. Farrell's homepage.

On September 10 and 22, 2009, he discussed Walter Ong's work on the blog radio talk show "Ethics Talk" that is hosted by Hope May in philosophy at Central Michigan University. Each hour-long show has been archived and is available for people who missed the live broadcast to listen to. Here are the website addresses for the two archived shows:

Click here to listen the Technologizing of the Word Interview

Click here to listen the Ramus, Method & The Decay of Dialogue Interview