My pilgrimage to nonviolence with Martin Luther King Jr.

Last updated on: January 17, 2022 at 5:38 pm by David C. Cramer

My pilgrimage to nonviolence with Martin Luther King Jr. 2022-01-17T17:38:17-05:00 David C. Cramer

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

On April 13, 1960, Christian Century magazine published Martin Luther King Jr.’s essay “Pilgrimage to Nonviolence” as part of their series “How My Mind Has Changed,” in which theologians and other public intellectuals reflect on their prior decade of intellectual development.

President Lyndon Johnson and Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., July 2, 1964 / Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, NYWT&S Collection

In the essay, King describes how his view of nonviolence developed from understanding Jesus’s commands to “turn the other cheek” and “love your enemies” as applicable only to interpersonal situations to seeing its applicability to group conflicts and even international relations.

King’s development came from his encounter with Gandhi, his reading of theologians like Walter Rauschenbusch and Reinhold Niebuhr, and, especially, his experience leading the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1954. King writes,

At the beginning of the protest the people called on me to serve as their spokesman. In accepting this responsibility my mind, consciously or unconsciously, was driven back to the Sermon on the Mount and the Gandhian method of nonviolent resistance. This principle became the guiding light of our movement. Christ furnished the spirit and motivation while Gandhi furnished the method.

My own pilgrimage to nonviolence has been influenced heavily by King, especially as it has developed over the last decade (or so). I initially came to Christian nonviolence largely through interaction with Anabaptist sources, most of whom emphasized nonviolence in interpersonal situations or as a distinctive characteristic of the church, which can witness to the world but doesn’t necessarily expect to change it.

Like King, I encountered both Rauschenbusch and Niebuhr in grad school, which gave me a greater sense of the church’s social responsibility while also chastening my view of the church’s nonviolence. I came to see that, due to the many forms violence takes in the world, simply refusing to participate in war doesn’t make one nonviolent. Any nonviolence worth its name requires active resistance to the many forms in which violence appears. This is the kind of nonviolence that we find in King’s life and writings.

As King writes, “The Christian doctrine of love operating through the Gandhian method of nonviolence [is] one of the most potent weapons available to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom.” For King, then, nonviolence is not an end in itself but is a means toward the end of justice, liberation, and peace.

Read King’s entire essay at the Christian Century. For more reflections on King’s political nonviolence and how it differs from other forms of Christian nonviolence, see my forthcoming book with Myles Werntz, A Field Guide to Christian Nonviolence: Key Thinkers, Activists, and Movements for the Gospel of Peace (Baker Academic, February 2022).

Nonviolence

A Field Guide to Christian Nonviolence

Gandhi

Martin Luther King Jr.

Reinhold Niebuhr

Walter Rauschenbusch

Previous Post

September 23, 2021

Rad Women of Scripture: A Bibliography

Next Post

May 16, 2022 White Christian Nationalism and the Gospel of Peace (Ephesians 2:11–22)

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Anabaptist Ecosystem Blogging Books Current Events Dispatches Evangelicalism Guest Post Interview Mennonite History Nonviolence Rad Women of Scripture Sermon Uncategorized

Select a Month March 2024 November 2023 August 2023 July 2023 April 2023 March 2023 June 2022 May 2022 January 2022 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 August 2020 June 2020 May 2020 February 2020 January 2020 November 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Pride deceived those who dwell in the clefts of the rocks and make their home on the heights. Which nation was being addressed?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Philistia Ammon Moab Edom