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58th out of 289 books
—
219 voters
Strength to Love
This is a collection of classic sermons preached by Martin Luther King, Jr.
Paperback, 160 pages
Published
April 1st 1981
by Augsburg Fortress Publishing
(first published January 1st 1963)
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I read this in high school (pretty insane for a public high school, right?), and remembered really enjoying it. It started off strong, I really liked the sermon about the Good Samaritan - how he really went out of his way by probably putting his own life in danger, about how he went above and beyond by using his own donkey and paying for all his bills at an inn. Dr. King wrote, "Man-made laws assure justice, but a higher law produces love. No code of conduct ever persuaded a father to love his c...more
Martin Luther King Jr. may be seen by many people, unfortunately, as a cliche historical figure. Everybody feels as though they know a lot about him, but in reality most people know nothing about him besides the fact that he was a civil rights leader who got assassinated. I personally have always wanted to pick up a book by MLK Jr. because I have never been satisfied with the info that black history television programs and school classes gave me. Don't get me wrong, those sources gave me good in...more
Lacy Cox
APA Citation: King, M. L. (2010). Strength to love. Cleaveland, OH: Fotress Press, Gift Ed.
Reference: Biography
Call Number: Ref 834 Kin
Relevance & Relationship: Cost $20.00, but can be found at a better price. Our high school has many diverse history classes including a History of African American Culture. This book would be a great addition for a U.S. History class. This is not a duplicate and there are no other reference books about MLK Jr.
Purpose: The purpose of this book is to de...more
APA Citation: King, M. L. (2010). Strength to love. Cleaveland, OH: Fotress Press, Gift Ed.
Reference: Biography
Call Number: Ref 834 Kin
Relevance & Relationship: Cost $20.00, but can be found at a better price. Our high school has many diverse history classes including a History of African American Culture. This book would be a great addition for a U.S. History class. This is not a duplicate and there are no other reference books about MLK Jr.
Purpose: The purpose of this book is to de...more
I found this book of King's sermons to be very moving. I started thinking about reading it because of the whole tiff-taff over the fake King quote circulating on Twitter after the OBL assassination. (Despite not being a direct quote from King, it certainly expressed a sentiment consistent with his philosophy, and was more or less a paraphrase of a passage in this book.)
Before reading StL, I was of course familiar with King in a cultural sense and had read a couple of his writings such as "Letter...more
Before reading StL, I was of course familiar with King in a cultural sense and had read a couple of his writings such as "Letter...more
One of the most moving, inspirational books I have ever read. In general, people know surprisingly little about Martin Luther King Jr. Everyone knows he was a civil rights leader, but not everyone knows he was a baptist minister. And in this book, which is after all a collection of sermons, it is King the minister who speaks to us. His message of suffering, love, and compassion ('excessive altruism') is beautiful and thought-provoking. I am continually amazed by King's capacity to see good in pe...more
"Admitting the weighty problems and staggering disappointments, Christianity affirms that God is able to give us the power to meet them. He is able to give us the inner equilibrium to stand tall amid the trials and burdens of life. He is able to provide an inner peace amid outer storms. This inner stability of the man of faith is Christ's chief legacy to his disciples. He offers neither material resources nor a magical formula that exempts us from suffering and persecution, but he brings an impe...more
good book. spiritual and religious at the same time. its a collection of his speeches which were important then but are still relevant now. although he will eb recognised for the fighthe lead for black rights in america predominantly this book is also about doing the right thing and the role humans can and should play in the world. beautifully moralising without being overly sententious. his main belief is that love can perish hate and he cites various sections of the bible and some of the world...more
This has to be one of my all-time favorite books. What a stalwart saint MLK Jr was, and I pick this book up again and again to be reminded what it means to love my enemy, persevere in trial, and be courageous in having a tough mind and soft heart. He has taught me to be a better Christian and laid out the sharp keenness of his mind and theology and how it encompassed his worldview, how it should shape & challenge ours, and ask us to critique whose Kingdom and whose cause we are living for....more
A Big Deal
Martin Luther King, Jr. is a big deal. I recall learning about his life and his influence on civil rights early and often in grade school. I heard his famous “I Have a Dream” speech long before I knew what it meant. King County—where I live—originally named after William Rufus King is now named after MLK.
Yet for all I’ve learned about King over the course of my education, I knew little about the origins of King’s thought. Aside from a passing mention of King as a Baptist minister, the...more
Martin Luther King, Jr. is a big deal. I recall learning about his life and his influence on civil rights early and often in grade school. I heard his famous “I Have a Dream” speech long before I knew what it meant. King County—where I live—originally named after William Rufus King is now named after MLK.
Yet for all I’ve learned about King over the course of my education, I knew little about the origins of King’s thought. Aside from a passing mention of King as a Baptist minister, the...more
Dec 29, 2009
Talat
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
anyone interested in social justice, Christianity, or extraordinarily eloquent writing
Recommended to Talat by:
Professor Donald Matthewsan
Shelves:
christianity
Dr. King's eloquence, rhetorical power and Christian witness inspire at every turn of phrase. each page is saturated with prophetic power. "Strength to Love" (1963) is a collection of sermons that Dr. King delivered in the late 1950s and 1960s and edited for print. I feel challenged to identify what the most powerful part of this book is. Every page seems to bear the best of the book's message. Dr. King's gospel of social justice and non-violence consistently radiates forth. Of special interest...more
Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Junior wrote that "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" in 1963.
Just last week Nigerian President Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan said that "A terrorist attack on any of us is an attack on all of us."
I shared both quotes with my Civics class, but one eighth grader wrote on the board under Dr. King's words that "no one gets this." I asked if they'd like me to discuss it with them and the same student said, "no, we don't care either."
That made me...more
Just last week Nigerian President Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan said that "A terrorist attack on any of us is an attack on all of us."
I shared both quotes with my Civics class, but one eighth grader wrote on the board under Dr. King's words that "no one gets this." I asked if they'd like me to discuss it with them and the same student said, "no, we don't care either."
That made me...more
I'd heard this King guy was good, but I had no idea. Seriously, I had read "I have a Dream" and "Letter from Birmingham Jail," but I wasn't still blown away by this. It's a collection of 14 sermons (which he revised for a written format) and an essay. I'm not sure what surprised me most. The range of his allusions and quotations is larger than I would have guessed for sermons. He quotes poets from Shakespeare to Tennyson to Dunbar and philosophers from Plato to Schopenhauer(!). I probably should...more
Two words: Read It.
Whether an agnostic, devout protestant, curious catholic or even aethist... this is the quintiessential compilation of sermons and speeches by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Read and discover why we celebrate this man. A visionary beyond words, yet it is through words that we understand the greatest realms of his imagination.
Im still an agnostic, but after reading I feel like ive finally discovered the power of "the word" and gained respect for a man of his time but who was o...more
Whether an agnostic, devout protestant, curious catholic or even aethist... this is the quintiessential compilation of sermons and speeches by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Read and discover why we celebrate this man. A visionary beyond words, yet it is through words that we understand the greatest realms of his imagination.
Im still an agnostic, but after reading I feel like ive finally discovered the power of "the word" and gained respect for a man of his time but who was o...more
MLK: The Best Christian Preacher that You're not Reading.
Martin Luther King, Jr. in Strength to Love has a produced a collection of sermons that is just as good as anything you would read by Tim Keller, John Piper, or DA Carson. In this book King expertly weaves biblical teaching and social consciousness as only a master preacher and social visionary can. While his politics do . . .
CLIFF HANGER!
Read my full review this Friday at http://fatoolblog.blogspot.com/
Martin Luther King, Jr. in Strength to Love has a produced a collection of sermons that is just as good as anything you would read by Tim Keller, John Piper, or DA Carson. In this book King expertly weaves biblical teaching and social consciousness as only a master preacher and social visionary can. While his politics do . . .
CLIFF HANGER!
Read my full review this Friday at http://fatoolblog.blogspot.com/
Aug 06, 2011
Keith
added it
Definitely one of the best books i've read. Most of the writings come from MLK's sermons and focus on the call to a new way of dealing with evil. Most of MLK's message has been lost in modern times. We focus on his achievements for the civil rights movement, which were great. His main emphasis was on transforming love and living according to the principles of the kingdom of God. This is still an unpopular message in most churches today.
I originally read this to discuss with a friend, and found myself agreeing with much of what Dr. King was saying... in some surprising areas: Many of the warnings Dr. King gave to both the Caucasian and African-American church groups of his day (such as cautions against greed, myopathy, and corruption, and warnings to pursue both holiness AND social justice simultaneously) are still very needed today.
I am not one for sermons outside of church, but these are more like sermons you'd here at an Ivy League school! Honestly, I'm more of a Malcolm X kind of girl, but the way this man writes is simply genius and cannot and should not be ignored. I know we all talk about him, have viewed his speeches, and heard his voice, but reading him is an entirely unique experience that you won't regret.
This is not a book to be read, but an object to be kept close by, like a dictionary or a glass of water. I will return to it time and again, I'm sure. Stunning in its simplicity. Radiant in its power.
When it comes to legends, it's so important to not rely on secondhand information but to go straight to the source. If you have to choose one to get to know MLK, I think this should be it.
When it comes to legends, it's so important to not rely on secondhand information but to go straight to the source. If you have to choose one to get to know MLK, I think this should be it.
A book that truly has changed my life. The conviction of the truth that King writes about will encourage the reader to dig deeper when walking through the trenches of life. The truth that with every step of the way as my Savior Jesus Christ continued through this His life accused, tortured, and unaccepted by men...we all must always continue with the stregth to love man, despite himself.
I am ashamed to say that this is the first time I have ever read anything written by Dr. King. After visiting his memorial in DC, I got this urge to get to know him better. A member of my church suggested that I read Strength to Love and I am so glad I did. The movies, media coverage, all do not get to the mind of the man like this book. I suggest we ALL read it and read it again.
I read this book in Africa, it was life changing. Martin Luther King, Jr. was not only an amazing leader for the African American community's fight for social justice, he also offers so much wisdom for all of us with words of guidance in love, faith, hope, and strength. He challenged me to become a thinking Christian, not just a following one.
MLK Jr's sermons inspire as he examines fear, faith, social justice, the nature of God and the nature of man (the language is male, so I reflect that here, knowing the sermons are for all people), and the call to love. One tour de force after another, and a book I bet all my preaching MDiv friends would especially appreciate.
This book helps me in tough times. It's no surprise that Martin Luther King is eloquent - but I had not realized until reading this collection of sermons that he was also such an intellectual. These are amazing pieces.
Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend. --Martin Luther King Jr.
Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend. --Martin Luther King Jr.
Jan 14, 2011
Stephen
added it
Check out "On Being a Good Neighbor," an awesome meditation on and interpretation of the Parable of the Good Samaritan in the Book of Luke. A worthy read for anybody interested in thinking about what it means to see beyond the "external accidents of race, religion, and nationality," glimpsing the essence of the other instead.
What an amazing collection. It made me appreciate King's sermons even more to see them in print. Really, it's easy to miss how carefully constructed they are until you see them written out. More important than his speech writing skills, King's messages of tolerance, peace, and love are still extremely relevant and inspiring (I think most will agree, there's still a lot more work to be done in those departments).
Quite simply: This is one of those books where every single sentence is a philosophical work of genius. You could read just one line and ponder its meaning all day. A very clever and insightful piece of work, written by a great man generations ahead of his time.
This book is a collection of Dr. King's sermons about the power of love and nonviolence. Dr. King persuaded me that nonviolence is a powerful tool to achieve social change, justice, and reconciliation. His writing is extremely inspiring, and you can truly hear his intellectual intelligence as well as his intelligence of the heart through these sermons. I do still believe that he was on another level than most people. It takes real strength and a true connection to humanity and the divine (whatev...more
This man is just as amazing a writer as he was a speaker. These sermons are incredible. And they are some of the best and most eloquent musings I have ever read on love, acceptance, and what it means to treat all men as brothers.
StL is King at his best in a format not well suited to him, as he indicates in his preface. What we know of King we mostly know from his March on Washington or perhaps from excerpts of his Holt Street Address. These sermons are the backbone of his early and middle career and also deserve attention, since they explain how walks the fine line between liberal complacency and militant extremism. The shadow of Black Power and the dread of an early death haven't crept into his thinking yet, and it is...more
This collection of sermons, and essays, conveys the true "heart of God" and essence of the mission given Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Will read over, and over, BRILLANT!!!
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| how relevant today? | 4 | 26 | Jul 26, 2012 07:15am |
Martin Luther King, Jr. was one of the pivotal leaders of the American civil rights movement. King was a Baptist minister, one of the few leadership roles available to black men at the time. He became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955–1956) and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (1957), serving as its first president. His ef...more
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“One day we will learn that the heart can never be totally right when the head is totally wrong”
—
73 people liked it
“One of the grat tragedies of life is that men seldom bridge the gulf between practice and profession, between doing and saying. A persistent schizophrenia leaves so many of us tragically divided against ourselves. On the one hand, we proudly profess certain sublime and noble principles, but on the other hand, we sadly practise the very antithesis of these principles. How often are our lives characterised by a high blood pressure of creeds and an anaemia of deeds! We talk eloquently about our commitment to the principles of Christianity, and yet our lives are saturated with the practices of paganism. We proclaim our devotion to democracy, but we sadly practise the very opposite of the democratic creed. We talk passionately about peace, and at the same time we assiduously prepare for war. We make our fervent pleas for the high road of justice, and then we tread unflinchingly the low road of injustice. This strange dichotomy, this agonising gulf between the ought and the is, represents the tragic theme of man's earthly pilgrimage.”
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52 people liked it
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Nov 13, 2010 06:19pm