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Armchair Theologians
Martin Luther King Jr. for Armchair Theologians
In this interesting and important introduction to the life and thought of Martin Luther King Jr., theologian Rufus Burrow explores King's life as well as his thinking and activism. Burrow addresses those who see King as only a social activist by showing how his studies, particularly his theological studies, influenced, shaped, and transformed the activist path he pursued during his public life. This book, with dozens of illustrations by artist Ron Hill, is written for a broad audience. It explores King's legacy, the continuing importance of his work, and it will serve as an excellent introduction to King's life and thinking. Written by experts but designed for the novice, the Armchair series provides accurate, concise, and witty overviews of some of the most profound moments and theologians in Christian history. These books are essential supplements for first-time encounters with primary texts, lucid refreshers for scholars and clergy, and enjoyable reads for the theologically curious.
208 pages, Paperback
First published April 6, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 20, 2026
Martin Luther King, Jr. For Armchair Theologians
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. For that reason alone, readers might be interested in learning about King. This 2009 book, part of a series called "Armchair Theologians" about various Christian thinkers is an excellent place to start. The author, Rufus Burrow, Jr., is Indiana Professor of Christian Thought and Professor of Theological Social Ethics at Christian Theological Seminary, Indianapolis. Burrow has written and lectured widely about King and about the philosophical movement of Personalism often associated with King. In this book, Burrow succeeds admirably in making King's thought accessible to readers without a background in philosophy or theology and without a detailed knowledge of American history. The book is written for high school or undergraduate use, but it can also be read with benefit by others, including by those with knowledge of King. The book includes illustrations by artist Ron Hill which capture a great deal of the essence of King and which enhance Burrow's text.
Burrow focuses on King as a thinker and as a man of ideas. He wants to counter a commonly accepted view that sees King largely or only as a social activist. Thus, his book argues that King was "a man of serious philosophical, theological, and ethical ideas who was intentional about living and applying these in his efforts to bring about the beloved community -- that is, the world as God would have it." Burrow also discusses some of King's activism, including his leadership of the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the campaigns in Birmingham and Selma. He discusses King's opposition to the Vietnam War, and the reasons King gave for his opposition, and his focus on poverty, militarism, and materialism in the last three years of his life.
Some of King's best-known activities receive little or no mention in this book such as the 1963 March on Washington with the "I have a Dream" speech. It is a loss that Burrow does not give attention to this speech. In addition, the book doesn't describe King's activities in support of the strike of the sanitation workers in Memphis at the time of his assassination in April 1968.
The book begins with a brief survey of American racial history, beginning with the slave trade, and continuing through the Constitution, the Civil War and Reconstruction, and the decision in Plessy v. Ferguson. Burrow emphasizes what he sees as the heavily racist character of American society as a backdrop to the work of King.
Burrow explores King's family background and early life showing how it helped King become who he was. He finds that King's background laid the groundwork for the philosophy and theology he would later study and adopt and put to practical use in his Civil Rights work.
Burrow discusses King's studies and the lessons he took from them about God, the dignity of human persons and about an objective moral order. Burrow discusses briefly but well some of the thoughts and thinkers that influenced King, including, perhaps surprisingly, Hegel, the American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, the Social Gospel movement, and, most of all the Personalism, taught at Boston University where King earned his PhD. A subsequent chapter of the book continues with intellectual influences on King's philosophy of nonviolence by exploring the thought of Gandhi.
When Burrow turns to King's activism, he emphasizes the ground laid by King's predecessors and, in particular, the work of women in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Burrow's discussion of the Birmingham campaign emphasizes King's decision to get children involved and the consequences and controversy resulting from this decision.
Burrow gives substantial attention to King's activities following the enactment of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. King took his civil rights campaign north and broadened it to include the poor and to protest against the Vietnam War. Many people at the time and today disapproved of the activities of the later King. Burrow, in the company of other scholars, sees them as at the heart of King's mission. Burrow argues that if King had lived he might well have joined in the feminist movement and in the movement for gay rights. I think it might have been better to spend more time exploring King as he was without speculating about where he might have gone in years that were denied him.
Burrow emphasizes King as a religious thinker and as an advocate for love and justice for all. He concludes:
"My hope is that these armchair reflections on Martin Luther King will inspire readers to delve much more deeply into the study of King, particularly his sermons, speeches and interviews. King was truly a man of ideas who was committed to social activism as a way to create openings for the development of the beloved community. Moreover, if we are to learn anything from this book, let it be to live our faith more boldly in every area of life, for no area of human existence is exempt from the relentless care and compassion of the God of the Hebrew prophets and Jesus Christ."
Burrow offers an inspiring introduction to King. It should encourage readers to explore further and to think for themselves about King and his mission.
Robin Friedman
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. For that reason alone, readers might be interested in learning about King. This 2009 book, part of a series called "Armchair Theologians" about various Christian thinkers is an excellent place to start. The author, Rufus Burrow, Jr., is Indiana Professor of Christian Thought and Professor of Theological Social Ethics at Christian Theological Seminary, Indianapolis. Burrow has written and lectured widely about King and about the philosophical movement of Personalism often associated with King. In this book, Burrow succeeds admirably in making King's thought accessible to readers without a background in philosophy or theology and without a detailed knowledge of American history. The book is written for high school or undergraduate use, but it can also be read with benefit by others, including by those with knowledge of King. The book includes illustrations by artist Ron Hill which capture a great deal of the essence of King and which enhance Burrow's text.
Burrow focuses on King as a thinker and as a man of ideas. He wants to counter a commonly accepted view that sees King largely or only as a social activist. Thus, his book argues that King was "a man of serious philosophical, theological, and ethical ideas who was intentional about living and applying these in his efforts to bring about the beloved community -- that is, the world as God would have it." Burrow also discusses some of King's activism, including his leadership of the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the campaigns in Birmingham and Selma. He discusses King's opposition to the Vietnam War, and the reasons King gave for his opposition, and his focus on poverty, militarism, and materialism in the last three years of his life.
Some of King's best-known activities receive little or no mention in this book such as the 1963 March on Washington with the "I have a Dream" speech. It is a loss that Burrow does not give attention to this speech. In addition, the book doesn't describe King's activities in support of the strike of the sanitation workers in Memphis at the time of his assassination in April 1968.
The book begins with a brief survey of American racial history, beginning with the slave trade, and continuing through the Constitution, the Civil War and Reconstruction, and the decision in Plessy v. Ferguson. Burrow emphasizes what he sees as the heavily racist character of American society as a backdrop to the work of King.
Burrow explores King's family background and early life showing how it helped King become who he was. He finds that King's background laid the groundwork for the philosophy and theology he would later study and adopt and put to practical use in his Civil Rights work.
Burrow discusses King's studies and the lessons he took from them about God, the dignity of human persons and about an objective moral order. Burrow discusses briefly but well some of the thoughts and thinkers that influenced King, including, perhaps surprisingly, Hegel, the American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, the Social Gospel movement, and, most of all the Personalism, taught at Boston University where King earned his PhD. A subsequent chapter of the book continues with intellectual influences on King's philosophy of nonviolence by exploring the thought of Gandhi.
When Burrow turns to King's activism, he emphasizes the ground laid by King's predecessors and, in particular, the work of women in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Burrow's discussion of the Birmingham campaign emphasizes King's decision to get children involved and the consequences and controversy resulting from this decision.
Burrow gives substantial attention to King's activities following the enactment of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. King took his civil rights campaign north and broadened it to include the poor and to protest against the Vietnam War. Many people at the time and today disapproved of the activities of the later King. Burrow, in the company of other scholars, sees them as at the heart of King's mission. Burrow argues that if King had lived he might well have joined in the feminist movement and in the movement for gay rights. I think it might have been better to spend more time exploring King as he was without speculating about where he might have gone in years that were denied him.
Burrow emphasizes King as a religious thinker and as an advocate for love and justice for all. He concludes:
"My hope is that these armchair reflections on Martin Luther King will inspire readers to delve much more deeply into the study of King, particularly his sermons, speeches and interviews. King was truly a man of ideas who was committed to social activism as a way to create openings for the development of the beloved community. Moreover, if we are to learn anything from this book, let it be to live our faith more boldly in every area of life, for no area of human existence is exempt from the relentless care and compassion of the God of the Hebrew prophets and Jesus Christ."
Burrow offers an inspiring introduction to King. It should encourage readers to explore further and to think for themselves about King and his mission.
Robin Friedman
July 31, 2016
Martin Luther King, Jr. is my favorite figure from American history. I never, ever tire of reading about his life and times, and not a day goes by that I don't think about him and his work. This wonderful (and short!) book is about King's theology: the people and philosophies that influenced his work as a civil rights and human rights activist. Like King, I believe in the philosophy of Personalism as it is expressed through Christianity (Pope John Paul II was big on this, too). Unlike King, I have been unable to embrace Gandhian nonviolence (ahimsa). Not for lack of trying (although I did manage it once!)
As fascinated as I am by King's earliest work (the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Birmingham and Selma movements) it is King's later thinking on what he called the triple evils of racism, poverty, and militarism that most interest me. Dr. King senses, as other historical have, that there is a common bond between all people, and that we are bound in "the inescapable web of mutuality." I was also intrigued by the influence of Hegel's 'total truth' philosophy on Dr. King, and I humbly submit that this is something that I've discovered on my own: there are many truths, but one Truth. Because a thing is true does not mean that it is a complete truth; there are a lot of truths out there, but one Truth (which Dr. King called moral law, and I think of as Natural Law).
But, before I wax too epistemological...I enjoyed this book very much. MLKJr. was a great man. I will forever wonder what he would have become had he lived. He is an inspiration, and a challenge, to me.
As fascinated as I am by King's earliest work (the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Birmingham and Selma movements) it is King's later thinking on what he called the triple evils of racism, poverty, and militarism that most interest me. Dr. King senses, as other historical have, that there is a common bond between all people, and that we are bound in "the inescapable web of mutuality." I was also intrigued by the influence of Hegel's 'total truth' philosophy on Dr. King, and I humbly submit that this is something that I've discovered on my own: there are many truths, but one Truth. Because a thing is true does not mean that it is a complete truth; there are a lot of truths out there, but one Truth (which Dr. King called moral law, and I think of as Natural Law).
But, before I wax too epistemological...I enjoyed this book very much. MLKJr. was a great man. I will forever wonder what he would have become had he lived. He is an inspiration, and a challenge, to me.
January 15, 2017
This book in the Armchair Theologians series is a quick read over a Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday weekend. This book is not an exhaustive biography of King's life, but rather focuses on the interplay of his theology and his life. For this reason, the author only touches on the history of racism and the social rights movement as necessary in the course of explaining King's theology. Nevertheless, this work is a good primer on these subjects. There were, however, some confusions in the book.
Confusions of writing
In order to give a backdrop for racism in America, the author dedicated the first chapter to a brief overview of slavery. Unfortunately, there are several incorrect or exaggerated descriptions of slavery and reconstruction. The author fails to recognize the complicated nature of slavery in the United States, though he does demonstrate, later in the book, that he is capable of recognizing complicated historical situations. He is much more gracious with King's treatment of women, stating that, "He was the victim of blindness caused by socialization in a patriarchal system."
The author also gives a confusing description of King's early life in regard to his theology. He describes King's rejection of core teachings of Christianity and then states that "These and other childhood and adolescent experiences and ideas prepared King’s mind for his encounter with the liberal theological ideas he studied in college, seminary, and during doctoral studies." Though the sentence doesn't seem to be phrased to say such, it appears that King was primed to accept rather than combat liberal ideas.
The next confusing or possibly concerning statement comes when the author describes King's time in an "interracial Intercollegiate Council" saying that, "From that experience he learned that not all whites were as racist as many of those he had encountered." This is a loaded statement similar to asking, When did you stop beating your wife? It is unclear whether this statement on racism was the sentiment of King or just the author.
Confusions of theology
In the introduction, the author describes King as a theist, then, throughout the remainder of the book, uses the description Christian. It would seem that theist would be more apropos given the statement that, "he doubted the truth of the literal bodily resurrection of Jesus." Though, it would seem that King's beliefs were a bit fluid in that he believed in an objective moral order as well as "both-and" philosophy. Here, King failed to realize that either there is an objective moral order or there is not. Also, King was a proponent of the liberal social gospel, but he did not buy in to the "notion that human beings are capable of reaching a sinless state." Though, in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, King propounded "a process of self-purification." Some of this confusion is likely secondary to his non-literal interpretation of Scripture. It is stated that, "His experience at Morehouse College helped to liberate his thinking about the Bible." Due to this, King acquired parts of his theology from Hinduism via Gandhi.
Despite the confusion, King was undoubtedly an instrumental figure in the acquisition of social rights for all races in the United States. This is due to the fact that, as the author put it, "he chose to be morally correct, rather than politically correct."
Confusions of writing
In order to give a backdrop for racism in America, the author dedicated the first chapter to a brief overview of slavery. Unfortunately, there are several incorrect or exaggerated descriptions of slavery and reconstruction. The author fails to recognize the complicated nature of slavery in the United States, though he does demonstrate, later in the book, that he is capable of recognizing complicated historical situations. He is much more gracious with King's treatment of women, stating that, "He was the victim of blindness caused by socialization in a patriarchal system."
The author also gives a confusing description of King's early life in regard to his theology. He describes King's rejection of core teachings of Christianity and then states that "These and other childhood and adolescent experiences and ideas prepared King’s mind for his encounter with the liberal theological ideas he studied in college, seminary, and during doctoral studies." Though the sentence doesn't seem to be phrased to say such, it appears that King was primed to accept rather than combat liberal ideas.
The next confusing or possibly concerning statement comes when the author describes King's time in an "interracial Intercollegiate Council" saying that, "From that experience he learned that not all whites were as racist as many of those he had encountered." This is a loaded statement similar to asking, When did you stop beating your wife? It is unclear whether this statement on racism was the sentiment of King or just the author.
Confusions of theology
In the introduction, the author describes King as a theist, then, throughout the remainder of the book, uses the description Christian. It would seem that theist would be more apropos given the statement that, "he doubted the truth of the literal bodily resurrection of Jesus." Though, it would seem that King's beliefs were a bit fluid in that he believed in an objective moral order as well as "both-and" philosophy. Here, King failed to realize that either there is an objective moral order or there is not. Also, King was a proponent of the liberal social gospel, but he did not buy in to the "notion that human beings are capable of reaching a sinless state." Though, in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, King propounded "a process of self-purification." Some of this confusion is likely secondary to his non-literal interpretation of Scripture. It is stated that, "His experience at Morehouse College helped to liberate his thinking about the Bible." Due to this, King acquired parts of his theology from Hinduism via Gandhi.
Despite the confusion, King was undoubtedly an instrumental figure in the acquisition of social rights for all races in the United States. This is due to the fact that, as the author put it, "he chose to be morally correct, rather than politically correct."
May 10, 2012
This book seeks to place the theology of Martin Luther King Jr. as one of modern liberal theology. Liberal theology robs Christ of his deity and seeks to "demythologize" the Christian faith. I believe that a Christian can see both social justice as a good work but no the promise of the gospel and still hold to traditional Christianity.
February 20, 2013
This is a great intro to MLK's theology and philosophy. While I don't agree with everything the authors stipulate as true, they accomplished their goal of painting a portrait of the famous civil rights leader and pastor. It perfectly met my research needs. It's written in a clear style with good references and the illustrations are just what a visual learner (like me) needs.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews