But is worth the time to better understand African American theology in the first 3 4ths of the 20th century Breaking White Supremacy Martin Luther King Jr and the Black Social Gospel A fairly difficult read and almost gave up on it It proved to be very informative about who was active in the black social gospel movement leading to MLK. 9% white life Breaking White Supremacy Martin Luther King Jr and the Black Social Gospel The Black Social Gospel And Martin Luther KingWith the commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King.

Gary John Dorrien is an American social ethicist and theologian He is the Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York and Professor of Religion at Columbia University both in New York City and the author of 18 books on ethics social theory philosophy theology politics and intellectual history. Prior to joining the faculty at Union and Columbia in 2005 Dorrien taught at Kalamazoo College in Michigan where he served as Parfet Distinguished Professor and as Dean of Stetson Chapel. An Episcopal priest he has taught as the Paul E Raither Distinguished Scholar at Trinity College in Hartford Connecticut and as Horace De Y Lentz Visiting Professor at Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge Massachusetts. of the black social gospel movement Breaking White Supremacy Martin Luther King Jr and the Black Social Gospel Dorrien s second volume in his history of the Black Social Gospel is not as strong as the first volume That is partly because so much in the first volume is a revelation learning about people ideas and movements that one was unlikely to be well acquainted with before This volume covers familiar ground. The opening chapters lay the groundwork of connecting the DuBois generation to the King generation so those chapters are like the first volume with good introductions to Mordecai Johnson Benjamin Mays Howard Thurman and Adam Clayton Powell Jr I thought that the King chapters dragged on particularly because I ve read better accounts from both historians and religious scholars These chapters didn t really break any new ground though they did a better job of interpreting King in light of this long tradition and set up his abiding theological influence. The final chapter is on the initial development of Black Liberation Theology and then closes with the spotlight on Pauli Murray as a figure on the fringes of the story told throughout the book Dorrien presents her as a model for what would come in Mainline Christianity an all are welcome version of the social gospel with a feminist sensibility and a passionate commitment to renewing the civil rights movement I ve been wanting to know about Murray for a while and this gave me but also deepened my hunger to read about her. Dorrien doesn t plan a third volume but there really could be a third discussing developments in Black Theology since the 1970 s Breaking White Supremacy Martin Luther King Jr and the Black Social Gospel This is a very thorough book which provides in a way a number of terrific mini biographies of key Black leaders in the 20th century It may be too much for you but I would recommend you take it bit by bit Even reading just 200 pages will be worth it Breaking White Supremacy Martin Luther King Jr and the Black Social Gospel This volume is a followup to Dorrien s The New Abolition W E B Du Bois and the Black Social Gospel and continues his research and comprehensive overview of the history of the black social gospel As with the earlier volume this is a dense book full of great information that is at times difficult to read Jr several excellent books have explored King s mission and achievement Among the most thoughtful studies of King is this new book by Gary Dorrien Breaking White Supremacy Martin Luther King Jr and the Black Social Gospel The book explores the Black Social Gospel Movement in depth and shows its influence on King Surprisingly the Black Social Gospel has received relatively little detailed prior study Dorrien s earlier study The New Abolition traces the influence of earlier thinkers in the movement on W. B DuBois Dorrien the Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary has a background in social activism and has written widely cross cutting the fields of ethics social theory theology philosophy politics and history These subjects all are in play in Breaking White Supremacy Dorrien is heavily influenced in his thinking by post Kantian German idealism which he regards as the greatest intellectual movement of the modern world This philosophical approach heightened the book s interest for me. This book is long difficult and at times difficult to follow It succeeds in its aim of showing the importance of the Black Social Gospel Movement and is an inspiration to read Dorrien focuses on the life and work of six individuals in Black Social Gospel Mordecai Johnson Benjamin Mays Howard Thurman Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Martin Luther King Jr and Pauli Murray Dorrien offers detailed discussions of their lives works and influences on each other The work of King is at the center of the book and receives the most attention. The social gospel movement of Walter Rauschenbusch and his followers has received considerable academic attention but the Black Social Gospel is far less known Defining the movement precisely is difficult but Dorrien offers the following summary. The full fledged black social gospel stood for social justice religion and modern critical consciousness It combined an emphasis on black dignity and personhood with protest activism for racial justice a comprehensive social justice agenda an insistence that authentic Christian faith is incompatible with racial prejudice an emphasis on the social teaching of Jesus and an acceptance of modern scholarship and social consciousness p 3 Dorrien argues that Black Social Gospel was critical to King s thought and to his actions as leader of the Civil Rights Movement Different scholars have taken different aproaches to King s thought with some tending to downplay the philosophical doctrine of personalism he learned during his graduate study Commendably Dorrien stresses the continuity between the Black Social Gospel influence on King and the philosophy he learned The book stresses the earlier and perhaps fundamental Black Social Gospel because its influence pervaded King s life and is probably less well known than the philosophy of personalism. Of the six figures Dorrien discusses the first three were born to hard lives of Southern poverty and struggled to work themselves up to academic and theological distinction Each of the three were direct influences on King Johnson was president of Howard University and had an important role in introducing King to the thought of Gandhi Mays was the president of Morehouse College where King took his undergraduate degree and a lifelong mentor Thurman was a lecturer preacher and writer with a profound sense of mysticism to go with his commitment to the poor and the downtrodden I found the discussion of these three individuals the most fascinating part of this book as Dorrien explores their lives and writings I wanted to learn and read about Mays and in particular about Thurman At a key point in his life Thurman studied with the Quaker philosopher and mystic Rufus Jones at Haverford College I didn t know anything about Rufus Jones but Dorrien s discussion made me want to learn about him Thurman wrote a book titled Jesus and the Disinherited that King loved together with other books of a broader mystical tenor Dorrien shows he is a writer worth knowing Thurman was less an activist than others in the Black Social Gospel Movement but he supported activism Dorrien offers this wonderful quote from Thurman. Don t ask what the world needs Ask what makes you come alive and go do it Because what the world needs is people who have come alive Dorrien p 162 Following the discussion of these three Black Social Gospel pioneers Dorrien offers a lengthy discussion of Adam Clayton Powell Jr who served as Congressman from Harlem for 20 years and whose checkered career made him a rival to King There was much to Powell that I learned from Dorrien in terms of his contribution to activism and to themes from the Black Social Gospel. Martin Luther King s work is at the heart of this book and is discussed in two lengthy chapters The book describes King s thought and the influence of Black Social Gospel and personalistic idealism Much of the discussion of King however involves a recounting of his career and activism that can be found in many other studies. The final chapter of the book discusses black theology in the person of James Cone and other thinkers The key figure in this section however is Pauli Murray who had a long brilliant career as an activist attorney scholar and minister and is only recently receiving the attention she deserves. While the remaining figures in the book influenced or were contemporaneous with King Murray particularly late in her life drew on King when she entered the clergy and attempted to expound and expand upon his work in the Black Social Gospel. Dorrien s book offers a moving inspiring account of the Black Social Gospel movement both in its influence on King and in its own account Dorrien concludes that the Black Social Gospel played a key role in creating America s greatest liberation movement and played a large role in carrying it out And it remains the basis on which many hold fast to the dream of the Beloved Community p 504 I found much to learn from this book. Robin Friedman Breaking White Supremacy Martin Luther King Jr and the Black Social Gospel

Breaking White Supremacy: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Black Social Gospel By Gary J. Dorrien

0300205619

9780300205619

English

632

Hardcover

This magisterial follow up to The New Abolition a Grawemeyer Award winner tells the crucial second chapter in the black social gospel s history The civil rights movement was one of the most searing developments in modern American history It abounded with noble visions resounded with magnificent rhetoric and ended in nightmarish despair It won a few legislative victories and had a profound impact on U. soared so high that he tends to overwhelm anything associated with him Yet the tradition that best describes him and other leaders of the civil rights movement has been strangely overlooked In his latest book Gary Dorrien continues to unearth the heyday and legacy of the black social gospel a tradition with a shimmering history a martyred central figure and enduring relevance today This part of the story centers around King and the mid twentieth century black church leaders who embraced the progressive justice oriented internationalist social gospel from the beginning of their careers and fulfilled it inspiring and leading America s greatest liberation movement Breaking White Supremacy Martin Luther King Jr and the Black Social Gospel.

: Lots of theology and philosophy foreign to me was discussed which gives me a desire to learn of both disciplines. This was a good read in my search for understanding of the process of reconciliation as it applies to my 99. S society but failed to break white supremacy The symbol of the movement Martin Luther King Jr.Incredibly detailed analysis.E