Rev. C. Anthony Hunt, Ph.D.
(This is the full text of the lecture delivered at the 2016 Festival of Preaching at St. Mary's Ecumenical Institute in Baltimore, MD on Saturday, April 16, 2016.)
The preaching,
public ministry and practice of public theology of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
offer us critical lenses through which we can look and see the prophetic role
of the preacher in the twenty-first century.
In as much as Dr. King was a Baptist preacher and pastor, along with
being most known in the public sphere as a Civil Rights leader, He was a public
theologian bringing to bear his theological training, upon the social
conditions of his time. For him, faith –
what we believe about God and the universe – was to be acted out in ways that
brought about not only spiritual transformation, but social transformation.
This is to say
that for King, if the church was to be the church, it would engage in prophetic
witness that would bring its spiritual, social, economic and political
resources to bear in ways that would affirm God’s love, and be truly
reconciling, redeeming, liberating and transforming.
In his preaching
and praxis of ministry, King’s own particular prophetic concerns were to
address what he deemed to be the “triplets of evil” – racism, classism
(economic inequality), and militarism (war).
His witness would spawn a religious and social movement unparalleled in
American history. The demand for racial and
social justice in the South would be the impetus for concomitant social and
political movements across a number of sectors:
·
The roots of the struggle for women’s rights
(feminism and womanism), the rights of
gays and lesbians, the rights of workers
and the disabled, and the rights of immigrants of
various hews of brown, red,
yellow and black can be traced to the prophetic stance of Dr.
King.
·
It was King who espoused a form of nonviolent
social resistance and direct action that would ultimately lead to the passage
of the Civil Rights Act (1964) and the Voting Rights Act (1965) by the Congress
of the United States.
·
The epistemological foundations of affirmative
action – however we might view it today – is rooted in King’s prophetic vision
of equality and justice throughout society.
·
The American Civil Rights movement - led by Dr.
King - served as an impetus and model of liberation and human rights movements
across the globe – in Africa, Asia, Europe, and
Central and South America.
Here, I will address the legacy of
Dr. Martin Luther King, with particular focus on ways that the preachers today might
seek to appropriate and re-appropriate prophetic preaching and praxis within the
context of 21st century realities in the church and society. This analysis will entail three parts. First, a brief overview of prophetic
preaching – what it is - will be offered.
Second, an analysis of the spiritual, social and intellectual
development of Martin Luther King, Jr. will be offered. Here the formative influences (roots) -
familial, spiritual (the church), communal, and intellectual - on King’s
thought and praxis will be examined. Who
and what in his development most influenced King? Thirdly, a brief analysis of King’s
preaching and prophetic witness will be offered with a focus on implications
for the 21st century church. What
might we glean from preaching and praxis of King as we seek to effect change
into the future?