Dissertation of Martin Luther King, Jr. (1955)

[Ronny Koch]

Talk about your affirmative action degrees...

During his third year of doctoral work at Boston University,
Martin Luther King wrote Crozer Theological Seminaryís George
Davis, his former advisor, about his progress in graduate
school. He disclosed that he had begun to research his
dissertation and that the late Edgar Brightman, his first mentor
at Boston, and his current dissertation advisor, L. Harold
DeWolf, were both ëëquite impressedíí with his course work. ëëSo
far, my Dissertation title is: ëA comparison of the conception
of God in the thinking of Paul Tillich and Henry Nelson Wieman.í
I am finding the study quite fascinating. If there are no basic
interruptions, I hope to complete it by the end of the coming
summeríí (Papers 2:224). Davis commended King on selecting ëëan
excellent dissertation topicíí and expressed his confidence that
King would ëëdo a good piece of work with itíí (Papers 2:225).

King passed his final doctoral examination in February 1954, and
his dissertation outline was approved by Boston Universityís
graduate school on 9 April, shortly before he accepted the call
to pastor Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. Kingís letter of
acceptance to Dexterís congregation specified that he be
ëëgranted an allowance of time to complete my work at Boston
University,íí though he would be ëëable to fill the pulpit at
least once or twice per month.íí He also asked that the church
cover his expenses during the completion of his dissertation,
ëëincluding traveling expensesíí (Papers 2:260).

King chose to focus his dissertation research on Tillich and
Wieman due to their status as influential religious thinkers and
as representatives of divergent views on the nature of God.
Kingís comparison of Tillichís and Wiemanís concepts of God
reflected his adherence to personalism, which proceeds from the
belief that God possesses a personality and can therefore have a
relationship with human beings. Kingís analysis of Tillichís and
Wiemanís theological concepts as ëëunsatisfactoryíí and
ëëinadequate a philosophical and religious world-viewsíí
followed from his belief that God was a living force,
ëëresponsive to the deepest yearnings of the human heart; this
God both evokes and answers prayeríí (Papers 2:532; 533; 512).
He found that both Wieman and Tillich rejected the conception of
a personal God, which resulted in ëëa rejection of the
rationality, goodness, and love of God in the full sense of the
words. An impersonal ëbeing-itselfí or ëcreative eventí cannot
be rational or good, for these attributes are of personalityíí
(Papers 2:506). In the end, King pointed out the two
theologiansí views of God are not ëëbasically soundíí because
they ëërender real religious experience impossibleíí (Papers
2:532).

Recent scholarship by the Martin Luther King, Jr., Papers
Project of the King Institute has revealed that as a student at
Crozer and Boston, King frequently appropriated the words of
other writers without proper attribution. Volumes I and II of
The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. have demonstrated that
while his bibliographies contained the authors and books that he
drew on in his own compositions, his papers often lacked the
footnotes and quotation marks that identified his use of these
sources in his text. His habit of plagiarizing othersí work,
intentionally or not, can be found in the various drafts of his
dissertation. King borrowed from several secondary sources
without proper citation, including a dissertation written by
fellow Crozer student Jack Boozer for DeWolf three years
earlier, and a review of Tillichís Systematic Theology written
by one of Kingís former professors.

Kingís professors did not detect this pattern in his
scholarship. After King submitted the first draft of his
dissertation, DeWolf filed a report observing that he had sent
his specific criticisms, ëëmost of them formal or minor,íí to
the candidate. DeWolf reminded King to submit an abstract of the
dissertation ëëearlyíí to allow proper time for revision and to
clearly set forth his thesis statement (Papers 2:333). That
said, DeWolf projected that the finished version would be an
ëëexcellent and useful scholarly achievementíí (Papers 2:334).
S. Paul Schilling, the dissertationís second reader, approved
the draft as well.

King turned in the final version of his dissertation by the 15
April 1955 deadline, returning to Boston for his oral defense.
Graduate faculty at Boston University voted to confer the PhD on
King in May 1955; however, due to financial difficulties and
Coretta Scott Kingís pregnancy, he was unable to attend
graduation.

Sources

Carson et al., ëëMartin Luther King, Jr., as Scholar: A
Reexamination of His Theological Writings,íí Journal of American
History 78 (June 1991): 93ñ105.

Davis to King, 7 December 1953, in Papers 2:225ñ226.

DeWolf, First Readerís Report, 26 February 1955, in Papers
2:333ñ334.

Introduction, in Papers 1:49ñ50.

Introduction, in Papers 2:22ñ26.

King, ëëA Comparison of the Conceptions of God in the Thinking
of Paul Tillich and Henry Nelson Wieman,íí 15 April 1955, in
Papers 2:339ñ544.

King to Davis, 1 December 1953, in Papers 2:223ñ224.

King to Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, 14 April 1954, in Papers
2:260.

King Papers Project, ëëThe Student Papers of Martin Luther King,
Jr.: A Summary Statement on Research,íí Journal of American
History 78 (June 1991): 23ñ31.

Schilling, Second Readerís Report, 26 February 1955, in Papers
2:334ñ335.

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