Strength to Love by Martin Luther King is a prophetic text and a primer in the principles and practice of nonviolence. Fifty years since its publication, the book is significant as an anthology of his sermons, delivered over a span of a lifetime, marked with epochal struggles. Yes, Sermons intended for a discerning ear rather than the reading eye. In the preface, Martin Luther King admits his reluctance to have the sermons printed, yet accepts, with the hope that the message should come alive to speak with the readers.
Undoubtedly, the speaker is magnanimous enough and his venture into printing sermons is a successful one, as the voice could be heard when one starts to read the discourse consciously. A conscious reading leaves no shadows between the power of his oratory and the power of the text in the book Strength to Love. The text immortalizes his speech, even as it continues to inspire humanity, for to love is human; and appending strength to love invokes courage and a rise above the ordinary.
Martin Luther King is a product of his circumstances and consciousness, a fact revealed throughout the book. In the book, one finds sermons he had preached during and after the bus protest in Montgomery, Alabama; three sermons while he was in Georgia jails; few sermons he preached to congregations throughout the nation in the days of grave crises, clouded by social evils of his time. His unassuming nature manifests through an acknowledgement to his parents, who gave him an inspiring example of the Strength to Love.
Martin Luther King appeals to the readers as an author, as an accomplished reader, as an Orator, as a persuasive speaker with a gift of a heart which voiced the right words and verses. Repetitive and rhythmical in few places, yet his words retain emotive charge till the last. The ideals are lofty, the text is of undying quality, and the spirit is powerful – power drawn from the depth of his commitment and the strength of his courage.
Martin Luther King outlines his political ideology, as he explores the conflicts between totalitarianism and democracy, capitalism and communism, as forms of governance. The debates surrounding various other topics – colonialism, materialism and humanism also find place in the book. The philosophy of fatalism and the framework of freedom steer his dialogue. Slavery was inhumane for he considered nothing more tragic than to be divorced from family, language and roots into the drain of resentment and bitterness. And Freedom, to him, is the act of deliberating, deciding, and responding within our destined nature.
Lines from the book reverberate ceaselessly as they have universal applicability and timeless relevance. King delves into the power of Man, the human spirit – which, according to him, transcends time and space. Asserting that ‘man is much more than a tiny vagary of whirling electrons’, he ascertains that the abiding expression of man’s higher nature lie in his freedom, his ability to reason, his power of memory and his gift of imagination.
One also finds timeless quotes of Ralph Waldo Emerson in the sermons. One of the significant quotes is found in the chapter on the ‘Three Dimensions of a Complete Life’. It reads “If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mousetrap than his neighbor, tho’ he build his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door”. Appreciating human excellence, learning from experiences and traversing through philosophical thought seems to be in the trails of King’s nobility which can be gathered from the references to Shakespeare, Beethoven, Michelangelo, Bach, Nietzsche, Sartre, Tolstoi, Henry David Thoreau, Mahatma Gandhi, et al.
The title Strength to Love can be viewed anti-thesis to the title of a chapter in the book ‘Antidotes for Fear’. He condenses this idea in this particular chapter and in his lines ‘hate is rooted in fear and the only cure for fear-hate is love’. He contextualizes this in the political situation of the U.S. and recognizes that not arms, but love, understanding and organized goodwill can cast out fear. King stated ‘Only disarmament, based on good faith, will make trust a living reality’. This certainly ushered new thinking in international relations and the own problems of his American brotherhood, the problems of racial injustice and social segregation.
The message throughout the book is lucid. For an appraisal, King, through his words, attained the eloquence of his speech for his tone echoes unceasingly. Though King seems to be admonishing, his words reveal the substance of one’s being, the purpose of one’s doing and the context of one’s living. Through his writing, he offered special notes for young people to ponder and reflect upon. The human and emotional dimensions of his writing make the readers conform to become transformed nonconformists, as Martin Luther King envisioned individuals to be.
References from The Bible and spiritual connotations in few sermons also strike another chord – of the ability of Martin Luther King to weave Biblical teachings and social consciousness into a remarkable Social Gospel.
The books ends with the chapter on ‘Pilgrimage to Nonviolence’ where in he fondly records his pilgrimage to India – as a privilege, where his skepticism concerning the power of love diminished gradually; and as an intellectual accord, as he resolved his ideas on Nonviolence – long after he gave intellectual assent. Preaching excerpts on love and nonviolence, in the conclusion, Martin Luther King clarifies to the readers that he is not a doctrinaire pacifist but embraces realistic pacifism, and gives a call for modern nations to find alternatives to war and destruction. King averred "Only through an inner spiritual transformation do we gain the strength to fight vigorously the evils of the world in a humble and loving spirit."
To end with, here’s the quote, which invited me to read this classic:
“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, “Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.”
