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A Gift of Love: Sermons from Strength to Love and Other Preachings by Martin Luther King Jr.
evilchocho's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
perilous1's review against another edition
5.0
"How often are our lives characterized by a high blood pressure of creeds and an anemia of deeds!"
I'm no theologian, and my grasp of apologetics is rudimentary... but those limitations didn't even remotely impede my appreciation for these sermons.
King is widely known for his impactful speeches and oratory prowess--but at his core, he was a Reverend. The product of a multi-generational legacy of faith. And that fact informed every aspect of his convictions, actions, perspective, and literary voice. Here in these writings, he can be seen most fully in his element.
"This strange dichotomy, this agonizing gulf between the ought and the is, represents the tragic theme of man’s earthly pilgrimage."
Nuanced and skillfully crafted, these messages are rife with stirring metaphors and poignant parallels. He neither truncates nor drags out the point. Rather he holds it up and eloquently requests you examine it from different, and perhaps new angels. And he does so consistently with his signature grace and stalwart warmth.
If you want to know the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. more fully, I highly recommend adding these works to your reading list. Because the spiritual is often overlooked in history class.
"They know not what they do,' said Jesus. Blindness was their trouble; enlightenment was their need. We must recognize that Jesus was nailed to the cross not simply by sin but also by blindness. The men who cried 'Crucify him," were not bad men but rather blind men. The jeering mob that lined the roadside which led to Calvary was composed not of evil people but of blind people. They knew not what they did..."
I'm no theologian, and my grasp of apologetics is rudimentary... but those limitations didn't even remotely impede my appreciation for these sermons.
King is widely known for his impactful speeches and oratory prowess--but at his core, he was a Reverend. The product of a multi-generational legacy of faith. And that fact informed every aspect of his convictions, actions, perspective, and literary voice. Here in these writings, he can be seen most fully in his element.
"This strange dichotomy, this agonizing gulf between the ought and the is, represents the tragic theme of man’s earthly pilgrimage."
Nuanced and skillfully crafted, these messages are rife with stirring metaphors and poignant parallels. He neither truncates nor drags out the point. Rather he holds it up and eloquently requests you examine it from different, and perhaps new angels. And he does so consistently with his signature grace and stalwart warmth.
If you want to know the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. more fully, I highly recommend adding these works to your reading list. Because the spiritual is often overlooked in history class.
"They know not what they do,' said Jesus. Blindness was their trouble; enlightenment was their need. We must recognize that Jesus was nailed to the cross not simply by sin but also by blindness. The men who cried 'Crucify him," were not bad men but rather blind men. The jeering mob that lined the roadside which led to Calvary was composed not of evil people but of blind people. They knew not what they did..."
adamrshields's review
4.0
Summary: A collection of sixteen sermons, an original introduction by Coretta Scott King, and a new introduction by Raphael Warnock.
I have been slowly working through the audiobook of A Gift of Love for a couple of months. I tend to listen to a sermon about once a week as I am on a walk. I enjoy having audiobooks that I can dip into occasionally when I do not feel like anything else. Most of these sermons were compiled in 1963. And then, two more sermons were added along with a new introduction when it was re-released in the King Legacy edition. I have not looked to see which were the new sermons added.
None of the sermons in the collection are bad, but personally, the second half was more engaging than the first half. Some of King's sermons felt more like speeches instead of sermons. But most of them were clearly a sermon given to a church and were in the black theological tradition, not the progressive tradition. There is a difference in the discussion of sin and the role of hope that differs from the progressive and the black theological traditions. That is not to say that some do not merge those traditions well. But I think King was at his best in these sermons when he spoke clearly about the reality of sin in a Christian theological register. This was not fire and brimstone preaching but a clear acquaintance with the reality of how sin impacted the world. Sin was not abstract. Sin was real and it impacted people that King knew, himself included. This was also not just individual or personal sin; sin here was a system or a force, not just individual wrongdoing or animus.
But just as much as sin was real in many of these sermons, hope was also real. I understand the critique of misplaced hope or hope that ignores the day-to-day world. But that was not King's view of hope. Just as his pain at sin was real, so his hope was real. His home was bombed when his wife and infant daughter were home alone. But he had a personal spiritual encounter with Jesus not long after that still empowered him nearly a decade later when most of these sermons were written.
Many people have not read much that King wrote and primarily have only listened to a few of the more famous speeches. But there is a range that is helpful to get exposure to. If you have not read King widely, I would recommend starting with Letter from a Birmingham Jail. Then I think that Radical King is where I would recommend as a follow-up. This would probably be my fourth recommendation after Where Do We Go From Here.
I listened to this on audiobook, but the narration bothered me less, and I am unsure why. Maybe JD Jackson was just better at impersonating King's speaking than some of the other narrators of King's books. But I think it may also be that except for the Drum Major Instinct, which is in Radical King and one of his best-known speeches, many of the rest of these were much less familiar.
Originally posted on my blog at https://bookwi.se/gift-of-love/
I have been slowly working through the audiobook of A Gift of Love for a couple of months. I tend to listen to a sermon about once a week as I am on a walk. I enjoy having audiobooks that I can dip into occasionally when I do not feel like anything else. Most of these sermons were compiled in 1963. And then, two more sermons were added along with a new introduction when it was re-released in the King Legacy edition. I have not looked to see which were the new sermons added.
None of the sermons in the collection are bad, but personally, the second half was more engaging than the first half. Some of King's sermons felt more like speeches instead of sermons. But most of them were clearly a sermon given to a church and were in the black theological tradition, not the progressive tradition. There is a difference in the discussion of sin and the role of hope that differs from the progressive and the black theological traditions. That is not to say that some do not merge those traditions well. But I think King was at his best in these sermons when he spoke clearly about the reality of sin in a Christian theological register. This was not fire and brimstone preaching but a clear acquaintance with the reality of how sin impacted the world. Sin was not abstract. Sin was real and it impacted people that King knew, himself included. This was also not just individual or personal sin; sin here was a system or a force, not just individual wrongdoing or animus.
But just as much as sin was real in many of these sermons, hope was also real. I understand the critique of misplaced hope or hope that ignores the day-to-day world. But that was not King's view of hope. Just as his pain at sin was real, so his hope was real. His home was bombed when his wife and infant daughter were home alone. But he had a personal spiritual encounter with Jesus not long after that still empowered him nearly a decade later when most of these sermons were written.
Many people have not read much that King wrote and primarily have only listened to a few of the more famous speeches. But there is a range that is helpful to get exposure to. If you have not read King widely, I would recommend starting with Letter from a Birmingham Jail. Then I think that Radical King is where I would recommend as a follow-up. This would probably be my fourth recommendation after Where Do We Go From Here.
I listened to this on audiobook, but the narration bothered me less, and I am unsure why. Maybe JD Jackson was just better at impersonating King's speaking than some of the other narrators of King's books. But I think it may also be that except for the Drum Major Instinct, which is in Radical King and one of his best-known speeches, many of the rest of these were much less familiar.
Originally posted on my blog at https://bookwi.se/gift-of-love/
riaryan's review against another edition
5.0
This collection of sermons and essays are an important and timeless read
raoul_g's review against another edition
4.0
I decided it was time to learn a bit more about the ideas and teachings of Martin Luther King Jr and got myself this book. It contains 16 short essays, or maybe it would be more accurate to call them sermons (as this is what most of them initially were).
Actually, them being sermons is an important fact, as sermons are quite distinct from lectures or essays in crucial ways. I'm not gonna go into this specific distinction here though, I'm just gonna say that these are definitely some of the better sermons I heard / read, and I've heard quite a good bunch of them over the years. So what exactly is it that makes (most of) these sermons so great? First of all, King was a very intelligent man and a deep thinker. Unlike many a preacher today, he did not consider philosophy worldly, but studied it deeply and was enriched immensely by it. Theologically speaking he was also widely read and I was more than glad to see that he mentioned Paul Tillich multiple times (who I consider to be one of the most important theologians of the last century). Even though King was not afraid to to talk about Hegel, Nietzsche, essentialism and existentialism in his sermons (or at least in one of them), they have a clearness and simplicity to them. One need not have studied theology or philosophy to understand them and be enriched by them.
Another differentiating factor from other sermons is that King is not so focused solely on spiritual things such as personal salvation, the Bible or praying. His focus is mostly on the social and material condition of the people. This probably stems from a difference in his perception of the role of the church: "the church must seek to transform both individual lives and the social situation that brings to many people anguish of spirit and cruel bondage". In his context this of course meant preaching on the injustices of segregation and on the importance and efficacy of nonviolent resistance.
A recurring theme throughout all of the sermons is love. According to King, love is the only way to face the injustices of the world and through love God is manifesting himself in the world: "Above all, we must be reminded anew that God is at work in his universe. He is not outside the world looking on with a sort of cold indifference. Here on all the roads of life, he is striving in our striving."
The most impressive thing is of course the fact that King not only preached these things, but he actually lived them and was ready even to die for them. This is why he will be remembered as one who changed the course of history.
Actually, them being sermons is an important fact, as sermons are quite distinct from lectures or essays in crucial ways. I'm not gonna go into this specific distinction here though, I'm just gonna say that these are definitely some of the better sermons I heard / read, and I've heard quite a good bunch of them over the years. So what exactly is it that makes (most of) these sermons so great? First of all, King was a very intelligent man and a deep thinker. Unlike many a preacher today, he did not consider philosophy worldly, but studied it deeply and was enriched immensely by it. Theologically speaking he was also widely read and I was more than glad to see that he mentioned Paul Tillich multiple times (who I consider to be one of the most important theologians of the last century). Even though King was not afraid to to talk about Hegel, Nietzsche, essentialism and existentialism in his sermons (or at least in one of them), they have a clearness and simplicity to them. One need not have studied theology or philosophy to understand them and be enriched by them.
Another differentiating factor from other sermons is that King is not so focused solely on spiritual things such as personal salvation, the Bible or praying. His focus is mostly on the social and material condition of the people. This probably stems from a difference in his perception of the role of the church: "the church must seek to transform both individual lives and the social situation that brings to many people anguish of spirit and cruel bondage". In his context this of course meant preaching on the injustices of segregation and on the importance and efficacy of nonviolent resistance.
A recurring theme throughout all of the sermons is love. According to King, love is the only way to face the injustices of the world and through love God is manifesting himself in the world: "Above all, we must be reminded anew that God is at work in his universe. He is not outside the world looking on with a sort of cold indifference. Here on all the roads of life, he is striving in our striving."
The most impressive thing is of course the fact that King not only preached these things, but he actually lived them and was ready even to die for them. This is why he will be remembered as one who changed the course of history.
rosekk's review against another edition
4.0
Since I'm not religious, and most of my exposure to religious belief these days is quite negative, it was nice to be reminded of how religion can be a force for good in the world. Mr. King has not converted me (I was not convinced by his arguments relating to the problem of evil), but he has reminded that there's more to the church and it's adherents than I commonly see.
His writing on political issues (mostly civil rights and the cold war) were more persuasive. Funny in places, and always well worded, his writing on these was engaging and hard to disbelieve.
His writing on political issues (mostly civil rights and the cold war) were more persuasive. Funny in places, and always well worded, his writing on these was engaging and hard to disbelieve.
marblejones's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
3.75