AN APOLOGIA FOR THE THEOLOGICAL EXERCISE OF POWER IN CHRISTIAN MINISTRY: MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., AS PASTORAL CASE STUDY

Abstract“If we are going to be triumphant over fear, we must have an assurance of triumph over death. The clue, then, to the triumph of faith of the early Christian lies in the power of the resurrection. They did not go everywhere preaching the ethics of Jesus. They went everywhere preaching that this Jesus whom you slew, God has raised him from the dead. Death had lost its sting, the grave had lost its victory. Fear no longer was overactive in them, and they would go everywhere, saying, ‘We must obey God rather than men. Kill this old body if you will. Let good and kindred go, this mortal life also.’”1