David Rayson - The Social Justice Fundamentalism of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Abstract:

Beginning in 1980 with the concurrent rise of Protestant fundamentalism in the United States and Islamic fundamentalism in Iran (Shi’a fundamentalism) and Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan (Sunni fundamentalism), the tension between modernism and fundamentalism has been a central focus of both scholars and public policy experts. The idea that this tension only arose in the last quarter of the 20^th century has, however, been largely overturned through the work of religious historians, most notably Karen Armstrong who traced fundamentalist movements in Christianity (mostly Protestantism), Judaism, and Islam from 1492 to the present in her excellent book The Battle for God. Unfortunately, most scholars (including Armstrong) define fundamentalism only in terms of same thinking (orthodoxy) or same ritual practice (orthopraxy). A deeper reading of the historical record, however, quickly reveals that many religious reformers have sought to control the excesses of modernism through a fundamentalism based on the social justice message which is also present in religious texts. Last Spring, I talked about the social justice fundamentalism of Hindu religious leader Mohandas Gandhi and the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer and at this colloquium I will focus on the much more difficult task of spiritual preparation for resistance which Martin Luther King, Jr. undertook beginning in Montgomery, Alabama in December of 1955.

Presenter Bio:

David Rayson earned his Ph.D. in History at the University of Minnesota in 1996. From 1996-2001, David was a Teaching Consultant and Instructor in graduate-level courses on pedagogy as part of the University of Minnesota’s Preparing Future Faculty Program during which time he became an advocate of the Universal Design for Learning approach to education. Since coming to Normandale in Fall 2000, he has taught predominantly World History courses where he has increasingly focused on the tension between modernism and fundamentalism, tension which he argues is the central challenge of the 20^th and 21^st centuries.

Related Links:

Fundamentalism

Relativism vs. Fundamentalism