Chapter 3: Crozer Seminary, Chapter 4: Boston University Summary and Analysis

In 1948, King enters Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania. He becomes convinced that his duty is to fight evils in society. He is deeply moved by his study of the great philosophers, Plato, Aristotle, Rousseau, Hobbes, Bentham, Mill and Locke. He reads figures in the late 19th century American social gospel movement but thinks that their belief of bringing about heaven on earth is a mistake. Nonetheless, he comes to believe that "the gospel deals with the whole man" which includes his "material well-being." Religious convictions must concern the conditions of poverty and economic inequality.

In 1949, King reads Marx so as to understand why communism is attractive. These writings influence him, but he rejects their moral relativism, secularism and materialism—it rejects God. Further, in King's view history progresses through...