Strength to Love

The classic collection of Dr. King’s sermons that fuse his Christian teachings with his radical ideas of love and nonviolence as a means to combat hate and oppression.

As Martin Luther King, Jr., prepared for the Birmingham campaign in early 1963, he drafted the final sermons for Strength to Love, a volume of his most well known homilies. King had begun working on the sermons during a fortnight in jail in July 1962. While behind bars, he spent uninterrupted time preparing the drafts for works such as “Loving Your Enemies” and “Shattered Dreams,” and he continued to edit the volume after his release. Strength to Love includes these classic sermons selected by Dr. King. Collectively they present King’s fusion of Christian teachings and social consciousness and promote his prescient vision of love as a social and political force for change.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968), architect of the nonviolent civil rights movement, was a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and one of the greatest orators in US history. The author of several books, including Stride Toward Freedom, Where Do We Go from Here, The Trumpet of Conscience, and Why We Can’t Wait, King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968.

Foreword to the 1981 Edition, Coretta Scott King

Preface

ONE
A Tough Mind and a Tender Heart

TWO
Transformed Nonconformist

THREE
On Being a Good Neighbor

FOUR
Love in Action

FIVE
Loving Your Enemies

SIX
A Knock at Midnight

SEVEN
The Man Who Was a Fool

EIGHT
The Death of Evil upon the Seashore

NINE
Shattered Dreams

TEN
How Should a Christian View Communism?

ELEVEN
Our God Is Able

TWELVE
Antidotes for Fear

THIRTEEN
The Answer to a Perplexing Question

FOURTEEN
Paul’s Letter to American Christians

FIFTEEN
Pilgrimage to Nonviolence

Sources