This is a masterful philosophical portrait of Martin Luther King, Jr. The contributors to this volume demonstrate a marked capacity to communicate the essential ingredients and the profundities of King's philosophy in a strikingly lucid, comprehensive, and provocative way. What an important and stirring gift for those of us who have repeatedly called for more attention to King the intellectual!

Lewis V. Baldwin, Vanderbilt University

A strikingly original collection assembled by Robert E. Birt! Written primarily by trained and teaching philosophers, these critical essays will appeal to all who are genuinely interested in the thought, work, and witness of Martin Luther King, Jr. Here we see King as philosopher who both influenced and was influenced by Western philosophical tradition, and who was the quintessential nonviolent social activist. Depicted as a man of ideas and ideals, King’s thinking about God, freedom, hope, democracy, the beloved community, nonviolence, and his optimism about the eradication of racism are examined, criticized, and re-envisioned as never before. The result is a more realistic and hopeful view of King’s relevance for today.

Rufus Burrow, Jr., Author of God and Human Dignity: The Personalism, Theology, and Ethics of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Measured by its ability to display the rich potential for philosophical reflection that engaging with King as a thinker offers us,... Birt’s anthology [is] a success....Birt’s anthology is a very welcome spur to the kind of philosophical work that will treat passages like these as opportunities to take someone who has so deeply shaped our world seriously, with all the sharp, progressive criticism and sympathetic reconstruction necessary to doing so.

APA Newsletter on Philosophy and the Black Experience