The Role of Agape in the Ethics of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Pursuit of Justice

My argument here is that the concepts of justice and love are both central to King's understanding of what community might become as the participants within the community become empowered, free to love fully, liberated from the bonds of injustice and secured by the assurance of equity. I argue that justice and agape love are central tenets of King's ethics as well as his theology because his ethics are based on or influenced by his theological understanding of justice as radical agape love in action, working to create, restore, and preserve God's "beloved community."