The theological concept of image of God as foundation of universal equality and dignity in the black abolitionist movement and in the theology of Martin Luther King, Jr.

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Michael Haspel
• Subject Area: Protestant Theology
• Term: from 2019 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 435847497

Martin Luther King, Jr. regularly employs the theological concept of all human beings created in the image of God in order to substantiate the equal dignity of all humans. From this foundation of hu-man dignity, he derives the quest for equal civil and human rights for all people. In his concept, this is combined with the quest for the abolition of segregation in the South of the US, and later on with the quest for worldwide social and economic rights for all.The role of the concept of image of God in linking the theological foundation of human dignity to the quest for universal human rights was far from self-evident in the 1950s and 1960s, and not only in continental theology.However, so far there is no systematic analysis of this relationship in King’s theology based on a comprehensive number of sources. This is the goal of the first part of the project. This part of the inquiry also entails consideration of which sources and traditions King uses and how he systematiz-es them.We can assume that King draws on the tradition of abolitionism. Usually, reference is made to the dominant abolitionist discourses after 1833. However, this discursive pattern of substantiating human dignity and human rights by the theological concept of image of God and correlated with this, the quest not only for the abolition of slavery but full emancipation of people of African descent occurs already earlier, for instance in Walker’s famous Appeal from 1829/30. Walker’s argumenta-tion is different from the contemporary concepts and goals of white abolitionists, who mostly do not accept the equal dignity of black people but emphasize the sinfulness of slavery and that the judg-ment for it will come on the white people. Therefore, they normally do not aim for the emancipation of black people but only on the gradual abolition of slavery and colonization of the free blacks in Africa. In the second part of the project, this theological argumentation in the black abolitionist dis-course between 1819 and 1850 shall be reconstructed in more detail.Finally, the theological foundational discourses of human dignity in black abolitionism and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s theology will be compared in order to identify similarities and differences. If it can be shown, that a correlation exists between the concept of imago Dei and the foundation of univer-sal human dignity in the black abolitionist discourse already around 1830 and that these discursive patterns are employed and systematized by Martin Luther King, Jr., then previous views on the genesis of theological foundational discourses of human dignity and human rights must be qualified.In theological perspective a foundational discourse would be recovered, which could enrich even the current debates on racism and human dignity.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants