A comparison of Johann Metz’s Foundational Theology and Martin Luther King’s Response to the Status Quo in his Letter From Birmingham Jail

1. Johann Metz and Martin Luther King Jr.:
Metz’sFoundationalTheology andKing’sResponseto
theStatusQuoinhisLetterFromBirmingham Jail
A CriticalComparison
Team Hammurabi

2. Metz & King: Thesis Statement
King’s letter draws from the same key concepts that drive Metz’s vision, and
can be seen as an exemplar of Political Theology in action. Yet, some
differences emerge in their visions for theology, democracy and political
action.

3. Civil Rights Movement
• The American Civil War
I. 13th Amendment ended slavery
II. 14th Amendment gave African Americans citizenship
III. 15th Amendment gave African American men (only) right to vote
• Divided Nation
I. Democratic Party –white dominated political control south
a) Racial segregation by law
b) Voter registration more restrictive
c) Economic oppression of blacks
d) Individual, police, organizational, and mob racial violence
II. Republican Party -Lincoln Party with the most blacks
a) Controlled much of the north and west
b) Voter registration was repressed in the south
c) 1865-1963 racial hatred toward African Americans
Derrick-1

4. Civil Rights Movement
• Who is MLK talking to:
I. Eight white clergy of the South
II. Moderate whites
III. Complacent Negro
IV. Frustrated Negro
• What is his argument
I. I am in Birmingham because injustice is here
a) Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere
b) Birmingham most thoroughly segregated city in the US
c) Police brutality known in every section of the US
d) Unjust treatment of Negroes in the courts
e) Unsolved bombings of Negroes homes and churches
II. Time out for negotiations
a) September 1962 agreed on moratorium of demonstrations; victims of
broken promises
b) Prepared for direct action
Derrick-1

5. Civil Rights Movement
a) Nonviolent Movement
a) Why direct action
1) Creative tension forces a community to confront the issue
2) Constructive nonviolence is necessary for growth
b) No time to WAIT!
a) Administrations are dedicated to maintaining the status quo
b) Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be
demanded by the oppressed
Derrick-1

6. Nonviolent Campaign
• Mahatma Gandhi
• King “pilgrimage” to India 1959
• “Guiding light of our technique of nonviolent change”
• King adopts “Praxis” of nonviolence
• Spirituality
• King referenced strong spiritual quality of participants
• Untouchables/Segregation
• Christian love “powerful force for social change”
• Four Steps
• Collection of facts, determination of injustice
• Negotiation
• Self Purification
• Direct Action
Matt-2

7. Nonviolent Campaign
• Birmingham
• Epicenter of injustice
• Unwillingness to negotiate
• Self purification, Easter; Economic and Religious
• Direct Action; Create crisis to force negotiation
• Metz
• Eschatology, only theological paradigm acceptable
• Vorgriff, envision future and apply efforts to achieve
• Elements of “utopia”, pull history forward
• PT; emerging political and social order
Matt-2

8. Metz & King: Just vs. Unjust Laws
• "How Can You Advocate Breaking Some Laws And
Obeying Others?”
• An unjust law is no law at all (Augustine)
 Unjust law: morally wrong
 Just man-made law squares with moral law; unjust law out of
harmony with it.
 Unjust law: not rooted in eternal and natural law (Aquinas)
 Unjust law: degrades personality rather than uplifting it
 Segregation distorts soul, damages personality
 Relegates persons to status of "things"
 Expresses man's tragic separation - awful estrangement
 Conclusion: can urge disobeying segregation laws because they are
morally wrong.
Robert-3

9. Metz & King: Just vs. Unjust Laws
• "How Can You Advocate Breaking Some Laws And
Obeying Others?”
 Unjust law: Inequality of treatment: unjust law inflicted by
majority on minority -- but is not binding on majority
 Unjust law: code wrongly inflicted on minority that had no part
in creating because of deprivation of right to vote
 Unjust law: just on its face, but unlawfully applied
 Nothing novel about disobedience (e.g., early Christians,
Socrates)
 "Direct action" cannot be condemned because it "precipitates
violence" - in fact, it is immoral to urge protesters of immoral
laws to withdraw efforts because of fear of violence
Robert-3

10. Rosa-4

11. Metz & King: Three-Fold Model B
• King: No other choice for African Americans but action.
Racial tension in the South has come to a boiling point.
• Three categories: those complacent …
• King explains that direct action is designed to bring
attention to an issue with a sense of urgency so that it
can no longer be ignored.
• King discusses how history has proven that privileged
groups rarely give up their positions or concede any
power. The oppressor is rarely led to make decisions to
correct their immoral actions without pressure by the
oppressed.
Chris-5

12. Metz & King: Three-Fold Model B
• King: When justice is not enforced immediately, justice
will likely not come.
• King: No more time for waiting.
• King: Nonviolent action (ie. marches, sit-ins, and
demonstrations) should be permitted because there are
those who would seek violent means of protest.
• King’s moral obligation: Allowing segregation to exist
creates a false sense of superiority for the oppressor and
a false sense of inferiority to the oppressed.
Chris-5

13. Metz & King: Three-Fold Model B
• King & Metz both see a radical openness to an
undetermined future.
• Following Christian principles and the model of
Christ, Christians can use action to achieve moral
freedom against society.
• King and Metz also utilize memory of suffering to
uncover the lies of the past and ideologies of the
present.
• King’s claims are in line with notions Metz argues for
when he speaks of attention to narrative: Stories of the
oppressed expose falsehoods.
Chris-5

14. Metz & King: Three-Fold Model C
Metz:
• Eschatology is key to understanding the role of Political
Theology
• Eschatology = The study of last things. Usually refers
to death, Judgment, heaven, etc.
• Metz’s eschatology: Approach toward horizon
• Focus on action in the present
• Hope lies in a future political and social order
• Approach “utopia” where full relief is given to the
oppressed
• “Apocalyptic” view of overturned present system
in favor of the Kingdom of God
Walter-6

15. Metz & King: Three-Fold Model C
Metz:
• Eschatology is key to understanding the role of Political Theology
• God is connected to human history, and holds solidarity with
victims
• It is up to people to develop a practical means toward
emancipating these victims from oppression
• Working toward Kingdom of God
• Escape from bourgeois religiosity, oppressive social systems
• Eye on a horizon that sees emancipation for all
• Critics: Metz “does not elaborate sufficiently how a practical
fundamental theology intersects with public rationality and social
polity (i.e. secularism/nuts and bolts of activism and policy
making).”
-Francis Fiorenza, Catholic University of America
Walter-6

16. Metz & King: Three-Fold Model C
Metz:
“What dare I hope?' is transformed into the question `What dare I hope
for you and, in the end, also for me? *
King: From “I Have a Dream:”
“The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With
this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of
hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of
our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we
will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go
to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will he
free one day.”
Peter Scott;William T. Cavanaugh. The Blackwell Companion to Political Theology (p. 249). Kindle Edition
Walter-6

17. Metz & King: Three-Fold Model C
• Metz:
• "Discipleship is imminent expectation: this is an apocalyptic consciousness
that does not cause, but rather accepts suffering - resisting both apathy
and hatred" (Metz 1980: 1 76: 1977: 156).
• King:
• “For more than two centuries our forebears labored in this country without
wages; they made cotton king; they built the homes of their masters while
suffering gross injustice and shameful humiliation -and yet out of a
bottomless vitality they continued to thrive and develop. If the
inexpressible cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now
face will surely fail. We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage
of our nation and the eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing
demands.”
Walter-6

18. Metz & King: Differing Messages
• Metz: Qualified faith in democracy
• (Paraphrased): A moral concern for the suffering of
any person is both a theological statement, and a
founding premise of modern democracies. However,
this foundation breaks down if this suffering is
forgotten within the power structures of a democracy.
• Metz, A Passion for God, 137-147.
Walter-6

19. Metz & King: Differing Messages
King: High confidence in the promises of particularly
American democracy
• “One day the South will know that when these
disinherited children of God sat down at lunch
counters, they were in reality standing up for what is
best in the American dream and for the most sacred
values in our Judaeo Christian heritage, thereby
bringing our nation back to those great wells of
democracy which were dug deep by the founding
fathers in their formulation of the Constitution and the
Declaration of Independence.”
Walter-6

20. Johann Metz and Martin Luther King Jr.:
Metz’sFoundationalTheology andKing’sResponseto
theStatusQuoinhisLetterFromBirmingham Jail
A CriticalComparison
Team Hammurabi