On MLK Day– A Story You May Not Know

Martin Luther King did a seminary degree at Crozier Seminary in Upland Pennsylvania from 1948 to 1951 graduating with a Bachelors of Divinity degree. This was well before Crozier merged with another seminary and eventually became Colgate-Rochester Seminary in upstate New York in the 1960s.   It appears that it was during this period of his life that he read a book by E. Stanley Jones, a Methodist missionary to India, entitled Mahatma Gandhi: An Interpretation which appeared in 1948, right when Martin was entering seminary.  Now Jones, who graduated from Asbury College was a personal friend of Gandhi and offers his own interpretation of his philosophy of non-violence as the proper way to change the world in a better direction.  Jones was once named in 1938 the most famous and effective Christian evangelist by Time Magazine in 1938.  I think there is little doubt that among various influences, King’s reading of Jones’ book on Gandhi helped shape his approach to Christian civil disobedience involving non-violence. If you read Jones’ book on Gandhi, which is still in print  I think you will see why I say this.  Jones lived a long fruitful life of ministry (1884 to 1973, and he died in India).

We at Asbury are proud to honor the legacy of Dr. King today, and every day, not least because one of our own Asburians contributed to shaping his philosophy of non-violence, and Christian civil disobedience.   It’s what Representative John Lewis meant in part when he talked about ‘good trouble’.