Existential Freedom in Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Comparative Analysis

Martin Luther King Jr. is typically examined through the frameworks of political theology, social ethics, and the historical struggle for civil rights. Beneath these dominant readings, however, lies a distinctly existential understanding of freedom that places King in substantive dialogue with Søren Kierkegaard, Paul Tillich, and Jean-Paul Sartre. Although King is rarely classified as an existential thinker, his conception of freedom reflects core existential commitments concerning choice, responsibility, anxiety, and authentic action.

Kierkegaard, often regarded as the father of existentialism, understood Christianity as an inherently existential faith—one that demands a personal, passionate commitment rather than passive adherence to doctrine. Tillich, a leading Christian existential theologian, similarly resisted any sharp divide between Christianity and existentialism, emphasizing faith as “ultimate concern” and attending seriously to the human experiences of doubt, anxiety, and despair. Sartre, by contrast, asserted that “existence precedes essence,” arguing that human beings are born without fixed meaning and must create themselves through concrete choices and action. Despite his atheism, Sartre’s lifelong political engagement underscores the existential insistence on responsibility within history.

King’s understanding of freedom resonates across these perspectives. Freedom is not reducible to legal emancipation or structural reform. Rather, it is a lived and chosen way of being, forged in the face of anxiety, resistance, and the real possibility of suffering. Freedom, in King’s vision, is enacted through a courageous commitment to justice. Through comparative analysis, this symposium explores Martin Luther King Jr.’s existential understanding of freedom, highlighting his unique synthesis of faith, action, and moral responsibility.

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