The Civil Rights Movement as Theological Drama—Interpretation and Application

In this essay, Charles Marsh sketches a theological interpretation of the American civil rights movement. Marsh argues that interpretation must begin by reconsidering the theological legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., taking into account his deep, though largely overlooked, confessional convictions as well as his sympathy with the theology of Karl Barth, whose influence on King has been ignored. Marsh further argues that a theological interpretation of the civil rights movement should not be a matter of writing religious genealogies of moral actions, of civic piety or of representations of human goodness, but of understanding the detail of theological convictions in their lives particularity. Marsh thinks it is altogether appropriate for theologians to retell the story of the American civil rights movement as the story of the church.