Hostname: page-component-5d84bcc8dc-4knpj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-08-17T19:14:56.813Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“Tough Love”: The Political Theology of Civil Disobedience

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2020

Alexander Livingston Open the ORCID record for Alexander Livingston [Opens in a new window]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Love is a key concept in the theory and history of civil disobedience yet it has been purposefully neglected in recent debates in political theory. Through an examination of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s paradoxical notion of “aggressive love,” I offer a critical interpretation of love as a key concept in a vernacular black political theology, and the consequences of love’s displacement by law in liberal theories of civil disobedience. The first section locates the origins of aggressive love in an earlier generation of black theologians who looked to India’s anticolonial struggle to reimagine the dignity of the oppressed as “creative survival.” The second contextualizes King’s early sermons on moral injury and self-respect within this tradition to reinterpret Stride toward Freedom’s account of the dignity-enhancing effects of nonviolent resistance as the triumph of love over fear. The third considers the implications of these arguments for conceptualizing the moral psychology of the white citizen and its consequences for contemporary debates over the ideological uses of Civil Rights history. The call to respond to oppression with aggressive love illustrates the paradoxical character of civil disobedience obscured by legal accounts as well as by criticisms of the very idea of “civil” disobedience. This is the paradox of affirming civility while enacting disobedience in order to bind political confrontation with political pedagogy.

Information

Type
Article
Information
Perspectives on Politics , Volume 18 , Issue 3 , September 2020 , pp. 851 - 866
Copyright
© American Political Science Association 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

Earlier versions of this paper were presented at Brown University, Cornell University, University of Dayton, University of Oregon, and University of Victoria as well as at the annual meetings of the Association for Political Theory and the American Political Science Association. The author would like to thank audiences and discussants at these events for their comments and criticisms, as well as Dennis Dalton, Sarah Greenberg, Michael Hanchard, and James Tully for sharing written comments on previous drafts. He extends special thanks to the anonymous reviewers for their challenging comments and to Daniel O'Neill for his insightful editorial guidance.

References

Allen, Danielle. 2018. “Integration, Freedom, and the Affirmation of Life.” In To Shape a New World: Essays on the Political Philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr., ed. Shelby, Tommie and Terry, Brandon M., 146–160. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Azaransky, Sarah. 2017. This Worldwide Struggle: Religion and the International Roots of the Civil Rights Movement. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190262204.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bedau, Hugo Adam. 1969. “Introduction.” In Civil Disobedience: Theory and Practice, ed. Bedau, Hugo Adam, 15–26. New York: Macmillan Pub. Co.Google Scholar
Boxill, Bernard R. 1992. Blacks and Social Justice, rev. ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Brightman, Edgar. 1932. Is God a Person? New York: Association Press.Google Scholar
Bromell, Nick. 2013. The Time Is Always Now: Black Thought and the Transformation of US Democracy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199973439.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brownlee, Kimberley. 2012. Conscience and Conviction: The Case for Civil Disobedience. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199592944.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burrow, Rufus. 2006. God and Human Dignity: The Personalism, Theology, and Ethics of Martin Luther King, Jr. South Bend, IN: University of Notre Dame.10.2307/j.ctvpj7904CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carson, Claybourne. 2010. “Introduction.” In Stride toward Freedom, ix-xxvii. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Chabot, Sean. 2012. Transnational Roots of the Civil Rights Movement: African-American Explorations of the Gandhian Repertoire. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Cone, James. 1989. Black Theology and Black Power. 20th Anniversary ed. San Francisco: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Danielson, Leilah. 2003. “‘In My Extremity I Turned to Gandhi’: American Pacifists, Christianity, and Gandhian Nonviolence, 1915–1941.” Church History 72(2): 361–88.10.1017/S0009640700099881CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Delmas, Candice. 2018. A Duty to Resist: When Disobedience Should Be Uncivil. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oso/9780190872199.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dewey, John. 1986. A Common Faith. In The Later Works, 1925–1953. Vol IX. 1–58. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.Google Scholar
Dorrien, Gary. 2018. Breaking White Supremacy: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Black Social Gospel. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Farred, Grant. 2015. “Love Is Asymmetrical: James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time.” Philosophy of Race 3(2): 284–304.10.5325/critphilrace.3.2.0284CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feit, Mario. 2017. “Democratic Impatience: Martin Luther King, Jr. on Democratic Temporality.” Contemporary Political Theory 16(3): 363– 86.10.1057/s41296-016-0062-2CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fox, Richard. 1997. “Passage to India.” In Between Resistance and Revolution: Cultural Politics and Social Protest, ed. Fox, Richard and Starn, Orin, 65–82. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Glaude, Eddie S. Jr. 2011. “On Prophecy and Critical Intelligence,” American Journal of Theology and Philosophy 32(2): 105–21Google Scholar
Glaude, Eddie S.. 2018. An Uncommon Faith: A Pragmatic Approach to the Study of African American Religion. Athens: University of Georgia Press.10.2307/j.ctt22nmbx3CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Habermas, Jürgen. 2008. Between Naturalism and Religion: Philosophical Essays. Boston: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Hanchard, Michael. 2010. “Contours of Black Political Thought: An Introduction and Perspective.” Political Theory 38(4): 510–36.10.1177/0090591710366379CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayward, Clarissa Rile. 2017. “Responsibility and Ignorance: On Dismantling Structural Injustices.” Journal of Politics 79(2): 396–40810.1086/688355CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holmes, John Haynes. 1976. “Who is the Greatest Man in the World Today?” In The Americanization of Gandhi: Images of the Mahatma, ed. Chatfield, Charles. 599–621. New York: Garland.Google Scholar
Hooker, Juliet. 2016. “Black Lives Matter and the Paradoxes of U.S. Black Politics: From Democratic Sacrifice to Democratic Repair.” Political Theory 44(4): 448–69.10.1177/0090591716640314CrossRefGoogle Scholar
hooks, bell. 2006. Outlaw Culture: Resisting Representation. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kapur, Sudarshan. 1992. Raising Up a Prophet: The African-American Encounter with Gandhi. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Kelley, Robin D. G. 2002. Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
King, Martin Luther Jr. 1997. The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. Vol III. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
King, Martin Luther Jr.. 2000. The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. Vol IV. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
King, Martin Luther Jr.. 2007. The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. Vol VI. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
King, Martin Luther Jr.. 2010a. Stride toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
King, Martin Luther Jr.. 2010b. Strength to Love. Minneapolis: Fortress PressGoogle Scholar
King, Martin Luther Jr.. 2010c. Why We Can’t Wait. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
King, Martin Luther Jr.. 2010d. The Trumpet of Conscience. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
King, Martin Luther Jr.. 2013. The Measure of Man. Mansfield Center, CT: Martino Publishing.Google Scholar
Kosek, Joseph Kip. 2009. Acts of Conscience: Christian Nonviolence and Modern American Democracy. New York: Columbia University Press.10.7312/kose14418CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Livingston, Alexander. 2018. “Fidelity to Truth: Gandhi and the Genealogy of Civil Disobedience.” Political Theory 46(4): 511– 36.10.1177/0090591717727275CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Livingston, Alexander. Forthcoming. “Power for the Powerless: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Late Theory of Civil Disobedience.” Journal of Politics.Google Scholar
Lloyd, Vincent W. 2016. Black Natural Law. New York: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199362189.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mantena, Karuna. 2018. “Showdown for Nonviolence: The Theory and Practice of Nonviolent Politics.” In To Shape a New World: Essays on the Political Philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr., ed. Shelby, Tommie and Terry, Brandon M., 78–104. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University.Google Scholar
Martin, Rex. 1970. “Civil Disobedience.” Ethics 80(2): 123–39.10.1086/291760CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mays, Benjamin. 1937a. “Gandhi Rekindled Spirit of Race Pride in India, Dr. Mays Finds.” Norfolk Journal and Guide , May 29, 19, 23.Google Scholar
Mays, Benjamin. 1937b. “Until Then.” Norfolk Journal and Guide , June 12, 8.Google Scholar
Mays, Benjamin. 1937c. “The Color Line Around the World.” Journal of Negro Education 6(2): 134–43.10.2307/2292249CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mays, Benjamin. 1946. “Two Fears: Negroes and Whites Have Fears That Must Be Resolved for Harmony.” Pittsburgh Courier, July 20, 7.Google Scholar
Mays, Benjamin. 1968. The Negro’s God as Reflected in His Literature. New York: Atheneum.Google Scholar
McGuire, Danielle L. 2011. At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance—A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power. New York: Penguin.Google Scholar
Milligan, Tony. 2013. Civil Disobedience: Protest, Justification, and the Law. New York: BloomsburyGoogle Scholar
Mills, Charles W. 2016. Black Rights/White Wrongs: The Critique of Racial Liberalism. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Moyn, Samuel. 2015. Christian Human Rights. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Perry, Lewis. 2013. Civil Disobedience: An American Tradition. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Pineda, Erin R. 2018. “One Year In, 50 Years Later: Reflections on Protest and the End of the ‘Hypocrisy Critique.’” Contemporary Political Theory 17(3): 338–43.Google Scholar
Prashad, Vijay. 2009. “Black Gandhi.” Social Scientist 37(1/2): 3–20.Google Scholar
Rawls, John. 1999. A Theory of Justice, rev. ed. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Richards, David A. J. 2004. “Ethical Religion and the Struggle for Human Rights: The Case of Martin Luther King, Jr.” Fordham Law Review 72(5): 2105–52.Google Scholar
Rorty, Richard. 1994. “Religion as Conversation Stopper.” Common Knowledge 3(1): 1–6.Google Scholar
Rose, Justin. 2019. The Drum Major Instinct: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Theory of Political Service. Athens: University of Georgia Press.10.2307/j.ctv5nphs8CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sabl, Andrew. 2001. “Looking Forward to Justice: Rawlsian Civil Disobedience and its Non-Rawlsian Lessons.” Journal of Political Philosophy 9(3): 307–30.10.1111/1467-9760.00129CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scalmer, Sean. 2011. Gandhi in the West: The Mahatma and the Rise of Radical Protest. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511974168CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scheuerman, William E. 2015. “Recent Theories of Civil Disobedience: An Anti-Legal Turn?” Journal of Political Philosophy 23(4): 427–49.10.1111/jopp.12055CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scheuerman, William E. 2018. Civil Disobedience. Medford, MA: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Shelby, Tommie. 2018. “Prisons of the Forgotten: Ghettos and Economic Injustice.” In To Shape a New World: Essays on the Political Philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr., ed. Shelby, Tommie and Terry, Brandon M., 187–204. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.10.4159/9780674919860-010CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shulman, George. 2008. American Prophecy: Race and Religion in American Political Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.10.5749/j.cttttm2nCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Slate, Nico. 2012. Colored Cosmopolitanism: The Shared Struggle for Freedom in the United States and India. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, Kenneth L and Zepp, Ira G. Jr. 1974. Search for a Beloved Community: The Thinking of Martin Luther King, Jr. Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press.Google Scholar
Spence, Lester K. 2015. Knocking the Hustle: Against the Neoliberal Turn in Black Politics. Brooklyn: Punctum Books.Google Scholar
Storing, Herbert. 1991. “The Case Against Civil Disobedience.” In Civil Disobedience in Focus ed. Bedau, Hugo Adam, 85–102. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Terry, Brandon M. 2015. “After Ferguson.” The Point (10). Retrieved July 19, 2019 (https://thepointmag.com/2015/politics/after-ferguson).Google Scholar
Theoharis, Jeanne. 2018. A More Beautiful and Terrible History: The Uses and Misuses of Civil Rights History. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Threadcraft, Shatema. 2017. “North American Necropolitics and Gender: On #BlackLivesMatter and Black Femicide.” South Atlantic Quarterly 116(3): 553–7910.1215/00382876-3961483CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Threadcraft, Shatema and Terry, Brandon M.. 2018. “Gender Trouble: Manhood, Inclusion, and Justice.” In To Shape a New World: Essays on the Political Philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr., ed. Shelby, Tommie and Terry, Brandon M., 205–235. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Thurman, Howard. 1979. With Head and Heart: An Autobiography of Howard Thurman. San Diego: Harcourt Brace & Co.Google Scholar
Thurman, Howard. 1996. Jesus and the Disinherited. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Thurman, Howard. 2012. The Papers of Howard Thurman. Vol II., ed. Fluker, Walter Earl. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Tully, James. 2002. “Political Theory as Critical Activity.” Political Theory 30(4): 533–55.10.1177/0090591702304005CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zerilli, Linda. 2014. “Against Civility: A Feminist Perspective.” In Civility, Legality, and Justice in America, ed. Austin, Sarat, 107–131. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar