Up until the 19th century, religion was used as a way of legitimizing slavery in America. With the rise of the civil rights movement religion seems to have played a quite different role. This essay aims to explore the role of religion in the ideologies of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. The speeches, writings and actions of these two men have been analysed in hope that the result will contribute to the larger study of American civil rights history. This essay proposes that both Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X infused their political message with religious ideas and that they leaned on religion for support and inspiration. By analysing the discourse headed by King and X it becomes clear that in direct contrast to how religion was used during slavery, religion was used as a way of legitimizing equality (and in some cases black superiority) between races during the civil rights movement.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Durban-Westville, 1991.

No description available.

The thesis compares the structure of the theological responses of Martin Luther and contextual theologies , especially those of Juan Luis Segundo and Albert Nolan. The structure of the theologies are described using concepts derived from the methodologies of research programmes developed by Imre Lakatos. The social and ideological background of the ruling ideology of Luther's time (medieval Catholicism) and that of contextual theologies (neo-colonial capitalism) are presented . Parallels are found in that the ruling ideology utilises a monopoly on legitimating authority to orientate the life energies of people to achieving legitimation in terms of norms set up by the ruling class. These norms result in a an exchange of work for legitimation, and so exploit people. This constitutes an 'in and up' theology: Resources are drawn in in order to climb up to a position of legitimation . Both Luther and contextual theologies respond by reversing this pattern, decoupling legitimation from the norms of the ruling class and the work of people. They constitute 'down and out' theologies: God, the legitimator, is down with people, and because legitimation is given freely to people down where they are, energies flow out to serve the common good. Dissimilarities between Luther and Contextual Theologies are found in the locus of legitimation (individual vs. social), the role of faith, and the negative heuristic (dialectic of the cross vs. transformation of the system). It is argued that the difference in negative heuristic is mainly responsible for the perennial nature and conservatism of Lutheran Theology versus the rapid demise of South African contextual theology. The results of the investigation show that the conceptual structure of Lakatos' epistemology, coupled with an analysis of the flow of legitimation and orientation, is useful in structuring and evaluating theological systems on the questions where does legitimation come from, where to does the theology orientate, and how are orientation and legitimation linked. These questions may be seen as a new way of formulating the lawl gospel distinction of classical Lutheran theology. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2004.

Thesis (S.T.M.)--Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, 1987. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 171-172).

Thesis (Th.M.)--Dallas Theological Seminary, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [45]-49).

Thesis (Th. M.)--Dallas Theological Seminary, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [98]-101).

Thesis (M.A.)--Liberty University, 1992. / Includes abstract and bibliography (leaves 110-117).

Thesis (Th. M.)--Dallas Theological Seminary, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 49-52).

Thesis (Th.M.)--Dallas Theological Seminary, 2008. / Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 49-52).