A landmark collection of Martin Luther King Jr.’s best known homilies and sermons—with selections from Strength to Love. As Dr. King prepared for the Birmingham campaign in early 1963, he drafted the final sermons for
Strength to Love, a volume of his most best-known homilies. King had begun working on the sermons during a fortnight in jail in July 1962. While behind bars, he spent uninterrupted time preparing the drafts for works such as “Loving Your Enemies” and “Shattered Dreams,” and he continued to edit the volume after his release.
Full Sermon List: • A Tough Mind and a Tender Heart
• Transformed Nonconformist
• On Being a Good Neighbor
• Love in action
• Loving Your Enemies
• A Knock at Midnight
• The Man Who Was a Fool
• The Death of Evil Upon the Seashore
• Shattered Dreams
• Our God is Able
• Antidotes for Fear
• The Answer to a Perplexing Question
• Paul’s Letter to American Christians
• Pilgrimage to nonviolence
• The Drum Major Instinct
• The Three Dimensions of a Complete Life
A Gift of Love includes most of the classic sermons from
Strength to Love, along with 2 new sermons. Collectively they present King’s fusion of Christian teachings and social consciousness, and promote his prescient vision of love as a social and political force for change.
The classic collection of sixteen sermons preached and compiled by Dr. King
As Dr. King prepared for the Birmingham campaign in early 1963, he drafted the final sermons for Strength to Love, a volume of his most best-known homilies. King had begun working on the sermons during a fortnight in jail in July 1962. While behind bars, he spent uninterrupted time preparing the drafts for works such as "Loving Your Enemies" and "Shattered Dreams," and he continued to edit the volume after his release. A Gift of Love includes these classic sermons, along with two new preachings. Collectively they present King's fusion of Christian teachings and social consciousness, and promote his prescient vision of love as a social and political force for change.
“If you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. I won’t have any money to leave behind. I won’t have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. . . . Yes, Jesus, I want to be on your right or your left side, not for any selfish reason. I want to be on your right or your left side, not in terms of some political kingdom or ambition. But I just want to be there in love and in justice and in truth and in commitment to others, so that we can make of this old world a new world.”
—From “The Drum Major Instinct”
“But be ye assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. One day we shall win freedom, but not only for ourselves. We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory.”
—From “Loving Your Enemies”
