Journey to the Mountaintop: The Conversion and Faith Development of Martin Luther King, Jr.

The night before he was assassinated on April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. stood in the pulpit of the Mason Temple (Church of God in Christ) in Memphis, Tennessee, to deliver what would become his eulogy. As the hall’s air fills with reverberating “Amens” and “Hallelujahs,” King attempts to share with the eager crowd that he had come to a place in his life where he wanted to do only one thing: “Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place.” And then he says, “But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will.” King testifies that he was inspired to do God’s will, that is, to continue the struggle for social justice, because “[God] allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the promised land.”

This two-part online course will explore King’s religious conversion experiences and stages in the development of his faith that facilitated his journey to the mountaintop. Participants will be challenged to reimagine the mountaintop not just as a promise — i.e., a vision of the approaching beloved community — but as a performance — i.e., the doing of God’s will in the here and now.

Leader

Jay-Paul M. Hinds, ThM ’08, MDiv ’07, is assistant professor of pastoral theology at Princeton Theological Seminary. He received his Doctorate of Philosophy in religion and Certificate of Psychoanalytic Studies from Emory University, with a concentration in religious practices and practical theology. He earned his Master of Divinity and Master of Theology from Princeton Theological Seminary. Hinds earned a Bachelor of Arts: religion, cum laude, from Felician College.

Before returning to Princeton Seminary, Hinds served as assistant professor of pastoral care, practical theology, and psychology of religion at Howard University School of Divinity.

Select Publications

• “The Son’s Fault: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Search for and Recovery of Sonship,” Journal of Religion and Health, 57, no. 2 (2018): 451–69.
• “A Gift Grows in the Ghetto: Reimagining the Spiritual Diagnosis of Black Men,” Pastoral Psychology, 67, no. 2 (2018): 141–54.
• “Shame and Its Sons: Black Men, Fatherhood and Filicide,” Pastoral Psychology, 63, no. 5-6 (2014): 641–58.
• “Redemptive Prose: Richard Wright’s Re-Authoring of the Patricidal Urtext,” Pastoral Psychology, vol. 62, no. 5 (2013): 687–707.
• “The Prophet’s Wish: A Freudian Interpretation of Martin Luther King’s Dream,” Pastoral Psychology, vol. 61, no. 4 (2012): 467–84.
• “Traces on the Blackboard: The Vestiges of Racism on the African American Psyche,” Pastoral Psychology, vol. 59, no. 6 (2010): 783–98.

Cost & Registration

Fee: $55

Participants will be given access to the session recordings after the course.

Register