Malcolm X

1
Malcolm X

• Sacred discontent?

2
Chronology

• Early life born 1925
• Father killed in 1931
• Mother institutionalized in 1937
• Went to Boston ca. 1940, then NY in 1943
• Prison (1946-52)
• Converted to Nation of Islam in 1948
• Minister for Nation of Islam (1953-64)
• Broke from Nation (1964)
• Hajj to Mecca (1964)
• Assassinated 1965

3
Compare to MLK

• Lived 1929-68
• 1948 graduated from Morehouse College
• 1951 received M.Div. from seminary
• 1953 accepted first pastoral position

4
Questions

• How and why does Malcolm critique Christianity?
• How does the Nation of Islam promote justice,
  according to Malcolm?
• Why does Malcolm embrace global Islam and reject
  the Nation of Islam?
• How does global Islam develop Malcolms beliefs
  about race and justice?

5
Critique of Christianity

• Why do people different from Malcolm (Anglos,
  African American Christians) want to hear his
  critique?
• Doctrines vs. deeds
• Unity in Christ vs.
• Support for status quo
• Enculturation How was Christianity adapted to
  Euro-American culture?
• Visual imagery
• Role of experience in theology
• Religion always requires contemporary
  interpretation

6
Justice

• What is Malcolms vision of justice?
• Cones words strict, stern
• Biblical basis Lex talionis
• How does this compare to MLK?

7
Global (authentic) Islam

• Why did Malcolm embrace Islam?
• How does he describe its vision of justice and
  race?
• Why, according to him, does it provide the
  solution?
• What is the grounding within Islam for promoting
  racial equality?
• Quran 4913 O mankind! We created you from a
  single (pair) of a male and a female, and made
  you into nations and tribes, that ye may know
  each other (not that ye may despise (each
  other).
• History

8
Martin and Malcolm Correctives?

• What is the difference between a corrective and a
  complement?
• Cone in context of white oppression of blacks
  for 400 years in America, the idea that God is
  black is a necessary corrective against the
  powers of domination (160).
• How is Malcolm X a corrective to MLK?
• How is MLK a corrective to Malcolm X?

9
Faith doing justice

• Jesuit principle, esp. in their universities
• How do Malcolms and Martins approaches to
  justice suggest
• A sacred discontent (Davitas Harp)
• A course of action
• A critique of action
• What place should nonviolence have?
• Cones conclusion what remains to be done, for
  those who in faith seek justice?