The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.

“What I am trying to get you to see this morning is that a man may be self-centered in his self-denial and self-righteous in his self-sacrifice,” King declared. “His generosity may feed his ego and his piety may feed his pride. So, without love, benevolence becomes egotism and martyrdom becomes spiritual pride.”

In the Pulitzer Prize–winning book Bearing the Cross, historian David Garrow observes that King improvised “like some sort of jazz

rather does it heighten the challenge which his life presents, for such reflection reveals him as the product of the constant working of the creative mind of God upon the life, thought, and character of a race of men. Here is one who was so conditioned and organized within himself that he became a perfect instrument for the embodiment of a set of i

What good is a spiritual path that only enriches our own inner peace while hundreds of millions go hungry? And conversely, how do we sustainably serve those millions if our hearts are hard, empty, cold, and filled with selfish ego or materialistic motives? How can there be peace without justice? There is an ongoing dance, a conversation between the