The Sword that Heals King, the Black Radical Tradition, and the Destructive Power of the Beloved Community

Abstract

In this paper I examine what I call the tradition of Kingdom Violence, which collectively names those who resist the forces of oppression in our world. I first explore the contours of Kingdom Violence in the theology and activism of Nat Turner and Sojourner Truth, and then argue that a kind of Kingdom Violence is present in Martin Luther King Jr.’s theological praxis despite his disavowal of physical violence. King recognized that much of what we have come to think of as normal and natural must be destroyed for the Beloved Community to be fully realized in our world.