I completed my residence work and began the process of writing my dissertation. My work at Boston University progressed very well. His analysis of the dialectical process, in spite of its shortcomings, helped me to see that growth comes through struggle. His contention that 'truth is the whole' led me to a philosophical method of rational coherence. But there were other aspects of his thinking that I found stimulating. For instance, his absolute idealism was rationally unsound to me because it tended to swallow up the many in the one. Although the course was mainly a study of Hegel's monumental work, Phenomenology of Mind, I spent my spare time reading his Philosophy of History and Philosophy of Right. There were points in Hegel's philosophy that I strongly disagreed with. This course proved to be both rewarding and stimulating. Brightman's death, I began studying the philosophy of Hegel with him. They were for rent until they found out I was a Negro, and suddenly they had just been rented. I went into place after place where there were signs that rooms were for rent. I remember very well trying to find a place to live. MEMORIES OF HOUSING BIAS WHILE IN GRADUATE SCHOOL Personalism's insistence that only personality-finite and infinite-is ultimately real strengthened me in two convictions: it gave me metaphysical and philosophical grounding for the idea of a personal God, and it gave me a metaphysical basis for the dignity and worth of all human personality. This personal idealism remains today my basic philosophical position. It was mainly under these teachers that I studied Personalistic philosophy-the theory that the clue to the meaning of ultimate reality is found in personality. Brightman, whom I had the privilege to study with before he passed on. DeWolf, who is a very dear friend of mine, and, of course, I was greatly influenced by him and by Dr. I studied philosophy and theology at Boston University under Edgar S. He was so involved in diagnosing man's sickness of sin that he overlooked the cure of grace. His pessimism concerning human nature was not balanced by an optimism concerning divine nature. I also came to see that Reinhold Niebuhr had overemphasized the corruption of human nature. Neo-orthodoxy certainly had the merit of calling us back to the depths of Christian faith. I do not mean that I accept neo-orthodoxy as a set of doctrines, but I did see in it a necessary corrective for a liberalism that had become all too shallow and that too easily capitulated to modern culture. However, while at Boston, I became much more sympathetic towards the neo-orthodox position than I had been in previous years. I had come to see more than ever before that there were certain enduring qualities in liberalism which all of the vociferous noises of fundamentalism and neo-orthodoxy could never destroy. Theologically I found myself still holding to the liberal position.

My association with men like that also caused me to deepen my concern, and of course many of the studies I continued to make concerning the philosophy and theory of nonviolence naturally influenced my thinking. One never got the impression that this passion stemmed from a superficial optimism concerning human nature, but from a deep faith in the possibilities of human beings when they allowed themselves to become coworkers with God. Chalmers had a passion for social justice. Here I had the opportunity to talk to many exponents of nonviolence, both Students and visitors at the campus.īoston University School of Theology, under the influence of Dean Walter Muelder and Professor Allen Knight Chalmers, had a deep sympathy for the pacifist position. The next stage of my intellectual pilgrimage to nonviolence came during my doctoral studies at Boston University.

Receives doctorate in systematic theology from Boston University Brightman dies, Harold DeWolf becomes now advisor King enters Boston University's School of TheologyĪcademic advisor Edgar S. But to God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Not to these little gods that are here today and gone tomorrow. As a young man with most of my life ahead of me, I decided early to give my life to something eternal and absolute.

Truth forever on the scaffold meaning