Kuruvilla Pandikattu SJ
The courageous life of Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968), who was one of the key figures in the Civil Rights movement, is what makes him a legend. But he was also a superb thinker, social critic and promoter of science-religion dialogue.
“Strength To Love,” a collection of sermons King wrote on various subjects, is considered one of his best works. Among the sermons in the book is one titled “A tough mind and a tender heart,” which is King’s reflection on Jesus’ admonition to his disciples in the Gospel. Matthew claims that Jesus expected his followers to be “wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.”
King preaches on the importance of having a “tough mind,” which he defines as having “incisive thinking, realistic appraisal, and decisive judgement.” He claimed that the present world exhibits an excessive amount of “softmindedness” and “unbelievable gullibility.” He added, “Softmindedness frequently infiltrates religion. Because of this, religion has occasionally rejected new truth with a dogmatic fervour.
King, though, had a high regard for science. He praised the significant advancements in science and the possibility of technology to make life better for everyone in a number of lectures, sermons, and other writings. In “A Tough Mind and a Tender Heart,” he criticised those who believed that science is against religion.
He said that toughminded scientists and soft-minded religious believers might disagree. “But not between science and religion. Their respective worlds are different and their methods are dissimilar.” He adds,
“Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power; religion gives man wisdom which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals. They are complementary.”
King believes that religion’s purpose is to help us understand our relationships with one another, not to explain the natural world. Additionally, King believed that for religion to be beneficial, science had to be present. Also the opposite.
According to him, “Science keeps religion from sinking into the valley of crippling irrationalism and paralyzing obscurantism,” and “Religion prevents science from falling into the marsh of obsolete materialism and moral nihilism.”
King described this connection between religion and science as the development of compassion.
“Toughmindedness without tenderheartedness is cold and detached,” he said. “What is more tragic than to see a person who has risen to the disciplined heights of toughmindedness but has at the same time sunk to the passionless depths of hardheartedness?”
King elaborated this notion further in his sermon “Keep Moving From This Mountain.”
“Through our scientific genius we made of the world a neighborhood, but we failed through moral commitment to make of it a brotherhood, and so we’ve ended up with guided missiles and misguided men,” he said. “And the great challenge is to move out of the mountain of practical materialism and move on to another and higher mountain which recognizes somehow that we must live by and toward the basic ends of life. We must move on to that mountain which says in substance, ‘What doth it profit a man to gain the whole world of means – airplanes, televisions, electric lights – and lose the end: the soul?’”
King delivered that sermon about 50 years ago, yet it still holds true today. King encouraged nonviolence in an age where science and religion are still at odds, at least in popular culture. He pushed us to draw the best from both in order to become our best selves rather than competing for domination of one over the other.
In King’s opinion, doing so required fusing the “toughheadedness” of a focused, scientific intellect with the “tenderheartedness” of a kind, spiritual spirit.
kuru@xlri.ac.in
