Course Description
On September 24, 2015, Pope Francis addressed the US Congress. He named four Americans who should be emulated: Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., Dorothy Day, and Thomas Merton. Two of those four identified themselves as personalists: Martin Luther King Jr. and Dorothy Day. This was not a coincidence – Pope Francis also stated in his speech the central theme of personalism: All political activity must serve and promote the good of the human person and be based on respect for his or her dignity.” Although Day and King both claimed to be personalists, they were influenced by two distinct personalist traditions: Day by the largely Catholic French personalist tradition and King by the largely Methodist Boston University personalist tradition. The two traditions appear to have developed largely independently of each other: Boston University personalists made occasional, rather minor, references to some of the French personalists, but I have found no evidence that the French personalists knew of the BU personalists.
In this series of three talks, I will begin by tracing the history, major ideas, and major social concerns of the two personalist traditions. In the second talk, I will compare and contrast the ethical approaches of the two traditions by comparing Nikolai Berdyaev’s The Destiny of Man with Edgard Brightman’s Moral Laws. Finally, I will compare and contrast the ways in which Day and King were influenced by their personalist traditions.
When, Where, Who
When: The course will meet the first three Mondays of July (7/6, 7/13, 7/20). All course meetings will take place from 7-8:30pm CST.
Where: Course meetings will take place on Zoom. Live sessions are available to Maurin Academy partons at the Worker-Scholar tier or above. Recordings will be made available to patrons at the Salt of the Earth tier or above. Check out our Patreon for more info!
Who: The course is taught by Dr. Harry Murray. Harry is professor emeritus of sociology at Nazareth University (nee College) in Rochester NY. He is the author of Do Not Neglect Hospitality: The Catholic Worker and the Homeless (Temple University Press, 1990), based on participant observation at three Worker Houses: St. Joseph’s House in Rochester, St. Joseph’s House in New York City, and the Mustard Seed in Worcester, MA. He first became involved with the Catholic Worker Movement in the late 1970’s, spending two years at Unity Kitchen in Syracuse NY. He has been engaged in nonviolent resistance to war and oppression of poor people. He was awarded tenure by Nazareth while serving a three month sentence in a Salvation Army Community Corrections Center for resisting the first Gulf War.
Course Schedule
- Week 1 – July 6, 2026
- History and comparison of Boston University and French personalism.
- Week 2 – July 13, 2026
- Comparison of ethical approaches: Berdyaev’s Destiny of Man compared with Edgar Brightman’s Moral Laws.
- Week 3 – July 20, 2026
- How the two schools of personalism influenced Martin Luther King Jr. and Dorothy Day.
Course Flyer
