MLK’s worldview is animated by teleological conviction: the arc of the moral universe bends toward justice because there is a metaphysical, theological, and historical momentum that makes hope not only meaningful but obligatory. His entire praxis presupposes:

history has direction,

moral effort matters,

human beings are responsive to conscience,

redemption is possible,

collective action can transform structural cruelty.

MLK operates in a covenantal, prophetic, eschatological ontology — even his secular rhetoric is shaped by the belief that justice is not only possible but demanded by a deeper order of reality (God, natural law, moral reason).


The civil rights movement only becomes possible because its leaders and participants attempt to reject ontological exhaustion. Political mass-movements require faith in:

meaning,

collective efficacy,

historical mutability,

the improvability of the world.