The theological concept of image of God as foundation of universal equality and dignity in the black abolitionist movement and in the theology of Martin Luther King, Jr.

马丁·路德·金经常使用神学概念，即所有人都是按照上帝的形象创造的，以证明所有人都有平等的尊严。从人类尊严的基础上，他提出了对所有人平等的公民权和人权的追求。在他的概念中，这与美国南部废除种族隔离的追求相结合，后来又与世界范围内所有人的社会和经济权利的追求相结合。上帝形象概念在把人的尊严的神学基础与对普遍人权的追求联系起来方面的作用，在1950年代和1960年代远非不言而喻，不仅在大陆神学中如此。然而，到目前为止，在金的神学中还没有基于综合资料对这种关系进行系统的分析。这是项目第一部分的目标。调查的这一部分还需要考虑金使用了哪些来源和传统，以及他如何将它们系统化。我们可以假设金借鉴了废奴主义的传统。通常，参考的是1833年以后占主导地位的废奴主义话语。然而，这种通过上帝形象的神学概念来证实人类尊严和人权的话语模式与此相关的是，不仅是对废除奴隶制的追求而且是对非洲人后裔的全面解放的追求早在1829/30年就已经出现了，例如沃克著名的《呼吁》沃克的论点与当代白人废奴主义者的观念和目标不同，白人废奴主义者大多不接受黑人的平等尊严，而是强调奴隶制的罪恶，并认为对奴隶制的审判将由白人来承担。因此，他们通常不以黑人的解放为目标，而只是在非洲逐步废除奴隶制和对自由黑人的殖民化。在项目的第二部分，这种神学论证在1819年和1850年之间的黑人废奴主义话语将更详细地重建。最后，将黑人废奴主义和马丁·路德·金神学中关于人类尊严的神学基础话语进行比较，以找出两者的异同。如果可以证明，上帝意象的概念和普遍人类尊严的基础之间存在着关联在1830年左右的黑人废奴主义者的话语中这些话语模式被马丁·路德·金运用并系统化，那么之前关于人类尊严和人权的神学基础话语起源的观点就必须得到限制。从神学的角度来看，将恢复一种基本的论述，这甚至可以丰富目前关于种族主义和人类尊严的辩论。

Martin Luther King, Jr. regularly employs the theological concept of all human beings created in the image of God in order to substantiate the equal dignity of all humans. From this foundation of hu-man dignity, he derives the quest for equal civil and human rights for all people. In his concept, this is combined with the quest for the abolition of segregation in the South of the US, and later on with the quest for worldwide social and economic rights for all.The role of the concept of image of God in linking the theological foundation of human dignity to the quest for universal human rights was far from self-evident in the 1950s and 1960s, and not only in continental theology.However, so far there is no systematic analysis of this relationship in King’s theology based on a comprehensive number of sources. This is the goal of the first part of the project. This part of the inquiry also entails consideration of which sources and traditions King uses and how he systematiz-es them.We can assume that King draws on the tradition of abolitionism. Usually, reference is made to the dominant abolitionist discourses after 1833. However, this discursive pattern of substantiating human dignity and human rights by the theological concept of image of God and correlated with this, the quest not only for the abolition of slavery but full emancipation of people of African descent occurs already earlier, for instance in Walker’s famous Appeal from 1829/30. Walker’s argumenta-tion is different from the contemporary concepts and goals of white abolitionists, who mostly do not accept the equal dignity of black people but emphasize the sinfulness of slavery and that the judg-ment for it will come on the white people. Therefore, they normally do not aim for the emancipation of black people but only on the gradual abolition of slavery and colonization of the free blacks in Africa. In the second part of the project, this theological argumentation in the black abolitionist dis-course between 1819 and 1850 shall be reconstructed in more detail.Finally, the theological foundational discourses of human dignity in black abolitionism and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s theology will be compared in order to identify similarities and differences. If it can be shown, that a correlation exists between the concept of imago Dei and the foundation of univer-sal human dignity in the black abolitionist discourse already around 1830 and that these discursive patterns are employed and systematized by Martin Luther King, Jr., then previous views on the genesis of theological foundational discourses of human dignity and human rights must be qualified.In theological perspective a foundational discourse would be recovered, which could enrich even the current debates on racism and human dignity.