“The Gospel I Will Preach” 47    involvement in the southern struggle would have to wait, however. He wanted to further his education before returning South, leading him to Boston University, where he pursued a Ph.D. in theology. King intended to study a school of philosophy known as “personal- ism” with Edgar Brightman, one of Boston University’s many renowned professors. The core principle of personalism when applied to theology is that human beings in a community provide the best approximation of the character of God. Personalism supports having faith in a personal God who is in relationship with creation. This view meshed well with the tradition of many black churches, which tended to emphasize God’s accessibility and involvement in the world. Always interested in being a well-educated pastor, King was excited to embrace a theological system 24 and language that validated many of his deepest religious convictions. In later years, King paid homage to the influence of significant white theologians, philosophers, and social theorists when recounting his in- tellectual development. In an essay titled “Pilgrimage to Nonviolence” penned for inclusion in Stride toward Freedom, King emphasized his ex- posure to Walter Rauschenbusch, Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Reinhold Niebuhr. Many scholars disagree with the weight the essay grants to these thinkers, noting that they merely provided systems and language for deeply held beliefs King had developed years earlier from the African American Baptist church. For example, while King credited Niebuhr’s Moral Man and Moral Society for providing a necessary cor- rective to the unbridled optimism found in liberalism, many historians have rightly tempered the significance of Niebuhr’s influence, noting that living under segregation and white supremacy would check anyone’s un- bridled optimism. During King’s first months at seminary, he was already questioning the significance of “high-minded” liberalism, suggesting it 25 failed to address the daily challenges and struggles people face. By the time King reached Crozer, he was already familiar with the published sermons of the more renowned preachers of the day. Keith Miller has helpfully examined the extensive use of these homilies in King’s preaching, showing how he regularly borrowed titles, themes, images, and even paragraphs as building blocks for his own sermons. In an exercise for a preaching course during his first year at Crozer, Robert Keighton asked the class to write five brief sermon introductions. For one of these, King