What Makes a Political Martyr? The Political and Cultural Deification of Jesus and Martin Luther King, Jr.

In the western world, Jesus stands alone as a deified persona. Today he is seen as a symbol for peace, love and moral righteousness, often used by people who don’t even share his philosophy. Misuse happens, people will use things correctly or incorrectly to justify their actions. This thesis studies how a person, particularly a martyr, gets to that point. Moreover, his ascension to a deity-like figure in western culture has weight. His words and actions (or actions in the stories) are powerful symbols just like his philosophy. Likewise, during the middle twentieth century in America, Dr. Martin Luther King began his rise Jesus like rise as counter to the contemporary political and social culture. Similarly disliked for challenging the status quo, Dr. King is not the only American political figure assassinated for disrupting the status quo. Yet aside from Jesus, he remains the only figure in America society with his own day as a federal holiday. Why? What similarities are there to Jesus that might explain this and does Jesus’s path to cultural and societal deification explain King’s rise? Additionally this thesis will cover how close King is to Jesus as a political tool. Political and cultural deification is clearly a question that has no objective conclusion but it’s something I wanted to research more, to see if there was some path and formula for these martyrs, possibly even considering whether martyrdom is required. I argue a variety of factors contribute to this, as explained by their lives, but the main factor is their dual use as a symbol: one for political power and one for uniting against the political power. Other martyrs do not reach this dual status in the way Jesus and King do and I use political history to defend my idea.No embargoAcademic Major: Philosoph