After graduating from Crozer Theological Seminary in 1951, Martin Luther King, Jr. headed to Boston University's School of Theology to pursue his doctoral studies. King's desire to study at Boston University grew out of his increasing interest in personalism, a philosophy that asserts that the meaning of ultimate reality is found in personality. Two of the country's leading personalist theologians, Edgar S. Brightman and L. Harold DeWolf, taught at Boston University and later refined King's concept of the theory. Additionally, Raymond Bean, one of King's favorite professors at Crozer, graduated from Boston University and characterized the school as a hospitable environment for African-American students.
As a student at Boston University, King continued to pursue his interest in personalism, enrolling in several courses taught by Brightman and DeWolf, who became King's primary mentors. King also broadened his studies by taking several classes on the history of philosophy that examined the works of Reinhold Niebuhr, Alfred North Whitehead, Plato, and Hegel. King's tenure at Boston University culminated with the completion of his dissertation, entitled "A Comparison of the Conception of God in the Thinking of Paul Tillich and Henry Nelson Wieman." Although King had not previously studied either Tillich or Wieman, he was interested in their disbelief in the personality of God, which contrasted greatly with his earlier studies of personalism.
Although King received satisfactory grades for his work at Boston University, his papers displayed little originality. As later analysis would reveal, many of King's essays, as well as his dissertation, relied upon appropriated words and ideas for which he failed to provide adequate citations. King's plagiarism escaped detection during his lifetime, and his professors had little reason to suspect him of such, based on his success in the classroom and on written examinations.
Outside of the classroom, King organized and participated in the Dialectical Society, which consisted of a dozen theological students who met monthly to discuss philosophical and theological ideas and their application to the black situation in the United States. King also delivered sermons at local churches, developing a reputation as a powerful preacher. While in Boston, King was introduced to Coretta King, a student at the New England Conservatory of Music.
King's experience at Boston University further developed his concept of theology. Despite his failures to include adequate citation, King's papers demonstrated the construction of his theological identity and the utilization of insights that would later influence his spiritual leadership.