“We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. . . . Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words, ‘Too late.’” Martin Luther King, Jr.’s bracing words from his 1967 “A Time to Break Silence” speech delivered at the Riverside Church in New York underscore the immediate and urgent need to create a just and sustainable world. Today, we face an existential threat to the very future of humanity as a result of human induced climate change. This existential threat to human life on the planet forces us to confront the necessity for deliberate and committed action to create new forms of sustainable human community. This lecture calls for a broad conception of environmental ethics as a critical and necessary response to our contemporary climate crisis. By revisiting King’s ideal of “beloved community,” the lecture articulates an ethical framework that supports the urgent call to create a transformed and livable world.

A scholar committed to a broad and inclusive vision of human flourishing, Corey D. B. Walker is Dean of Wake Forest University School of Divinity, Wake Forest Professor of the Humanities, and Inaugural Director of the Program in African American Studies. He is the 2023-2024 Phi Beta Kappa Frank M. Updike Memorial Scholar.