|
|
Studying Religion in Culture
|
|
Paul Tillich
(1886-1965)
The German-born Paul Tillich was an ordained minister who is known
today for his work in the U.S. as one of the most influential Protestant
systematic theologians of the early- to mid-twentieth century. He
studied at the Universities of Berlin, Tübingen, Halle, and
Breslau (where he was awarded his Ph.D. in 1910), and served as
an army chaplain during Word War I. Subsequent to that, Tillich
held university appointments in Berlin, Marburg, Dresden, and Frankfurt,
though his position was terminated by the Nazi government in early
1933. By that Fall, Tillich had been invited to travel to the US
to hold an appointment at Union Theological Seminary, in New York.
Eventually, he also held appointments at Harvard University as well
as the University of Chicago's Divinity School. Tillich's fame is
the result of his efforts to create a theological system that took
into account a series of early- and mid-twentieth-century intellectual
currents, including the influence of European Existentialism, the
growing awareness, and thus interest, in cultures outside the Euro-North
Ameircan world, as well as an interest in reconsidering the long-assumed
split between religion and contemporary culture. Like many who have
put their stamp on the field, he delivered the Gifford Lectures
(at Scotland's University of Aberdeen), which resulted in one of
the works for which he is best known today: the 3 volume Systematic
Theology (an effort to present a complete and coherent theological
system). Tillich's normative scholarship (his interest in articulating
the "truth" and the "meaning" of the Christian
witness) distinguishes him from the modern study of religion, as
does his attempt to define religion, which employs the common strategy
of lodging religion within the individual by equating it with vague,
subjective value judgments. Nonetheless, given the historical development
of the academic study of religion from largely (Protestant) Christian
theological concerns, Tillich can be seen as a transitional figure
whose interest in contemporary culture, whose willingness to work
with Historians of Religions, and whose efforts to understand religion
"in a wider sense," as he phrased it, prompted a generation
of humanistic scholars to expand their interests to include cross-cultural
analysis of religious symbols.
|
|
Major Works
The Interpretation of History (1926; English translation
1936)
The Protestant Era (1931; English translation 1948)
Systematic Theology (1951-1963; 3 vols.)
The Courage to Be (1952)
Dynamics of Faith (1957)
Christianity and the Encounter of the World Religions (1963)
The Future of Religion (1966)
|
|
Quotation
"Faith is a concept--and a reality--which is difficult to grasp
and to describe. Almost every word by which faith has been described
... is open to new misinterpretations. This cannot be otherwise,
since faith is not a phenomenon besides others, but the central
phenomenon in man's personal life, manifest and hidden at the same
time. Faith is an essential possibility in man, and therefore its
existence is necessary and universal.... If faith is understood
for what it centrally is, ultimate concern, it cannot be undercut
by modern science or any kind of philosophy.... Faith stands upon
itself and justifies itself against those who attack it, because
they can attack it only in the name of another faith. It is the
triumph of the dynamics of faith that any denial of faith is itself
an expression of faith, of an ultimate concern."
- from Paul Tillich, Dynamics of Faith (1957)
|
|
Select Web Resources on Tillich
A
collection of web resources on Paul Tillich
Dictionary
of Philosophers entry on Paul Tillich
Christianity
and the Encounter of the World Religions, by Paul Tillich
The
Boston Collaborative Encyclopedia of Modern Western Theology
entry on Paul Tillich
A
collection of articles by, and about the work and influence of,
Paul Tillich at www.religion-online.org
|
|
Secondary Literature on Tillich and Religion
Wilhelm Pauck and Marion Pauck, Paul Tillich: His Life and Thought.
Harper & Row, 1976.
Walter Capps, Religious Studies: The Making of a Discipline,
pp. 30-5. Fortress Press, 1995.
Robert P. Scharleman, "Tillich, Paul," The Encyclopedia
of Religion, 2nd edition. vol. 13, pp. 9203-5. Macmillan Reference
USA, 2005.
|
|
|
<
Back to "About our Motto"
|
|
Learn more about studying religion >
|
| |
|
