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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 February 2009
It is almost a truism to assert that religious language is symbolic,' declares Paul Tillich in an article entitled ‘Existential Analysis and Religious Symbols’.1 His whole theology is from first to last dominated by the ideas both of existential analysis and religious symbol. Tillich rejects out of hand the notion of God as literally a personal and spiritual Being who literally enters into personal and spiritual relationships with human beings. He seeks, therefore, to transform the content of historical Christian dogmatics into an array of symbols and contends that the whole theological enterprise is to seek and set forth the meaning of these symbols. ‘Theology as such’, states Tillich, ‘has neither the task nor the power to confirm or to negate religious symbols. Its task is to interpret them according to theological principles and methods.’2
page 414 note 1 ‘Existential Analysis and Religious Symbols’ in Contemporary Problems of Religion, ed. Basilius, Harold A. (1956), chapter ii, p. 37fGoogle Scholar; cf. Herberg, Will, Four Existential Theologians (1958), p. 306f.Google Scholar
page 414 note 2 Tillich, Paul, Systematic Theology (1951), i, p. 266Google Scholar; cf. ‘Theology is for Tillich the interpretation of the symbols of man's ultimate concern’ (‘The Life and Mind of Paul Tillich’ in Religion and Culture, Essays in Honour of Paul Tillich (1959), p. 355. note 9).
page 414 note 3 cf. Tillich, Paul, Systematic Theology, ii (1957), p. 9.Google Scholar
page 415 note 1 cf. Systematic Theology, ii, p. 121.
page 415 note 2 cf. ‘Faith cannot even guarantee the name “Jesus” in respect of him who was the Christ. It must leave that to the incertitudes of our historical knowledge’ (Systematic Theology, ii, p. 123).
page 415 note 3 cf. Systematic Theology, i, p. 266; ii, p. 132; cf. Weigel, Gustave, ‘Myth and Symbol’ in Religion and Culture, p. 127.Google Scholar
page 415 note 4 Systematic Theology, i, p. 146, cf. p. 267.
page 415 note 5 Tillich, Paul, ‘Reply to Interpretation and Criticisms’ in The Theology of Paul Tillich, ed. Kegley, Charles W. and Bretnall, Robert W. (1956), p. 333.Google Scholar
page 415 note 6 Tillich, Paul, ‘The Religious Symbol’ in Religious Experience and Truth, ed. Hook, S. (1962), p. 315.Google Scholar
page 415 note 7 Systematic Theology, ii, p. 10.
page 415 note 8 cf. Campbell, C. A., On Selfhood and Godhood (1957), ch. xvii.Google Scholar
page 415 note 9 cf. Hook, S., ‘The Atheism of Paul Tillich’ in Religious Experience and Truth (1962), p. 59f.Google Scholar
page 416 note 1 Systematic Theology, i, p. 262.
page 416 note 2 cf. Systematic Theology, i, p. 227; The Dynamics of Faith (1957), p. 47.
page 416 note 3 Systematic Theology, i, p. 265, Cf. ‘the religious symbol has special character in that it points to the ultimate level of being, to ultimate reality, to being itself, to meaning itself. That which is the ground of being is the object to which the religious symbol points’ (‘Theology and Symbolism’ in Religious Symbolism, ed. Johnson, F. Ernest (1955), pp. 109–110)Google Scholar.
page 417 note 1 cf. Systematic Theology, ii, p. 100f.
page 417 note 2 Systematic Theology, ii, p. 103.
page 417 note 3 Tillich, Paul, ‘The Religious Symbol’ in Religious Experience and Truth, p. 317.Google Scholar
page 417 note 4 cf. Systematic Theology, ii, pp. 101ff.
page 418 note 1 ibid., p. 105.
page 418 note 2 cf. Tillich, Paul, The Interpretation of History (1936), p. 260Google Scholar; cf. p. 165. See McDonald, H. D., Theories of Revelation (1963), p. 94.Google Scholar
page 418 note 3 Systematic Theology, ii, p. 108.
page 418 note 4 cf. ibid., p. 109.
page 418 note 5 ‘A Reinterpretation of the Doctrine of the Incarnation’, Church Quarterly Review, CXLVII: 294, January-March 1949, pp. 133–148.Google Scholar
page 419 note 1 Systematic Theology, ii, p. 110.
page 419 note 2 ibid.
page 419 note 3 ibid., p. 112.
page 419 note 4 ibid., p. 113.
page 419 note 5 ibid., p. 129.
page 419 note 6 ibid., p. 127.
page 419 note 7 cf. McDonald, H. D., Theories of Revelation (1963), p. 95.Google Scholar
page 419 note 8 Killen, R. Allan, The Ontological Theology of Paul Tillich (1956), p. 167.Google Scholar
page 420 note 1 Systematic Theology, ii, p. 183.
page 420 note 2 ibid., p. 182.
page 420 note 3 Tillich, Paul, ‘The Religious Symbol’ in Religious Experience and Truth, p. 313.Google Scholar
page 420 note 4 Systematic Theology, ii, p. 189.
page 420 note 5 ibid.
page 421 note 1 ‘The Life and Mind of Paul Tillich’ in Religion and Culture, p. 23.
page 421 note 2 Tillich, Paul, ‘The Meaning and Justification of Religious Symbols’ in Religious Experience and Truth, p. 4.Google Scholar
page 421 note 3 Systematic Theology, i, p. 263.
page 421 note 4 Tillich, Paul, ‘Theology and Symbolism’ in Religious Symbolism, ed. Johnson, F. Ernest, p. 110.Google Scholar
page 421 note 5 cf. e.g., ‘The symbol participates in the reality which is symbolised’ (Systematic Theology, ii, p. 10). Symbols participate ‘in the reality and power of that to which they point’ (Tillich, Paul, ‘Religious Symbols and Our Knowledge of God’ in The Christian Scholar, xxxviii, p. 191).Google Scholar
page 422 note 1 ‘The Meaning and Justification of Religious Symbols’, in Religious Experience and Truth, p. 4; cf. Systematic Theology, ii, p. 9.
page 422 note 2 Tillich, Paul, ‘The Religious Symbol’ in Religious Experience and Truth, p. 302.Google Scholar
page 422 note 3 ‘The Meaning and Justification of Religious Symbols’, ibid., p. 5.
page 422 note 4 ‘The Religious Symbol’, ibid., p. 303.
page 423 note 1 ‘The Meaning and Justification of Religious Symbols’, ibid., p. 6; cf. Systematic Theology, i, pp. 234f, 238f.
page 423 note 2 cf. Systematic Theology, i, p. 227.
page 424 note 1 Baillie, John, The Sense of the Presence of God (1962), pp. 124–125.Google Scholar
page 424 note 2 ‘The Atheism of Paul Tillich’ in Religious Experience and Truth, p. 61.
page 424 note 3 Taubes, Jacob, ‘The Copernican Turn of Theology’ in Religious Experience and Truth, p. 74.Google Scholar
page 424 note 4 cf. Tillich, Paul, The Dynamics of Faith (1957), p. 47.Google Scholar
page 424 note 5 Hook, Sidney, ‘The Atheism of Paul Tillich’ in Religious Experience and Truth, p. 60.Google Scholar
page 424 note 6 cf. Kroner, Richard, Speculation and Revelation in the Age of Christian Philosophy (1959), p. 146 (footnote).Google Scholar
page 424 note 7 cf. McDonald, H. D., Theories of Revelation (1963), p. 97.Google Scholar
page 425 note 1 Systematic Theology, i, p. 263.
page 426 note 1 Thomas, Vincent, ‘Darkness or Light?’ in Religious Experience and Truth, p. 82.Google Scholar
page 426 note 2 cf. Tillich, Paul. ‘The Religious Symbol’ in Religious Experience and Truth, p. 302.Google Scholar
page 426 note 3 Campbell, C. A., On Selfhood and Godhood (1957), p. 351, cf. p. 356.Google Scholar
page 427 note 1 Demos, Raphael, ‘Religious Symbols And/Or Religious Beliefs’ in Religious Experience and Truth, p. 55.Google Scholar
page 427 note 2 ibid., p. 56.
page 429 note 1 Ficek, Jerome, ‘The Christology of Paul Tillich: The New Being in Jesus as the Christ’ in Bulletin of the Evangelical Theological Society, Vol. i, Number 2, Spring 1958, p. 22.Google Scholar
page 430 note 1 cf. Baillie, John, The Sense of the Presence of God (1962), p. 119.Google Scholar
