Paul Tillich (Jesus, Creator, beliefs, creation, Revelation)

[ChristineES]

I have a great interest of Paul Tillich and his philosophy of Ultimate Concern and his unique view of God. He views of theology were different from others- He believed that Jesus was a revelation of God, not God Himself. He believed that:
"God does not exist. He is being itself beyond essence and existence. Therefore to argue that God exists is to deny him."
Dr. Tillich believed that such a existence would make God Finite- That God was beyond being, beyond finitude and limitation.

Here is another quote from Dr. Tillich:

Religion is the state of being grasped by an ultimate concern, a concern which qualifies all other concerns as preliminary and which itself contains the answer to the question of a meaning of our life.

Would anyone else like to post something about Tillich? His beliefs were very unique, to say the least and I would welcome any comments or posts on him.
If you would like to read more about Tillich, look him up in Wikipedia- It is worth the search.

[angellous_evangellous]

I thought Paul Tillich was a Christian theologian.

Paul Tillich - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[angellous_evangellous]

I've read a lot of Tillich, and I remember liking him.

But I'm not sure if assuming that God doesn't exist - or that our existential thinking somehow effect's God's existence - is a good place to start for the doing of Christian theology. The Christian message, of course, begins with the reality of God as the Creator who is perfectly able to act within history according to God's good purposes.

I suppose our understanding of Tillich here may rest on his definition of "argue." Does he mean "to prove using intersubjective methods" or does he mean simply to "assert by faith that God exists."

[Runt]

I wonder if Tillich was adopting an extreme stance of negative theology when he posited that God does not exist. I cannot imagine any other possible way to make such a statement without being entirely contradictory. Is it possible to be "beyond existence"? Sure... that's called "inexistent" and one must ask what the purpose of believing in---let alone developing an entire system of thought and action around---an inexistent entity would be. Such an entity does not interact with our world---not through cause and effect, not through miracles, not through revelations---and thus has no relationship whatsoever to creation, cause and effect, judgment, or any other issue of concern to religious existent beings, for to interact NECESSITATES an existent entity which interacts. So sure, lots of things don't exist, and Tillich may be right that God is one of them. But if so... who cares about Him/Her/It/Them? Nobody, because an inexistent God would have no effect upon us whatsoever.

[Jayhawker Soule]

Originally Posted by ChristineES

I have a great interest of Paul Tillich and his philosophy of Ultimate Concern and his unique view of God. He views of theology were different from others- He believed that Jesus was a revelation of God, not God Himself. He believed that:
"God does not exist. He is being itself beyond essence and existence. Therefore to argue that God exists is to deny him."
Dr. Tillich believed that such a existence would make God Finite- That God was beyond being, beyond finitude and limitation.

Here is another quote from Dr. Tillich:
Would anyone else like to post something about Tillich? His beliefs were very unique, to say the least and I would welcome any comments or posts on him.
If you would like to read more about Tillich, look him up in Wikipedia- It is worth the search.

You would find Shirley Jackson Case and the Chicago School: The Socio-Historical Method interesting.