Paul Tillich
Paul Tillich
Paul Johannes Tillichwas a German American Christian existentialist philosopher and Lutheran theologian who is widely regarded as one of the most influential theologians of the twentieth century...
NationalityGerman
ProfessionTheologian
Date of Birth20 August 1886
CountryGermany
cruelty
Cruelty towards others is always also cruelty towards ourselves.
decision risk being-free
Decision is a risk rooted in the courage of being free.
believe men decision
Man is not what he believes himself to be in his conscious decisions.
science religion substance
Culture (science) is the form of religion; Religion is the substance of culture (science).
reality names giving
Faith consists in being vitally concerned with that ultimate reality to which I give the symbolical name of God. Whoever reflects earnestly on the meaning of life is on the verge of an act of faith.
men self years
In a man like Friedrich von Schlegel the courage to be as an individual self produced complete neglect of participation, but it also produced, in reaction to the emptiness of this self-affirmation, the desire to return to a collective. Schlegel, and with him many extreme individualists in the last hundred years, became Roman Catholics. The courage to be as oneself broke down, and one turned to an institutional embodiment of the courage to be as a part.
joy anxiety desire
The affirmation of one's essential being in spite of desires and anxieties creates joy.
There is no place to which we could flee from God, which is outside of God.
thinking faithful doubt
Sometimes I think it is my mission to bring faith to the faithless, and doubt to the faithful.
inspirational wisdom lonely
Language... has created the word 'loneliness' to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word 'solitude' to express the glory of being alone.
religious hurt mean
Being religious means asking passionately the question of the meaning of our existence and being willing to receive answers, even if the answers hurt.
love-is and-love deterioration
The separation of faith and love is always a consequence of a deterioration of religion.
nature moving sea
We can speak without voice to the trees and the clouds and the waves of the sea. Without words they respond through the rustling of leaves and the moving of clouds and the murmuring of the sea.
faith doubt would-be
Out of the element of participation follows the certainty of faith; out of the element of separation follows the doubt in faith. And each is essential for the nature of faith. Sometimes certainty conquers doubt, but it cannot eliminate doubt. The conquered of today may become the conqueror of tomorrow. Sometimes doubt conquers faith, but it still contains faith. Otherwise it would be indifference.