Paul Tillich |
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When
Hitler came to power, this vigorously anti-Nazi philosopher of power
was the first non-Jewish professor to be expelled from his post.
Thanks to Reinhold Neibuhr's efforts, Paulus Johannes Tillich became
one of Hitler's gifts to the New World. This rare and original interpreter
of the meaning and value of existence has been highly honored by
theist and humanist, Jew and Christian and Buddhist. One symbol
of his stature is the fact that Roman Catholics published a book
on Professor Tillich in Catholic Thought, which explicitly
hails Tillich's creative synthesis as a major event in the history
of Western thought. This volume is "Dedicated to the memory
of Gustave Weigel, S.J."
In terms of relevant religious leaders functioning mid-century,
we dare not exclude Paul Tillich who persistently affirmed that
religion is culture. As early as 1919, Tillich was known throughout
Europe for his lecture on 'The Theology of Culture" in which
he asserted: "Religion is the substance of culture, and culture
the form of religion." This interpretation of religion as the
expression of man's ultimate concern may best be seen against a
background of modern negation of God. In The Courage to Be,
Tillich spoke sharply of this deep negation: "The decisive
event which underlies the search for meaning and the despair of
it in the twentieth century is the loss of God in the nineteenth
century. The result is the pronouncement, 'God is dead,' and with
him the whole system of values and meanings in which one lived."
This vacuum—this "sacred void"—enabled Tillich's
ministry as a military chaplain, preacher, teacher, and philosopher
of art and science to express the relevant religious fact that interpretations
of Power are potent. Religion is culture, education, science, creativity
and civilization because religion is experience of Power that is
always somewhere-nowhere-everywhere in individuals, in institutions,
and in our interpretations of the meaning of life.
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