Paul Tillich And Sino Christian Theology

With contributors from different generations of the Chinese-speaking world, the book addresses the relevance of Paul Tillich’s thought in the Chinese cultural-political contexts. Appropriating and transforming different themes of Tillich’s thought in the Chinese context, the contributors reframe the dialogue with Buddhism and Confucianism, religion and science, and religion and politics under the interpretation of Tillich’s ideas. The thought-provoking essays examine the intellectual potentiality or further contribution of Paul Tillich’s ideas in Sino-Christian Theology. The book will be of interest to scholars and postgraduate students studying Paul Tillich’s thought, Chinese theology, and East-West religious dialogues.

«Sino-Christian theology» usually refers to an intellectual movement emerged in Mainland China since the late 1980s. The present volume aims to provide a self-explaining sketch of the historical development of this theological as well as cultural movement. In addition to the analyses on the theoretical issues involved and the articulations of the prospect, concrete examples are also offered to illustrate the characteristics of the movement.

By taking seriously Tillich's claim to be a confessional Church theologian rather than a metaphysician with religious interests, this carefully ordered study gains a fresh perspective on the structure of argument upon which his theological enterprise rests. Scriptural material is shown to control his judgments in much the same way that literature controls those of the literary critic--a particularly illuminating comparison in view of his argument that the verbal icon provided by the biblical picture of Jesus as the Christ bears analogia imaginis to the historical Jesus and hence provides the sole access to the original Christian revelation. Tillich's movement from symbols as data to theological judgments as conclusions is seen to be warranted, not by his ontology, but by his presentation of the phenomenology of revelatory events. Though historical study of Jesus and of the Bible is in principle irrelevant to this use of scripture, his confusions in this area are examined, and the structural flaws in his accounts of the biblical picture of Jesus are shown to yield a Christian theology in which Christology is oddly dispensable. Finally, his discussion of God is used as a test case for the analysis of the general structure of his argument, and the various sorts of conclusions that he feels Scripture authorizes him to draw are cogently appraised.

Paul Tillich, forced into exile by the Nazis in 1933, settled in the United States. His many theological works and especially his three volume Systematic Theology have had a profound influence upon contemporary religious thought. This volume concentrates on the key texts and ideas in Tillich's thought. It presents the essential Paul Tillich for students and the general reader. Taylor's introductory essay and notes on the selected texts set Tillich in his historical context, chart the development of this thought and indicate the significance of his theology in the development of Christian theology as a whole. Substantial selections from Tillich's work illustrate key themes: --The struggle for a new theonomy --Protestant theology amid socialist crisis --In the sacred void: being and God --Amid structures of destruction: Christ as new being --Among the ambiguities of life: Spirit and churches --In the end: revisioning and hope

Paul Tillich (1886–1965) is widely regarded as one of the most influential theologians of the 20th century. By bringing his thought together with the theology and practices of an important contemporary Christian movement, Pentecostalism, this volume provokes active, productive, critical, and creative dialogue with a broad range of theological topics. These essays stimulate robust conversation, engage on common ground regarding the work of the Holy Spirit, and offer significant insights into the universal concerns of Christian theology and Paul Tillich and his legacy.

(Peeters 1994)

'The Irrelevance and Relevance of the Christian Message' is a transcript of Paul Tillich's 1963 Earl Lectures at the Graduate Theological Union. Delivered just two years before his death, these lectures present Tillich's heartfelt and deeply personal understanding of the relevance of Christian preaching and Christian theology. Why, Tillich asks, has the Christian message become seemingly irrelevant to contemporary society? Is the gospel able to give answers to the questions raised by the existentialist analysis of the human predicament? Yes, he answers -- but in order to do so Christian teaching and preaching need to undergo dramatic renewal, the root of which requires an affirmation of love as central to Christian identity. Further, we need to recognize that this task is not limited to preachers and theologians; all of us together are responsible for the irrelevance or the relevance of the gospel in our time.