The Socialist Decision

About the Contributor(s): Paul Tillich (1886-1965), an early critic of Hitler, was barred from teaching in Germany in 1933. He emigrated to the United States, holding teaching positions at Union Theological Seminary, New York (1933-1955); Harvard Divinity School (1955-1962); and the University of Chicago Divinity School (1962-1965). Among his many books are Theology of Culture, Dynamics of Faith, and the three volumes of Systematic Theology.

Paul Tillich never abandoned the Marxist ideas he developed during the political upheaval of his native Germany in the 1920s and 1930s. Indeed, he subsumed and incorporated Marxism into the construction of his post-German religious thinking and theology which he pioneered after fleeing to the USA in 1933. In the "Socialist Emigre, Brian Donnelly deals with the philosophical foundations of Tillich's theology, specifically the important thread of Marxism, and argues that Tillich's later and highly acclaimed theology cannot be divorced from his earlier Marxist views. This makes for a seminal work which examines Tillich in a new and critical light and furthers the debate as to the structure of his philosophical theology and the nature of his eclectic thought. This unique study features Tillich's boundary thought regarding Marxism and religion, faith and culture, history and supernaturalism, and emphasizes Tillich the philosopher rather then Tillich the theologian.

Paul Tillich never abandoned the Marxist ideas he developed during the political upheaval of his native Germany in the 1920s and 1930s. Indeed, he subsumed and incorporated Marxism into the construction of his post-German religious thinking and theology which he pioneered after fleeing to the USA in 1933. In the "Socialist Emigre, Brian Donnelly deals with the philosophical foundations of Tillich's theology, specifically the important thread of Marxism, and argues that Tillich's later and highly acclaimed theology cannot be divorced from his earlier Marxist views. This makes for a seminal work which examines Tillich in a new and critical light and furthers the debate as to the structure of his philosophical theology and the nature of his eclectic thought. This unique study features Tillich's boundary thought regarding Marxism and religion, faith and culture, history and supernaturalism, and emphasizes Tillich the philosopher rather then Tillich the theologian.

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'Moments of Decision' takes a fascinating look at the course of radicalism in our time. It orients progressives with respect to their traditions, shows the relevance of the past to the present, and provides a new political interpretation of the struggle for democracy and economic justice.

Paul Tillich and Religious Socialism: Towards a Kingdom of Peace and Justice argues that the Kingdom of God—the reign of God over all human affairs via God’s manifestations in love, power, and justice—can be fragmentarily achieved through a religious socialism that creatively integrates the early Tillich’s socialist thinking with later insights throughout Tillich’s theological career and with contemporary developments in just peacemaking. The resulting religious socialism is defined by economic justice and a recognition of the sacred reality in all human endeavors. It employs Christianity to furnish the necessary depth for warding off materialism and affirming the spiritual dimension of both labor and acquiring material goods. The unbridgeable Marxist chasm between expectation and reality is bridged through new being, already historically inaugurated in the Christhood of Jesus. New being is fundamentally oriented toward bringing justice to the poor, the disenfranchised, and the marginalized. It affirms the individual and equal value of all persons and thus, in Kantian terms, promotes a kingdom of intrinsically worthwhile ends rather than a kingdom of instrumentally worthwhile means of things.