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
character courageous shows
In the courageous standing of uncertainty, faith shows most visibly its dynamic character.
depth knows
He who knows about depth knows about God.
truth passion answers
The passion for truth is silenced by answers which have the weight of undisputed authority.
attitude existentialism existence
The existential attitude is one of involvement in contrast to a merely theoretical or detached attitude. "Existential" in this sense can be defined as participating in a situation, especially a cognitive situation, with the whole of one's existence.
self unity principles
I have given no definition of love. This is impossible, because there is no higher principle by which it could be defined. It is life itself in its actual unity. The forms and structures in which love embodies itself are the forms and structures in which love overcomes its self-destructive forces.
opposites political degrees
[American] conformism might approximate collectivism, not so much in economic respects, and not too much in political respects, but very much in the pattern of daily life and thought. Whether this will happen or not, and if it does to what degree, is partly dependent on the power of resistance in those who represent the opposite pole of the courage to be, the courage to be as oneself.
character self opposites
Individualism is the self-affirmation of the individual self as individual self without regard to its participation in its world. As such it is the opposite of collectivism, the self affirmation of the self as part of a larger whole without regard to its character as an individual self.
bridges atmosphere enlightenment
The courage to be as oneself within the atmosphere of Enlightenment is the courage to affirm oneself as a bridge from a lower to a higher state of rationality. It is obvious that this kind of courage to be must become conformist the moment its revolutionary attack on that which contradicts reason has ceased, namely in the victorious bourgeoisie.
dozen tests ethics
Morality [or ethics] is not a subject; it is a life put to the test in dozens of moments.
destiny men decision
But freedom is the possibility of a total and centered act of the personality, an act in which all the drives and influences which constitute the destiny of man are brought into the centered unity of a decision.
attitude existentialism infinite
Knowledge of that which concerns us infinitely is possible only in an attitude of infinite concern.
death anxiety depth
In the depth of the anxiety of having to die is the anxiety of being eternally forgotten.
spiritual wisdom loss
Anxiety may consist of the loss of psychological or spiritual meaning which is identified with one's existence as a self, i.e., the threat of meaninglessness.
plato home men
Plato ... teaches the separation of the human soul from its " home " in the realm of pure essences. Man is estranged from what he essentially is. His existence in a transitory world contradicts his essential participation in the eternal world of ideas .