THEORY OF RELIGION AND SYMBOLS. Tillich’s major work
is the three-volume Systematic Theology, in which Tillich un-
dertakes to interpret Christian symbols so as to show how
they provide answers to ontological questions. Through the
“method of correlation,” he shows how the question of the
meaning of being (the ontological question) is correlated
with the symbol of God as its answer (the theological an-
swer). The symbol God is the reality that answers the ques-
tion of the meaning of being. In the five divisions of System-
atic Theology, Tillich provides, on the one hand, an analysis
of the three basic ways in which the ontological question is
asked and, on the other hand, an interpretation of religious
symbols in which he shows how the symbols present the real-
ity that answers the question of the meaning of being as such.
Simply put, the three basic questions are these: What is the
meaning of being itself? What is the meaning of (human) ex-
istence? What is the meaning of life? The first question, an-
swered by the symbol God, is occasioned by the finitude of
human being. The second question, answered by the symbol
of Christ, is occasioned by the contradictoriness (estrange-
ment) of the human being—the fact that things are not what
they should be and could be. The third question, answered
by the symbol of the Spirit, is occasioned by the ambiguity
of actual life—the fact that life is a mixture of being and non-
being, of the good and the bad, of the creative and the de-
structive. The symbol God presents the meaning of the fini-
tude of being; the symbol Christ presents the meaning of the
contradictoriness of existence; and the symbol Spirit presents
the meaning of the ambiguity of actual life. The actual
human situation is that of life, in which the finitude of being
and the contradictoriness of existence as such are always am-
biguously mixed. To say that “God,” “the Christ,” and “the
Spirit” are symbols is to say that they actually convey the real-
ity of the answer that they represent. In other words, as a
symbol, the word “God” (or the meaning and image borne
by that word) actually presents an ultimate meaning in the
finitude of being in the world; as a symbol, the word or the
image or the history connected with “the Christ” conveys a
real power to bear the contradictions and meaninglessness of
reality without being overwhelmed by them; and the symbol
of “the Spirit” is the actual presence of an unambiguous
meaning that can be discerned through the ambiguities of
life.
Through this method of correlation, Tillich intended to
assign an equal importance to the question of being, which
is the main subject matter of philosophy (or ontology), and
to God as the symbol in which the meaning of being is pres-
ent, which is the main subject matter of theology. The corre-
lation between the two is formulated in the statement “God
is being-itself.” That is to say, what is present in the symbol
God is also the reality to which the ontological concept of
being-itself refers.
Besides the method of correlation, Tillich’s distinctive
contribution to Christian theology lies in three characteris-
tics of his work. The first is his application of the Protestant
principle of justification to the realm of theoretical thought.
One who doubts the reality of God knows the truth despite
that doubt, just as one who sins is justified despite the sin;
the reality of God shows itself to the human mind despite
the doubt, just as the goodness of God appears in human ac-
tions despite their imperfection. The second characteristic of
Tillich’s theology appears in his theology of culture. This
theology of culture is based on the conception that culture
itself is capable of expressing, indirectly, the ultimate mean-
ing that is intended by religious faith. Thus, in his analysis
of contemporary culture Tillich showed how, as culture, it
did express indirectly what religion expresses directly. The
third characteristic, which is at the basis of the method of
correlation used in Systematic Theology, is the idea that phi-
losophy, which asks the question of the meaning of being as
such, and religion, which is based upon the reality shown in
the symbol of God, cannot be reduced to each other, and
they cannot be derived from each other, but they can be “cor-
related.” What human beings seek when they ask the ques-
tion of the meaning of being can be correlated with what
human beings receive through the meaningfulness of reli-
gious symbols. Accordingly, Tillich’s definition of faith as
“ultimate concern”—in the sense of one’s being ultimately
concerned about that which concerns one unconditionally—
implies both the ontological question of the meaning of
being and also the symbol God as the presence of being-itself,
which, as such, is beyond both being and nonbeing.
Tillich’s wide influence, especially in the United States,
is attributable to the ecumenical character of this theology,
to the effectiveness of his teaching, the appeal of his work
to professionals as well as to the laity, and, no doubt, to his
extraordinary ability to relate theology to the issues of the
time.BIBLIOGRAPHY
The most complete biography of Tillich is that of Wilhelm Pauck
and Marion Pauck, Paul Tillich: His Life and Thought, vol.
1, Life (New York, 1976); the projected volume 2 was never
published. A highly compact but excellent interpretive study
of the unity of his life and thought is the pamphlet by Carl
Heinz Ratschow, Paul Tillich (Iowa City, 1980). Of several
autobiographical sketches, the most helpful one, first pub-
lished in 1936, was published separately under the title On
the Boundary (New York, 1966).
Tillich’s collected works have been published in German in the
Gesammelte Werke, 14 vols. (Stuttgart, 1959–1975), and in
six supplementary volumes, Ergänzungsbände (Stuttgart,
1971–1982). Volume 14 contains an index and bibliogra-
phy, including a list of unpublished manuscripts in the Til-
lich Archives at the Harvard Divinity School, Cambridge,
Massachusetts, and the Paul-Tillich-Archiv at the University
of Marburg, Germany. Among Tillich’s major works are The
Socialist Decision (1933), translated by Frederick Sherman
(New York, 1977), Systematic Theology, 3 vols. (Chicago,
1951–1963), What Is Religion? (New York, 1969), The Prot-
estant Era (essays edited by James Luther Adams, Chicago,
1948), The Courage to Be (New Haven, Conn., 1952), Bibli-
cal Religion and the Search for Ultimate Reality (Chicago,9204 TILLICH, PAUL JOHANNES