Paul Tillich

German Theologian

About Paul Tillich

Paul Johannes Tillich (; German: [‘tIlIx]; August 20, 1886 – October 22, 1965) was a German-American Christian existentialist philosopher, Christian socialist, and Lutheran theologian who was one of the most influential theologians of the twentieth century. Tillich taught at German universities before immigrating to the United States in 1933, where he taught at Union Theological Seminary, Harvard University, and the University of Chicago.

For the general public, Tillich wrote the well-received The Courage to Be (1952) and Dynamics of Faith (1957). His major three-volume Systematic Theology (1951-1963) was for theologians; in many points it was an answer to existentialist critique of Christianity.

Tillich’s work attracted scholarship from other influential thinkers like Karl Barth, Reinhold Niebuhr, H. Richard Niebuhr, George Lindbeck, Erich Przywara, James Luther Adams, Avery Cardinal Dulles, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Sallie McFague, Richard John Neuhaus, David Novak, Thomas Merton, Michael Novak, and Martin Luther King Jr. According to H. Richard Niebuhr, “[t]he reading of Systematic Theology can be a great voyage of discovery into a rich and deep, and inclusive and yet elaborated, vision and understanding of human life in the presence of the mystery of God.” John Herman Randall Jr. lauded the Systematic Theology as “beyond doubt the richest, most suggestive, and most challenging philosophical theology our day has produced.”

Tillich also authored many works in ethics, the philosophy of history, and comparative religion. His ideas continue to be studied and discussed at international conferences and seminars.

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Quotes by Paul Tillich

Astonishment is the root of philosophy.

Paul Tillich

Being religious means asking passionately the question of the meaning of our existence and being willing to receive answers, even if the answers hurt.

Paul Tillich

Boredom is rage spread thin.

Paul Tillich

Cruelty towards others is always also cruelty towards ourselves.

Paul Tillich

Decision is a risk rooted in the courage of being free.

Paul Tillich

Doubt is not the opposite of faith; it is one element of faith.

Paul Tillich

Faith consists in being vitally concerned with that ultimate reality to which I give the symbolical name of God. Whoever reflects earnestly on the meaning of life is on the verge of an act of faith.

Paul Tillich

Faith is an act of a finite being who is grasped by, and turned to, the infinite.

Paul Tillich

Faith is the state of being ultimately concerned.

Paul Tillich

He who risks and fails can be forgiven. He who never risks and never fails is a failure in his whole being.

Paul Tillich

I hope for the day when everyone can speak again of God without embarrassment.

Paul Tillich

If my tongue were trained to measures, I would sing a stirring song.

Paul Tillich

Language… has created the word “loneliness” to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word “solitude” to express the glory of being alone.

Paul Tillich

Loneliness expresses the pain of being alone and solitude expresses the glory of being alone.

Paul Tillich

Man is asked to make of himself what he is supposed to become to fulfill his destiny.

Paul Tillich

Man’s ultimate concern must be expressed symbolically, because symbolic language alone is able to express the ultimate.

Paul Tillich

Neurosis is the way of avoiding non-being by avoiding being.

Paul Tillich

Our language has wisely sensed the two sides of being alone. It has created the word loneliness to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word solitude to express the glory of being alone.

Paul Tillich

Religion is the state of being grasped by an ultimate concern, a concern which qualifies all other concerns as preliminary and which itself contains the answer to the question of a meaning of our life.

Paul Tillich

The courage to be is rooted in the God who appears when God has disappeared in the anxiety of doubt.

Paul Tillich

The courage to be is the courage to accept oneself, in spite of being unacceptable.

Paul Tillich

The first duty of love is to listen.

Paul Tillich

There is no love which does not become help.

Paul Tillich

We can speak without voice to the trees and the clouds and the waves of the sea. Without words they respond through the rustling of leaves and the moving of clouds and the murmuring of the sea.

Paul Tillich