Very thick; very esotericDecember 12, 2008 I checked this book out of the library becuase I like to read books on psychology, philosophy, religion and existentialism. But all-in-all, this book was too deep for me. It's a challenge to read; very thick; very esoteric; not light reading. You need a degree in philosophy or theology to get through it. I did however like Tillich's theory of existential anxiety. I'll give this book three stars for that; but much of it went over my head. Perhaps, if you are smarter than me, you might be able to grasp it better and enjoy it more than I did.
faith and realityNovember 16, 2008 This book looks at the reality of life and faith. It faces the suffering and doubt of life, yet offers a deep conviction that faith if still possible and enableing.
No ExitJuly 28, 2008 1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Tillich believes that modern man's predominant anxiety is a sense of meaninglessness leading to despair. This is the Existentialist's plight. Tillich states that meaninglessness has not always been the predominant concern. In prior ages it had been death and later guilt.
In order to resolve the angst of modern man, Tillich imposes upon himself that "The answer must accept, as its precondition, the state of meaninglessness." This precondition creates the cul-de-sac for his rational argument.
Tillich himself, offers the naive solution of "The faith which creates the courage to take [meaninglessness/anxiety] into itself has no special content. It is simply faith, undirected, absolute. It is undefinable, since everything defined is dissolved by doubt and meaninglessness."
In other words, Tillich suggests that to resolve meaninglessness and despair one should resort to having faith without subject matter.
Tillich further explains himself by stating the requisite courage/faith is not without subject matter but rather is in "pure being" or "the God above God". This is nonsense. The God of the Bible is the great "I AM", pure being. There is no God above God.
By giving the proposition "God above God" Tillich is either:
a) making a substitution identical to that which is being substituted, making the proposition gibberish
b) removing God from the equation, replacing Him with the power of being within ourselves as the basis for our courage (what an ersatz this exchange would be, a finite force within ourselves, leading to certain death, rather than a personal God who could be implored that held the power to gift eternity).
or
c) replacing the definition of God handed down through the ages and substituting it for one, more amenable to his existentialist philosophy. In so doing he is falling into the trap of creating god in his own image. One also would have to ask the question why he feels he should be trusted with elucidating to mankind who God is, using his reason alone? The credentials of Jesus and Moses are likely more qualified for this which is likely why their assertions are believed more than those of Tillich.
If you were not certain before reading this book that Existentialist philosophy has no real legitimate answers for meaning in life this book should provide another nail in the coffin towards that conclusion.
A No God WorldviewJuly 27, 2008 4 out of 5 found this review helpful
I purchased two books written by Paul Tillich for one dollar a piece at Half-Price books. One is this book particular title. I have heard of the author because RC Sproul has often argued his thoughts as a mischaracterization of Christianity and the relationship possible between God and man. Paul Tillich's philosophy is clearly contradictory to Christianity. The author clearly states his thoughts are not biblical; he plainly does not believe in a greater being nor does he like the Being described in the Bible. This book is about man's relationship to the universe absent God. It is an argument that one needs to have courage absent the security of traditional religion; there is no God in his philosophy describing right and wrong; there is no higher Being protecting you. His perspective is part pantheism. Man does not die to be part of a conscience state, but pure dust and part of the whole of creation. One may have a social conscience but there are no arbiters to determine what one think is correct. This book is about the implications of this Worldview and the implications of grasping this `truth".
I believe the author could have made a more organized and clearer argument. The language is clear and easy to understand, but the thoughts could have been more organized.
Surprised me by how much it spoke to my situationMarch 5, 2008 8 out of 10 found this review helpful
It seemed at the beginning that it would be too abstract. Too involved in a history of philosophy in its discussion of the Stoics. That Tillich was asserting too much, as if "ex cathedra". But even in the early chapters, I sensed something special and by the time I reached Chapter 4 ("Courage and Participation: The Courage to Be as a Part"), I began to feel the my current situation was being directly and wisely addressed. That feeling only grew stronger from that point on.
There's so much value in this book that I feel somehow unworthy of reviewing it. It doesn't seem that any amount of time I spent preparing a review could do justice to "The Courage to Be". I had heard so much of Tillich but this is the first time I have read him. I have missed a lot and I am grateful I finally turned to him. I had been concerned about religious myths and whether Christianity retained any value for me. Gnostic Christian myths seems fascinating and they made me wonder if Christianity might offer more to me than I had suspected. That concern with myths and Christianity led me to read several books by the progressive Christian Bishop John Shelby Spong (e.g. Jesus for the Non-Religious)). Spong mentioned in at least one of his books that he had been a student of Tillich's. Tillich had challenged Spong with the concept of nontheism, a position that Spong has moved to. That has been my own understanding since my teens but I had turned to nontheistic Eastern religions and to unorthodox, nondogmatic Western religions. Only recently had I been open to reconsidering liberal Christianity. To some extent I had already done that with such postmodern thinkers as Thomas Altizer (The Gospel of Christian Atheism and Living the Death of God: A Theological Memoir) and recently Spong. Following up with Tillich and this book has been literally a godsend.
In much of "The Courage to Be", Tillich applies his knowledge of Western Existentialism. This meant all the more to me as in my teens I had devoured such existentialists as Sartre, Camus and to a lesser extent even Nietzsche and Kierkegaard. But it was difficult to apply it to my situation. Altizer had helped by tracing developments from Christianity into postmodern movements including atheism but he was difficult to follow.
Here now is Tillich who ties together Western Existentialist topics such as anxiety and meaninglessness and a postmodern concern to rediscover the relevance of the Christian tradition. Is one's self in danger today of being a thing, or as he writes "a matter of calculation and management"? As Tillich points out, the Existentialist Revolt strongly opposed such objectification. But by transcending the theistic way of understanding the sacred ,by turning to "the God above God", Tillich shares a hope ( at least in finding courage) that speak to those Existentialism addressed but recovers something from Christian roots. It is a project that seems to take better advantage of Western history and Christianity's role in it as it was than Spong's dependence on speculations to salvage an acceptable image of Jesus.
This is not a book for a single reading. I've started already on my second reading and I am also reading more of Tillich, already The socialist decision and am planning to read soon A HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN THOUGHT Edited By Carl E. Braaten. I somehow overlooked Tillich all these years and I am eager to make up for lost time. The timing is good because, as Spong has described, I seem to be "a believer in exile", raised a Christian and, although having questioned much about it, still influenced by my Protestant upbringing and by the many writings such as those of the Existentialists, that proceeded directly from or in reaction to Christianity.
Finding "A Courage to Be" and Tillich may be a way for me to accept my background without rejecting what I have learned and felt since.
