Paul Tillich was an existentialist philosopher and is known as one of the most influential theologians of the 20th century. He was the theologian who correlated Christianity with the philosophy of human existence. He was interested in knowing Christianity since childhood and read the Bible whenever time permitted. Paul Tillich went on to work as a professor of theology in various renowned universities. During his three year term at the ‘University of Frankfurt’, he moved around Germany to give lectures on Christianity. This was observed as a threat by the German Chancellor Adolf Hitler and Tillich was dismissed from his position. He shifted to America and became a visiting professor of Philosophy at the ‘Union Theological Seminary’ and ‘Columbia University’. He was further promoted to become the professor of philosophical theology and even gained American Citizenship. Paul Tillich even penned several books on Theology and came up with the famous ‘Systematic Theology’. Three volumes of this literary work were released and it is believed to be Paul Tillich’s most critically acclaimed offering. Tillich explained about God and the correlation between Christianity and human life. We bring to you a treasure trove of quotes that have been excerpted from his work, books, lectures and writings. Read on to explore a compilation of some of the best known quotations by Paul Tillich, covering various aspects of life. This collection of quotes by Paul Tillich will definitely erase some of your perceptions about faith.
Man's ultimate concern must be expressed symbolically, because symbolic language alone is able to express the ultimate.
- Paul Tillich
...history has shown that the most terrible crimes against love have been committed in the name of fanatically defended doctrines.
- Dynamics of Faith, Paul Tillich
Nothing truly real is forgotten eternally, because everything real comes from eternity and goes to eternity.
- The Eternal Now, Paul Tillich
Astonishment is the root of philosophy.
- Paul Tillich
Neurosis is the way of avoiding nonbeing by avoiding being
- The Courage to Be, Paul Tillich
Man is free, in so far as he has the power of contradicting himself and his essential nature. Man is free even from his freedom; that is, he can surrender his humanity
- Systematic Theology, 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
There is no place to which we could flee from God, which is outside of God.
- Paul Tillich
I hope for the day when everyone can speak of God without embarrassment.
- Paul Tillich
Faith as the state of being ultimately concerned implies love, namely, the desire and urge toward the reunion of the seperated.
- Dynamics of Faith, 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.
- The Eternal Now, Paul Tillich
The separation of faith and love is always a consequence of a deterioration of religion.
- Dynamics of Faith, Paul Tillich
The vitality that can stand the abyss of meaninglessness is aware of a hidden meaning within the destruction of meaning.
- The Courage to Be, Paul Tillich
The awareness of the ambiguity of one's highest achievements - as well as one's deepest failures - is a definite symptom of maturity.
- Paul Tillich
Joy is the emotional expression of the courageous YES to one's own true being.
- The Courage to Be, Paul Tillich
Man is able to decide for or against reason, he is able to create beyond reason or to destroy below reason
- Dynamics of Faith, Paul Tillich
In the courageous standing of uncertainty, faith shows most visibly its dynamic character.
...only the philosophical question is perennial, not the answers.
- Dynamics of Faith, Paul Tillich
Reason is the presupposition of faith, and faith is the fulfillment of reason.
- Paul Tillich
Doubt is not the opposite of faith; it is one element of faith
- Paul Tillich
...sin is separation.
- The Essential Tillich, Paul Tillich
We must be ourselves, we must decide where to go.
- The Courage to Be, Paul Tillich
The neurotic is aware of the danger of a situation in which his unrealistic self-affirmation is broken down and no realistic self-affirmation takes its place.
- The Courage to Be, Paul Tillich
The courage to be is rooted in the God who appears when God has disappeared in the anxiety of doubt.
- The Courage to Be, Paul Tillich
Truth without the way to truth is dead.
- Paul Tillich
The typical American, after he has lost the foundations of his existence, works for new foundations
- The Courage to Be, Paul Tillich
The courage to die is the test of the courage to be.
- The Courage to Be, Paul Tillich
Real joy is a “severe matter”; it is the happiness of a soul which is “lifted above every circumstance.
- The Courage to Be, Paul Tillich
Man is the question he asks about himself, before any question has been formulated. It is, therefore, not surprising that the basic questions were formulated very early in the history of mankind.
- Systematic Theology, Paul Tillich
The courage to accept oneself as accepted in spite of being unacceptable…. This is the genuine meaning of the Pauline-Lutheran doctrine of ‘justification by faith
- The Courage to Be, Paul Tillich
He who participates in God participates in eternity.
- The Courage to Be, Paul Tillich
Man creates what he is.
- The Courage to Be, Paul Tillich
Christianity sees in the picture of Jesus as the Christ a human life in which all forms of anxiety are present but in which all forms of despair are absent.
Only if God IS ultimate reality, can he be our unconditional concern; only then can he be the object of surrender, obedience, and assent. Faith in anything which has only preliminary reality is idolatrous.
