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.
Nothing truly real is forgotten eternally, because everything real comes from eternity and goes to eternity.
Paul Tillich
Astonishment is the root of philosophy.
Paul Tillich
Neurosis is the way of avoiding nonbeing by avoiding being
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
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.
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
The separation of faith and love is always a consequence of a deterioration of religion.
...only the philosophical question is perennial, not the answers.
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.
Paul Tillich
We must be ourselves, we must decide where to go.
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.
Paul Tillich
The courage to be is rooted in the God who appears when God has disappeared in the anxiety of doubt.
The typical American, after he has lost the foundations of his existence, works for new foundations
Paul Tillich
The courage to die is the test of 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.
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.
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
Paul Tillich
He who participates in God participates in eternity.
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.
