Paul Tillich Quotes

Paul Tillich Biography
Type: Theologian
Nationality: German
Born: August 20, 1886
Died: October 22, 1965

Paul Johannes Tillich (August 20, 1886 – October 22, 1965) was a German-American theologian and Christian existentialist philosopher. Tillich was one of the most influential Protestant theologians of the 20th century. Among the general populace, he is best known for his works The Courage to Be (1952) and Dynamics of Faith (1957), which introduced issues of theology and modern culture to a general readership. Theologically, he is best known for his major three-volume work Systematic Theology (1951–63), in which he developed his "method of correlation": an approach of exploring the symbols of Christian revelation as answers to the problems of human existence raised by contemporary existential philosophical analysis.

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