Paul Tillich - Systematic Theology Introduction

Paul Tillich - Systematic Theology Introduction
A. The Point of View

1. Message and Situation: Two poles, the eternal truth and the temporal situation (3). The confusion of the eternal truth with the temporal expression of this truth = fundamentalism/orthodoxy. Fundamentalism fails to make contact with the present situation and has demonic traits.


Theology is neither preaching nor counseling; the popularity of fundamentalism does not imply its goodness. The "situation" to which theology must respond is the totality of man's creative self-interpretation in a special period.


" Kerygmatic" theology is related to fundamentalism and orthodoxy. Luther and Barth made serious attempts to rediscover the eternal message within the Bible and tradition, over against a distorted tradition and a mechanically misused Bible.


Barth's criticism of the neo-Protestant bourgeois synthesis achieved by liberal theology, his rediscovery of the Christian paradox, and, at the same time, the freedom of his spiritual exegesis of the Epistle to the Romans and his acceptance of radical historical criticism were a genuine kerygmatic theology.


Barth's greatness is that he corrects himself again and again in light of the "situation," unlike many of his followers (5). Kerygmatic theology needs apologetic theology.

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