Paul Tillich's New Spiritualism of Reconciliation and Hope

 1.   Theologian Paul Tillich also laments the state of man's existential loss and advocates what he terms a New Being Spiritualism. In The Nature and Method of Theology, he expresses the need for his generation to establish a norm of theology which "would express the peculiar situation of our time" (McKelway 55). Tillich describes the situation as one of "disruption, conflict, self-destruction, meaninglessness, and despair in all realms of life" (55). Man cannot overcome this existential dilemma unless he establishes a new norm which would be a "reality of reconciliation and reunion of creativity, meaning, and hope" (55). Tillich maintains that in the past, the Church, the Scripture, and culture formed the normal criteria, by which the theologian "chooses and judges both the sources and his experiences which mediate them" (54). Modern man's estrangement proves the just cause for a more relevant solution that Tillich calls the New Being (55). Taking the phrase from a New Testament passage in Second Corinthians 5:17, Tillich alludes to a saying of the Apostle Paul: "There if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold all things are become new." This idea suggests that the new creation or new being manifests itself in Jesus Christ, man's ultimate concern. For theology to be relevant, it must serve a dual function, as defined by Alexander McKelway in The Supreme Theology of Paul Tillich: "Thus the theologian must on the one hand perform the philosophical function of analyzing existentially the life of man in order to understand his questions, and on the other hand he must fulfill the theological function of interpreting the revelatory answer" (60).As Baruch Spinoza affirmed, "Be not astonished at new ideas; for it is well known to you that a thing does not therefore cease to be true because it is not accepted by many."  One should not be afraid to take that leap of faith. As Spinoza says, "There is no hope unmingled with fear, and no fear unmingled with hope." Like Aristotle's theory of the universal in the particular, Tillich suggests the role of the philosopher serves to identify the general conditions of man; whereas, the theologian applies the specific context. Tillich contends that there can be "no synthesis between theology and philosophy" (45). Both perform a vital function, and for that reasons, both must remain separate. As Tillich suggests, "The method of correlation explains the contents of the Christian faith through existential questions and theological answers in mutual interdependence" (45). This form of unity provides a solution for Tillich, in much the same way that Einstein, Born, and Buber promote a rebirth of ethics and social concern. Nostradamus expresses a similar sentiment when he says, "Events of human origin are uncertain, but all is regulated and governed by the incalculable power of God, inspiring us not through drunken fury nor by frantic movement, but through the influences of the stars."