The Implications of Tillich’s Christology for Animals and Creation in his Systematic Theology

Smith, Abbey-Anne

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-40856-9_6

Abbey-Anne Smith²

Part of the book series: The Palgrave Macmillan Animal Ethics Series ((PMAES))

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Abstract

For Tillich, the norm of systematic theology is different from that of the Reformers as well as from ‘modern liberal theology’ even though the substance is the same. This is because it has to be accessible to individuals in their current, concrete situation, whilst at the same time staying true to its biblical source. He describes this norm as the question implied in our existential estrangement and how we are to overcome the ‘disruption, conflict, self-destruction and meaninglessness’ implied in our finitude. To this, he correlates the symbol New Being as answer to how a reality of ‘reconciliation and reunion, of creativity, meaning and hope’ may be achieved. This new reality of New Being brought about in Jesus as the Christ is the ‘material norm of systematic theology’ and therefore the norm of his system.

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Notes

1.
STI, p. 49.
2.
STI, p. 49.
3.
STI, p. 50.
4.
Church, F Forrester (ed), The Essential Tillich: An Anthology of the Writings of Paul Tillich (London: University of Chicago Press Ltd., 1987) p. 90.
5.
Church, The Essential Tillich, p. 94.
6.
Tillich, Paul, The New Being (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1955) p. 20.
7.
Tillich, The New Being, p. 20.
8.
Tillich, The New Being, p. 22.
9.
Church, Essential Tillich, p. 96.
10.
Here the emphasis is exclusively humanocentric, focussing on inter-human relationships and the relationship between God and humans. At no point does Tillich refer to the creation’s estrangement from its Creator or human estrangement from the rest of the created order.
11.
Church, Essential Tillich, p. 97.
12.
Tillich, The New Being, p. 24.
13.
Church, Essential Tillich, p. 97.
14.
Tillich, STII, p. 86.
15.
Tillich, ‘Nature Also Mourns’, The Shaking of the Foundations, p. 77.
16.
Tillich, STIII, p. 25.
17.
Tillich, STII, p. 79.
18.
As does the whole of creation, if we are to take Romans 8 seriously—(the primary biblical passage Tillich uses to underpin his concept of Universal Salvation).
19.
Tillich, STII, p. 99.
20.
Tillich, STII, p. 100.
21.
Tillich, STII, p. 100.
22.
Tillich, STII, p. 100.
23.
Tillich, STII, p. 100.
24.
Tillich, STII, p. 101.
25.
Tillich, STII, p. 101.
26.
See Tillich, STII, p. 96.
27.
Tillich, STII, p. 120.
28.
Tillich, STII, p. 120.
29.
Tillich, STII, p. 121.
30.
Tillich, STIII, p. 138.
31.
Tillich, STIII, p. 39.
32.
Tillich, STIII, p. 80.
33.
Tillich, STIII, p. 80.
34.
Tillich, STIII, p. 140.
35.
Tillich, STIII, p. 140.
36.
Tillich, STIII, p. 140.
37.
For a fuller examination of instrumentalism in relation to animals, see Andrew Linzey, Animal Theology (London: SCM Press Ltd. 1994) especially Chapter 3, pp. 45–61.
38.
Linzey, Animal Theology, p. 68.
39.
Barth cited Linzey, Animal Theology, p. 68.
40.
For further explanation of Tillich’s understanding of the Incarnation, see Tillich, STII, p. 94ff.
41.
Tillich, ‘Thing and Self’ in The Spiritual Situation in our Technical Society, p. 114 and elsewhere.
42.
Linzey, ‘Is Christianity Irredeemably Speciesist’? Introduction in Linzey and Yamomoto, Animals on the Agenda, p. xvi.
43.
Linzey, Animal Theology, p. 68.
44.
Linzey, Animal Theology, p. 69.
45.
Linzey, Animal Theology, p. 69.
46.
The acceptance that the Fall relates to the whole of creation is something many other theologians (such as Fox and Southgate) fail to acknowledge. So at least in this respect, Tillich is relatively forward-thinking.
47.
Linzey, Animal Theology, p. 69.
48.
Linzey, Animal Theology, p. 69.
49.
Linzey, Animal Theology, p. 70.
50.
Linzey, Animal Theology, p. 70.
51.
Linzey, Animal Theology, p. 71.
52.
Linzey, Animal Theology, p. 71.
53.
Tillich, ‘Thing and Self’ in The Spiritual Situation in Our Technical Society, p. 119.
54.
Especially see ‘Nature also Mourns for a Lost Good’ in The Shaking of the Foundations.
55.
For a fuller examination of Tillich’s concept of reason, see Chap. 3, Part I, ‘Reason and Revelation’ pp. 40–46.
56.
Tillich, STI, p. 83.
57.
Tillich, STI, p. 147.
58.
Tillich, STI, p. 147.
59.
Tillich, STI, p. 147.
60.
Tillich, STI, p. 148.
61.
Tillich, STI, p. 148.
62.
STI, p. 149.

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University of Winchester, Burton on Trent, UK
Abbey-Anne Smith

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Smith, AA. (2017). The Implications of Tillich’s Christology for Animals and Creation in his Systematic Theology. In: Animals in Tillich's Philosophical Theology. The Palgrave Macmillan Animal Ethics Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40856-9_6

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40856-9_6
Published: 04 October 2017
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-40855-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-40856-9
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