Abstract
Tillich’s sermons can be approached as a non-technical exposition of what we find in his systematic theology. Sermonic discourse as understood by Tillich is, however, of a different kind from that which we engage in when we attempt to think systematically. Tillichian preaching is neither dogmatic assertion nor moral exhortation but sets out existential possibilities in the optative mode and, as Tillich understands it, the preacher has to be someone who shares the uncertainties and anxieties of the congregation. This can be seen as exemplifying his notion of theology as answering to the questions of its audience or as correlated to the significant symbols and images of contemporary culture. Preaching aims to make love possible.
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Notes
See the article by Erdmann Sturm, ‘First, read my sermons! Tillich as Preacher’ in Russell Re Manning (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Tillich (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), pp. 105–20. Purely anecdotally, I may add that I have often used extracts from classic sermons for meditation in public worship, usually after the anthem at Choral Evensong; not every text works equally well, but those that consistently got positive remarks from members of the congregation and requests for references were the sermons of John Henry Newman and Paul Tillich. Of course, their theological views could scarcely be more different, but what their preaching shares is a sense for the pace and level of preaching to a thoughtful but not necessarily academic community.
A more recent attempt to open up the range of what might properly be regarded as sacramental has been David Brown’s three volumes God and Enchantment of Place: Reclaiming Human Experience (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), God and Grace of Body: Sacrament in Ordinary (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), and God and Mystery in Words: Experience through Metaphor and Drama (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008). However, it should be said that Brown is not directly influenced by Tillich in this respect, although they reach comparable positions.
In this regard it is striking that Mary Daly’s Beyond God the Father attacks what she sees as Tillich’s own androcentric assumptions about God. See references in Mary Daly, Beyond God the Father: Towards a Philosophy of Women’s Liberation (Boston: Beacon Press, 1973).
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© 2015 George Pattison
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Pattison, G. (2015). The Shaking of the Foundations. In: Paul Tillich’s Philosophical Theology: A Fifty-Year Reappraisal. Palgrave Pivot, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137454478_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137454478_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave Pivot, London
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