Summary Of Paul Tillich's Argument

The Ultimate Concern, is Faith, according to Paul Tillich. This redefines the normal definition of faith which is basically credulity. Doubt is essential to this concept of faith because it constantly focuses the faithful person to consider whether or not our ultimate concern is, in fact, the highest that it can be. We can be mistaken in our faith in one very important way: objectification. It becomes a talisman with power over the believer, rather than the believer having the authority over the end. The sort of God that can be turned into a talisman looks a bit like this, as Tillich writes in his Courage to Be: He is equated with the recent tyrants who with the help of terror try to transform everything into a mere object, a thing among things, a cog in the machine they control. He becomes

If God’s essence is the same as his existence, then his existence cannot be proven using the words and concepts of secular logic (Tillich, 1952: 205). As a being, one’s identity must be identical with existence, in order to have essence, it must also be that of one’s entire action and expression. No human being can have this. Our daily “existence”, which is our daily actions, have been created slowly by and built up by our “essence”. To have a goal, or a set of goals in one’s mind is of concern in Tillich’s mind. Outside itself, the concern must not have any goods to make this “ultimate”. God alone can be the ultimate desire of the human soul because God alone is permanent and absolute according to St. Augustine. Temporary and changing are contracted by the objects of creation. Therefore, essences are identical to God’s existence. The essence points to God as the creator but that created nature does not have its essence within