#paul-tillich — Public Fediverse posts

A quotation from Paul Tillich

Since every day a little of our life is taken from us — since we are dying every day — the final hour when we cease to exist does not of itself bring death; it merely completes the death process.

Paul Tillich (1886-1965) American theologian and philosopher
The Courage To Be, ch. 1 “Being and Courage” (1952)

More about this quote: wist.info/tillich-paul-johanne…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #paultillich #tillich #death #dying #mortality

Wollen wir einmal über Angst sprechen? Ich meine jetzt nicht so eine „normale“ Angst vor eine Prüfung oder so, ich meine Angst als Störung. Wenn das System Angst, eines das wir benötigen um zu funktionieren und nicht etwas dummes zu machen wie mit dem Auto gegen die Wand fahren, außer Kontrolle gerät und wir sie nicht mehr im Zaum halten können.

Ich hatte letztes Jahr zwei Herzinfarkte […]

For reasons, I was looking at Paul Tillich quotes and I will now share some favorites:
"The first duty of love is to listen."
"Boredom is rage spread thin"
"Our language has wisely sensed these two sides of man’s being alone. It has created the word “loneliness” to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word 'solitude' to express the glory of being alone."
"Doubt isn't the opposite of faith; it is an element of faith."
#paulTillich #quotes #theology #faith #love

Why we read philosophers as if they were in a queue — Husserl begets Heidegger, Heidegger begets Gadamer — and why this linear genealogy lies. Introduction to topological reading: thinkers as bodies in a gravitational field, not as links in a chain. Frankl's encounter with Heidegger on the back of a photograph as a concrete iconic moment that opens the entire essay.

https://somatichermeneutics.substack.com/p/das-ungesagte-a-five-movement-scheme

#philosophy #Logotherapy #Frankl #Heidegger #PaulTillich

This is one of those pieces that took time to settle before I could write it.
It gathered—quietly—until it began to take shape.

This essay lives somewhere between structure and fragility,
between a world that holds together
and a self that must learn to affirm it anyway.

Fechner. Tillich.
Two ways of thinking unity—one serene, one trembling.

More in the link above.

https://somatichermeneutics.substack.com/p/between-mind-and-being

#philosophy #psychophysics #theology #paultillich #gustavfechner

The awareness of the ambiguity of one's highest achievements (as well as one's deepest failures) is a definite symptom of maturity.
-- Paul Tillich

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #PaulTillich #Ambiguity

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #Panopainting #Protest #MarchForOurLives #Florida

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜’𝗺 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴: "𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗕𝗲" 𝗯𝘆 𝗣𝗮𝘂𝗹 𝗧𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗵 -

Existentialist "socialist" Christian philosopher Tillich in his classic 1952 book on meeting uncertainty and anxiety in the modern age, probably a fitting follow-up to 1951's Arendt!

#books #bookreviews #bookworm #readreadread #tbr #tbrpile #tbrlist #quotes #reading #paultillich #thecouragetobe #existentialism #christianity #faith #philosophy

𝗧𝗕𝗥 𝗣𝗶𝗹𝗲: 𝗗𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘀 -

It's Spiritual Literacy Month! And some other titles I haven't gotten to this year. . .

#books #literature #bookreviews #bookworm #tbrpile #tbrlist #dierdrekessler #paultillich #thecouragetobe #jackkornfield #buddhaslittleinstructionbook #rosamundstonezander #theartofpossibility #hermannhesse #trees #daytripper #fabiomoon #gabrielba #vsnaipaul #indiaawoundedcivilization #gilasher #epistemicfriction

𝗧𝗕𝗥 𝗣𝗶𝗹𝗲: 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱 𝗡𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 -

What is the nonfiction I'm most looking forward to reading this next year? Here are some!

https://youtube.com/shorts/BadNWyYhxw8

#books #literature #bookreviews #bookworm #tbrpile #tbrlist #2025preview #tbr2025 #nonfiction #brianrichardson #ernstcassirer #philliparringon #theartofpossibility #kurtvonnegut #albertmurray #theomniamericans #abreathoflife #claricelispector #thecouragetobe #paultillich #democracyawakening #heathercoxrichardson

Luther, Schleiermacher, Tillich

Die Theologie ist geprägt von facettenreichen Denkansätzen, die sich aus unterschiedlichen Epochen und individuellen Fragestellungen speisen. Martin Luther, Paul Tillich und Friedrich Schleiermacher stehen exemplarisch für drei bedeutende Ansätze, die jeweils auf ihre Weise den Glauben, die menschliche Existenz und die Beziehung zu Gott interpretieren.

Martin Luther, der Reformator des 16. Jahrhunderts, legte den Fokus auf die Rechtfertigung des Menschen allein durch den Glauben (sola fide) und die Schrift als oberste Autorität (sola scriptura). In einer Zeit, die von kirchlicher Machtfülle und Werkgerechtigkeit geprägt war, betonte Luther die Unmittelbarkeit der Beziehung zwischen Gott und Mensch. Der Mensch ist nach Luther vor Gott gerechtfertigt, nicht durch seine Taten, sondern durch den Glauben an die Gnade Gottes, wie sie in Christus offenbar wird.

Friedrich Schleiermacher, der im frühen 19. Jahrhundert wirkte, legte den Schwerpunkt auf das individuelle religiöse Bewusstsein. Für ihn war Religion weder ein System von Lehren noch eine bloße Ethik, sondern primär das „Gefühl schlechthinniger Abhängigkeit“ vom Göttlichen. Schleiermacher suchte eine Synthese zwischen aufklärerischem Denken und pietistischer Frömmigkeit, indem er die subjektive Erfahrung in den Mittelpunkt stellte. Seine Theologie zielte darauf ab, Religion als Grunddimension menschlicher Existenz zu verstehen, die alle kulturellen Bereiche durchdringt.

Paul Tillich, ein prominenter Theologe des 20. Jahrhunderts, versuchte, die Theologie in den Kontext der modernen Welt zu stellen. Er definierte Gott als das „Sein selbst“ oder den „Grund des Seins“ und legte den Fokus auf die existenzielle Dimension des Glaubens. Tillichs Konzept der „Grenzsituationen“ zeigt, dass der Mensch in Momenten der Angst und Sinnsuche Gott als das Fundament seines Seins erfahren kann. Für Tillich war die Theologie ein Dialog zwischen dem zeitgenössischen Menschen und den ewigen Fragen des Seins.

Im Vergleich zeigt sich eine Entwicklung von einer Theologie, die sich auf die Autorität der Schrift (Luther), über die subjektive Erfahrung (Schleiermacher) bis hin zur philosophischen Reflexion der Existenz (Tillich) konzentriert.

Während Luther die objektive Gnade Gottes betont, rückt Schleiermacher die subjektive Wahrnehmung Gottes ins Zentrum. Tillich wiederum versucht, diese Ansätze in einem existenziellen Rahmen zu integrieren, der die modernen Fragen nach Sinn und Sein beantwortet.

Gemeinsam ist allen drei Denkern der Wunsch, den Glauben an Gott in ihrer jeweiligen Zeit zu vermitteln, doch sie tun dies mit unterschiedlichen Methoden und Schwerpunkten, die die Vielfalt theologischen Denkens illustrieren.

#christlicheGlaubenslehre #FriedrichSchleiermacher #JesusCasa #MartinLuther #PaulTillich #religiösePhilosophie #Theologie #vergleichendeTheologie

New blog post: "A Manifesto? - Part 1: New Ways of Being" at https://www.mycabinetofcuriosities.com/articles/manifesto-part-1/ #articles #manifesto #blog #post #indieweb #syndication #possee #communism #leftism #anarchism #politics #living #love #polyamory #queer #lgbtq #lgbtqia #mexie #revolution #dreaming #buffy #buffthevampireslayer #mysticism #buddhism #religion #spirituality #uspolitics #france #frpolitics #usa #covid #trump #tillich #paultillich #utimateconcern #degrowth #activism

Finally writing the first part of I guess... A manifesto? That sounds a little highfalutin but I need if only for myself to try to write down in words a sort of unifying theory of my political beliefs, my religious beliefs, my very unscientific ideas on ecology and my undying ultimate concern to understand my fellow humans. #writing #nonfiction #manifesto #politics #religion #ecology #humanism #buddhism #zen #leftism #communism #anarchism #degrowth #ecotopia #revolution #paultillich #tillich

Atheism and metaphysics

Metaphysics can seem to be a rather slippery term. On the one hand it can be taken to be “the study of the most general features of reality, including existence, objects and their properties, possibility and necessity, space and time, change, causation, and the relation between matter and mind” (Wikipedia) but on the other, being the study of, in one sense, how things come to be, it is too easily conflated with religious creation myths, or with cosmologies intricately involved with religious doctrines of causality and phenomenology.

But “according to modern scientific knowledge, mental events and processes presuppose the existence and reality of material things. Thinking, for example, implies the existence of a bird or a mammal with a brain. Or a momentary event, such as the proverbial cat sitting on the mat, presupposes the real existence of the cat, the mat, the earth under the mat, as well as a real human observer of the event.” (Morris)

But for me, that which is intended by using the term “ground of being” (Tillich) is precisely that which can be known directly as “no-thing” in contemplation. I am not talking here of an idea, a common factor in a Huxley-like perennial philosophy, but of a repeated and very direct experience of what Quakers have referred to as “the light”, as described for instance by Emilia Fogelklou (she writes in the third person): “Without visions or the sound of speech or human mediation, in exceptionally wide-awake consciousness, she experienced the great releasing inward wonder. It was as if the ’empty shell’ burst. All the weight and agony, all the feeling of unreality dropped away. She perceived living goodness, joy, light like a clear, irradiating, uplifting, enfolding, unequivocal reality from deep inside.”

This kind of experience can of course not be described terribly clearly, nor can it be communicated directly, and any attempt is likely to fall into superlatives such as Fogelklou’s. But the experience is as real and direct as any sensory experience, perhaps more so, and it has a curious undeniable quality, a great lifting and healing of the heart. I use Tillich’s term for it not because I have any particular attraction for that as an idea, but because it seems to get closer than anything else I have read to the encounter itself. There is a visual analogue that sometimes occurs in meditation – and which can lead to the experience I am trying to describe – of the visual field itself, seen through closed eyes, extending suddenly through and beneath what ought to have been the observing mind, but which is no longer there.

Now, I have long enough experience in contemplative practice to know that experiences are not things to hang onto, still less to seek after, and I would not be happy if any words of mine sent anyone on a quest for experiential chimeras. Yet the experience itself, with all its indelible affect, has occurred so often over the years, since childhood, that I find myself referring to it over and over again, and it remains for me a kind of lodestone.

Are these metaphysical experiences, insights? Are they therefore somehow at variance with the fundamental insight of atheism that the idea of another, supernatural, layer to existence, within which the human self can somehow transcend, or survive, the electrochemical apparatus of the central nervous system, is illusory? I don’t think so. Daniel Dennett’s insight into human phenomenology as a “benign user illusion” coincides well with the Buddhist conception of things as empty of intrinsic existence (śūnyatā) – all of which seems to me to be a formal expression of what I have come to experience as “no-thing.” Andreas Müller:

All there is is oneness. The unknown. No-thing appearing as it appears. It is already whole. It is already complete. That which seems to be missing – wholeness – is not lost…

What remains is indescribable. It is indescribable simply because there is no one left who can describe it. There is no one left who experiences oneness (which, by the way, would then not be oneness anymore) and could possibly know how that is. Yes, there is no one left who knows how it is. That is freedom.

#AndreasMüller #atheism #awakening #BrianMorris #consciousness #contemplative #DanielDennett #EmiliaFogelklou #PaulTillich #philosophy #practice #religion #Wikipedia

The awareness of the ambiguity of one's highest achievements (as well as one's deepest failures) is a definite symptom of maturity.
-- Paul Tillich

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #PaulTillich #Ambiguity

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #Sunrise #SacandagaLake #Adirondacks #NewYork

The awareness of the ambiguity of one's highest achievements (as well as one's deepest failures) is a definite symptom of maturity.
-- Paul Tillich

⬆ #Quotes #PaulTillich #Ambiguity

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #BWCA #RoseLake #Minnesota

#atheism for #lent, day 32 (belated): #covid update, #sin, and #grace

http://courtcan.com/2023/03/28/atheism-for-lent-day-32-belated-covid-update-sin-and-grace/

#depression
#anxiety
#PaulTillich
#faith
#theism
#LifeTheUniverseAndEverything

#atheism for #lent, day 10: miss me with your #apologetics

My "search for absolutes" (thank you, #PaulTillich) was really just my desperate attempt to quash the deepening doubts I'd been hauling around with me my entire life.

http://courtcan.com/2023/03/03/atheism-for-lent-day-10/