Paul Tillich quotes - page 3

Being religious means asking passionately the question of the meaning of our existence and being willing to receive answers, even if the answers hurt. (Paul Tillich)
If my tongue were trained to measures, I would sing a stirring song. View quote
Paul Tillich
Man's ultimate concern must be expressed symbolically, because symbolic language alone is able to express the ultimate. View quote
Paul Tillich
The Great Commandment demands of everyone the total love of God and the love one's neighbour according to the measure of man's natural self-affirmation. If love is emotion, how can it be demanded? Emotions cannot be demanded. We cannot demand them of ourselves. If we try, something artificial is produced which shows the traits of what had to be suppressed in its production. Repentance, intentionally produced, hides self-complacency in perversion. Love, intentionally produced, shows indifference or hostility in perversion. The means: love as an emotion cannot be commanded. Either love is something other than emotion or the Great Commandment is meaningless. View quote
Paul Tillich
God's forgiveness is unconditional. There is no condition whatsoever in man which would make him worthy of forgiveness. If forgiveness were conditional, conditioned by man, no one could be accepted and no one could accept himself. We know that this is our situation, but we loathe to face it. View quote
Paul Tillich
Cynically speaking, one could say that it is true to life to be cynical about it. View quote
Paul Tillich
There are moments, as I myself have emphasized on different occasions, in which "kairos," the right time, is united with "logos," the "eternal truth," and in which the fate of philosophy is decided for a special period. View quote
Paul Tillich
Man is ultimately concerned about that which determines his ultimate destiny beyond all preliminary necessities and accidents. View quote
Paul Tillich
Man is estranged from what he essentially is. His existence in a transitory world contradicts his essential participation in the eternal world of ideas. View quote
Paul Tillich
Our ultimate concern is that which determines our being or not-being. Only those statements are theological which deal with their object in so far as it can become a matter of being or not-being for us. View quote
Paul Tillich
For in the depth of every serious doubt and every despair of truth, the passion for truth is still at work. Don't give in too quickly to those who want to alleviate your anxiety about truth. Don't be seduced into a truth which is not really your truth, even if the seducer is your church, or your party, or your parental tradition. Go with Pilate, if you cannot go with Jesus; but go in seriousness with him! (Paul Tillich)
The union of kairos and logos is the philosophical task set for us in philosophy and in all fields that are accessible to the philosophical attitude. View quote
Paul Tillich
A self which has become a matter of calculation and management has ceased to be a self. It has become a thing. You must participate in a self in order to know what it is. View quote
Paul Tillich
There is a third element in absolute faith, the [[acceptance of being accepted. View quote
Paul Tillich
In all existential knowledge both subject and object are transformed by the very act of knowing. View quote
Paul Tillich
The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the God of the philosophers is the same God. View quote
Paul Tillich
Life remains ambiguous as long as there is life. View quote
Paul Tillich
The Christ is Jesus and the negation of Jesus. View quote
Paul Tillich
From this difference convergent and divergent trends emerge in the relation of theology and philosophy. View quote
Paul Tillich
Every finite thing possesses a certain power of being of its own and thus possesses a capacity for fate. View quote
Paul Tillich
Being-itself is essentially productive. (Paul Tillich)
Man is infinitely concerned about the infinity to which he belongs, from which he is separated, and for which he is longing. View quote
Paul Tillich
The first element is the experience of the power of being which is present even in the face of the most radical manifestation of non being. View quote
Paul Tillich
Secular movements... try to avoid myths and rites.... How shall Christianity face them? Shall Christianity tell them: Come to us, we are a better religion?... Shall we make of the Christian message a success story, and tell them, like advertisers: try it with us, and you will see how important Christianity is for everybody? Some missionaries and some ministers and some Christian laymen use these methods. They show a total misunderstanding of Christianity. The apostle who was a missionary and a minister and a layman all at once says something different. He says: No particular religion matters, neither ours nor yours. But I want to tell you that something has happened that matters, something that judges you and me, your religion and my religion. A New Creation has occurred, a New Being has appeared; and we are all asked to participate in it. View quote
Paul Tillich
The name of this infinite and inexhaustible depth and ground of all being is God. View quote
Paul Tillich