Twentieth Century Christian Responses to Religious Pluralism by Pitman David

Author:Pitman, David.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (CAM)
Published: 2016-02-26T16:00:00+00:00

The Theological Context

As already proposed, it is to Tillich’s theology that we must look in order to proceed to any final conclusions regarding his place in the spectrum of Christian responses to other religions. In his dissertation on Schelling, Tillich writes: ‘This, then, is the content of all history: the work of Christ, namely, to sacrifice his natural being in order to find himself again in spirit and in truth; this is the content of history because it is the essence of the Spirit’ (1974, 111). Fifty-five years later, in his final lecture, and only hours before his death, Tillich reiterated this same theme, that Jesus Christ is the ultimate criterion on the basis of which history is understood and all religion is to be judged (1966, 89).

During the intervening period, Tillich wrote the three volumes of Systematic Theology, in which it is possible to discern not only the arguments which he enunciates to support the validity and integrity of other religions, but also the limitations he imposes upon them. There are a number of key dimensions to Tillich’s systematic theology which provide the context for his response to other religions.

Firstly, there is his concept of revelation. Revelation is the occurrence of an event which evokes ‘numinous astonishment’. The influence of Otto is apparent here (1958, 6–7). Revelation involves the giving of a sign; it is a ‘sign-event’. The reception of the sign is an ecstatic experience, which involves reason but transcends reason’s normal boundaries of subject and object (Tillich 1968, 1:124–31). Tillich identifies both original and dependent revelations. An original revelation ‘is a revelation which occurs in a constellation that did not exist before’. It is a completely new sign-event which Tillich identifies as a ‘miracle’. In an original revelation, a pure miracle and its pure ecstatic reception are joined for the first time. (ibid. 140–42). Thereafter, whenever any new individuals or groups receive this revelation, a variable factor is introduced which is different on each occasion and determined by the particular context. The revelation so received is a dependent revelation.

The incarnation of Jesus Christ is an original revelation, in regard to which all prior and subsequent revelations are influenced by their context and are therefore dependent. In this manner, Tillich proposes a concept of revelation which both includes all the religions but at the same time subjects them to the ultimate criterion of the original revelation in Jesus Christ.3 For example, the history of the church reflects continuous revelation, but it is dependent revelation. This means that Christianity, as one context among many in which revelation occurs, is just as much subject to the original revelation in Jesus Christ as the other religions are – a very Barthian conclusion. Tillich writes:

There can be no revelation in the history of the church whose point of reference is not Jesus as the Christ. If another point of reference is sought or accepted, the Christian church has lost its foundation. But final revelation means more than the last genuine revelation. It

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