Symbols

• Tillich

  • Christian existentialist, responding to human search for meaning in context of post-war years.
• Tillich - theology of correlation

  • wanted to show there was a correlation between questions raised by philosophy, the arts, the range of world religions, psychology & history & answers provided by theology.
  • all 'big questions' raised essentially come down to same question.
  • Therefore, for Tillich, theology not only has a place in, but should be central to, modern life & culture.
• Tillich believed all religious language is symbolic rather than literal & cannot be subjected to tests in order to assess its meaningfulness.
• Symbols

  • takes us beyond the world available to senses into the 'internal reality'.
  • symbol unlocks dimentions & elements of our soul
  • language used is intelligible & accessible to us but points beyond itself towards an ultimate reality, which is God.
  • defined symbols very broadly - including visual images, rituals, saints, stories.
• Symbol 'participates' in the object represented

  • Eg. national flag - evokes feelings of loyalty & patriotism at the same time as it symbolises the country.
  • Eg use the symbol of God the Creator to help us come to terms with our place in the universe, our ambivalent relationship with natural world & our understanding of our purpose to be here.
  • Symbol of Christ - unlocks some mystery of the relation between the physical & the spiritual, our tendency to sin & our desire for freedom in a deterministic world
• Tillich influenced by Aquinas

  • asserted that ordinary human language is inadequate to convey ultimate truth.
  • to use literal language of God is unhelpful & conveys a false impression on the nature of God.
• Tillich & Being-Itself

  • criticises traditional ways of describing God - categorises God as a being = begs the question, who created God & put him into being.
  • Tillich understood God as Being-Itself (ground of all being)
  • God does not just exist; he is existence itself, the ground of all existence.
  • God is the very existence & not some thing that may or may not have existed.
• Tillich's symbolic language is useful

  • preserves mystery of God - avoids anthropomorphism while communicating something deeper than words themselves. Symbolic language enables us to participate in deeper realitty.
  • allows us to say something, unlike apophatic way.
  • Symbolic lang changes over time = advantage because it can remain relevant to culture & time.
  • Tillich - considers religious language as cognitive - it expresses smthng about true reality.
• Tillich's symbolic language isn't useful

  • Hick - what is meant by 'participates in'
  • Open to interpretation = loses meaning over time.
  • Too subjective & non-cognitive to be of any use except to person or community in which it is used. - limitation of God-talk
• Randall

  • suggest that symbols are non-cognitive & have no objective reality; music or art touches emotions that cannot be reached in other ways.
  • Religion performs a valuable cultural function but it is simply a human endeavour.