The historical problem in Paul Tillich's christology

Bruce J. R. Cameron

doi:10.1017/S0036930600014800

The historical problem in Paul Tillich's christology

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 February 2009

Bruce J. R. Cameron

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The foundation of Christian belief,' states Paul Tillich, ‘is not the historical Jesus, but the biblical picture of the Christ.’1 This statement is only now beginning to elicit the serious comment that one might expect from the statement of so great a theologian as Paul Tillich. Tillich's penetrating analysis of the meaning of Jesus as the Christ is a profound contribution to the Christian understanding of the Incarnation. Donald Baillie was surely right, too, in expressing his enthusiasm for Tillich's christological interpretation of history when he stated that there seemed to him to be ‘deep truth … in the idea that Christology stands for the Christian interpretation of history as against other interpretations’.2 Even Tillich's claim that ‘to practise Christology does not mean to turn backward to an unknown historical past or to exert oneself about the applicability of questionable mythical categories to an unknown historical persoanality’,3 contains a refreshing and valid emphasis upon Christology as living existential faith rather than arid theoretical speculation. Yet Christianity has always maintained that its foundation is Jesus of Nazareth in whom the Word of God became flesh. Tilliach's Christology must therefore stand or fall on this christological question which he regards as quite subordinate: the question of the historical basis of the biblical picture of the Christ. If the foundation of Tillich's Christology is “not the historical Jesus, but the biblical picture of the Christ”, how much importance Tillich does actually allow the historical dimension in his Christology must be carefully examined.

Type: Research Article
Information: Scottish Journal of Theology , Volume 18 , Issue 3 , September 1965 , pp. 257 - 272

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0036930600014800 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1965

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^{page 257 note 1} Tillich, P., The Interpretation of History, Part I trans. Rasetzki, N. A., Parts II, III, and IV trans. Talmey, E. L. (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1936), p. 34Google Scholar.

^{page 257 note 2} Baillie, D. M., God was In Christ (London, Faber and Faber, 1961), p. 76Google Scholar.

^{page 257 note 3} Tillich, , The Interpretation of History, p. 265Google Scholar.

^{page 258 note 1} Johnson, R. C., ‘The Jesus of History and the Christian Faith’, Theology Today, X (July 1953), 170CrossRef Google Scholar.

^{page 258 note 2} ‘Notes of Recent Exposition’, The Expository Times, LXXIV (April 1963)Google Scholar

^{page 259 note 1} Hamilton, K., The System and the Gospel (London, S.C.M. Press, 1963), p. 163Google Scholar.

^{page 259 note 2} Hamilton terms this Tillich's ‘system-known’.

^{page 259 note 3} Vide Tillich, The Interpretation of History, p. 33, where he acknowledges the influence of Schweitzer, Bultmann and Troeltsch on his historical insights into the New Testament.

^{page 259 note 4} Tillich, P., Dynamics of Faith (New York, Harper, 1957), p. 86Google Scholar.

^{page 260 note 1} Tillich, , The Interpretation of History, pp. 264–265Google Scholar.

^{page 260 note 2} Tillich, , Dynamics of Faith, p. 86Google Scholar.

^{page 260 note 3} ibid.

^{page 261 note 1} Tillich, , The Interpretation of History, p. 34Google Scholar.

^{page 261 note 2} Tillich, P., The New Being (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1955), p. 99Google Scholar.

^{page 261 note 3} Tillich, , The Interpretation of History, p. 265Google Scholar.

^{page 261 note 4} Tillich, , Dynamics of Faith, p. 87Google Scholar.

^{page 261 note 5} Tillich, Vide P., The Courage To Be (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1952)Google Scholar.

^{page 262 note 1} Tillich, P., Systematic Theology, 2 vols. (Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1957), II, 117Google Scholar.

^{page 262 note 2} P. Tillich, ‘The Bible and Systematic Theology’, an unpubl. MS., cited in Maollegen, A. T., ‘Christology and Biblical Criticism in Tillich’ in The Theology of Paul Tillich, eds., Kegleay, C. W. and Bretall, A. W. (Library of Living Theology, Vol. I; New York, MacMillan, 1961), p. 234Google Scholar.

^{page 262 note 3} ibid.

^{page 262 note 4} Tillich, , The Interpretation of History, p. 265Google Scholar.

^{page 262 note 5} Tillich, , Systematic Theology, II, 117Google Scholar.

^{page 262 note 6} ibid., p. 115.

^{page 263 note 1} Tillich, P., ‘A Reinterpretation of the Doctrine of the Incarnatiaon’, Church Quarterly Review, CXLaVII (Jan.-Mar. 1949), 145Google Scholar.

^{page 263 note 2} Tillich, , Dynamics of Faith, p. 89Google Scholar.

^{page 263 note 3} Tillich, , Systematic Theology, II, 114Google Scholar.

^{page 263 note 4} Tillich, , Church Quarterly Review, CXLVII (Jan.-March 1949), 145Google Scholar.

^{page 264 note 1} Tillich, , lSystematic Theology, II, 114Google Scholar.

^{page 264 note 2} ibid.

^{page 264 note 3} Tavard, G. H., Paul Tillich and the Christian Message (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1962), p. 109Google Scholar.

^{page 264 note 4} Emmet, D. M., ‘Epistemology and the Idea of Revelation’ in The Theology of Paul Tillich, p. 213Google Scholar.

^{page 264 note 5} Tillich, , Systematic Theology, II, 114Google Scholar.

^{page 264 note 6} Mollegen, , in The Theology of Paul Tillich, p. 234Google Scholar and P. Tillich, ‘Reply to Interpretation and Criticism’ in ibid., p. 348.

^{page 265 note 1} Vide Systematic Theology, II, 113.

^{page 266 note 1} Baillie, , God Was In Christ, p. 78Google Scholar.

^{page 266 note 2} Emmet, Vide, in The Theology of Paul Tillich, p. 213Google Scholar, and Thomas, , Hibbert Journal, LVII (April 1959), 251Google Scholar.

^{page 267 note 1} Tavard, , Paul Tillich, p. 109Google Scholar.

^{page 267 note 2} Sulzbach, M. F., ‘The Place of Christology in Contemporary Protestantism’, Religion in Life, XXIII (Winter 1953–1954), 212Google Scholar.

^{page 267 note 3} Johnson, , Authority in Protestant Theology (Philadelphia, The Westminster Press, 1959), p. 143Google Scholar.

^{page 267 note 4} Tavard, , Paul Tillich, p. 167Google Scholar.

^{page 268 note 1} Baillie, , God Was in Christ, p. 72Google Scholar.

^{page 268 note 2} ibid., p. 78.

^{page 268 note 3} Thomas, J. H., Paul Tillich: An Appraisal (London, S.C.M, Press, 1963), p. 212Google Scholar.

^{page 268 note 4} Tavard, , Paul Tillich, p. 107Google Scholar.

^{page 268 note 5} ibid., p. 131.

^{page 269 note 1} ibid., p. 109.

^{page 269 note 2} Tillich, , Systematic Theology, II, 115Google Scholar.

^{page 269 note 3} Tillich, , The Interpretation of History, p. 34Google Scholar.

^{page 271 note 1} Tillich, , Dynamics of Faith, p. 89Google Scholar.

^{page 271 note 2} Tillich, , Systematic Theology, II, 107–108Google Scholar.

^{page 271 note 1} Tillich, , The Interpretation of History, p. 33Google Scholar.

^{page 271 note 2} p. 113. In the third volume of Tillich's Systematic Theology, published since the above was written, the few allusive references to this question do not indicate any change in Tillich's position.

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