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Pharaoh's magicians at the holy of holies? Appraising an early debate between Tillich and Barth on the relationship between philosophy and theology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 October 2003

A. Katherine Grieb
A. Katherine Grieb
Affiliation:
The Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary in Virginia, 3737 Seminary Road, Alexandria, VA 22304, USAkgrieb@vts.edu
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Abstract

Two recent accounts of the relationship between theology and philosophy differ pointedly: Fides et Ratio describes an ‘intimate bond between theological and philosophical wisdom', while John Milbank charges theology to ‘evacuate philosophy, which is metaphysics', entirely. An early (1929) debate between Paul Tillich and Karl Barth on this subject is both clarifying and instructive for our present theological situation. Tillich and Barth would differ in their assessments of the relationship between theology and philosophy described by Fides et Ratio, but, against Milbank, both Tillich and Barth would agree that theology attempts to isolate itself from philosophy at its peril.

Type
Research Article
Information
Scottish Journal of Theology , Volume 56 , Issue 3 , August 2003 , pp. 360 - 380
Copyright
© Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 2003

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Footnotes

I am indebted to David H. Kelsey, George Hunsinger, and especially Reinhard Hütter for their wise comments on earlier versions of this paper.