Page 227 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol IV

1528 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

Paul Tillich: Protestantism

and Systematic Theology

Paul Tillich is a highly regarded theologian who
stands at the boundary between Protestant and of England to form Methodism. In general, these awak-
Roman Catholic theology. For Tillich, theology is ened movements matched and fed the democratic spirit
designated to satisfy the church’s demand; namely, of the times and empowered lay people to engage in
to make “the statement of the truth of the Christian works of reform and missionary endeavor.
message and the interpretation of this truth for In the nineteenth century, the age of colonialism, such
every new generation,” as he wrote in one of his awakened Protestants, moved by the sense that they
seminal works, Systematic Theology. Tillich thus were advancing the millennium (for Christ’s return to
uses the Christian message, obtained from the Word earth) or promoting human progress through conversion
of God, to answer philosophical questions that are and reform, boarded ships from the British Isles, western
derived from common culture.This method of ques- European nations, and the United States, and took their
tioning is the so-called “correlation” methodology. gospel to the Middle East, Asia, and the Pacific Island
Tillich’s “correlation” method has been labeled as world, sometimes but with less success in Catholic Latin
one of his major contributions to modern theolo- America, and finally to Africa. Most of these evangelical
gians. The excerpt below provides an example of missionary movements date from the 1790s in England
Tillich’s thoughts on Protestantism: and after the 1810s in the United States.
Gifted college graduates, ambitious entrepreneurs,
The Protestant Principle is an expression of the
and sacrifice-minded men and women accompanied
conquest of religion by the Spiritual Presence
their message of salvation with efforts to educate and
and consequently an expression of the victory
heal and provide physical benefits for the populations
over the ambiguities of religion, its profanization,
they reached. It is easy to connect their moves with colo-
and its demonization. It is Protestant, because it
nial and imperial impulses, but without the entrepre-
protests against the tragic-demonic self-elevation
neurs and conquerors they could probably not have
of religion and liberates religion from itself for
moved as efficiently as they did. Yet they paid a high
the other functions of the human spirit, at the
price, because anticolonialism eventually made it neces-
same time liberating these functions from their
sary for them to distance themselves from many of the
self-seclusion against the manifestations of the
Euro-American missionary endeavors—in sub-Saharan
ultimate.The Protestant principle (which is a mani-
Africa, for example. They developed what they thought
festation of the prophetic Spirit) is not restricted
of as autochthonous Protestant churches—that is,
to the churches of the Reformation or to any other
churches rooted in the cultural soil of their new country.
church; it transcends every particular church, be-
At the beginning of the twentieth century, a new
ing an expression of the Spiritual Community. It
expression of Protestantism called Pentecostalism broke
has been betrayed by every church, including the
forth. Pentecostals claimed that their charismatic form of
churches of the Reformation, but it is also effec-
Christianity was as old as the biblical prophets and the
tive in every church as the power which prevents
New Testament.They believed they were reviving gifts of
profanization and demonization from destroying
early Christianity, which had long fallen into disuse.They
the Christian churches completely.
“spoke in tongues,” for example; they prophesied and
Source: Tillich, P. (1951). Systematic theology (p. 51). Chicago: University of claimed miraculous healings. Pentecostalism quickly
Chicago Press.
became a dominant form among Protestant late-arrivals
in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa. Some demog-
groups, often within the established church, as was the raphers claimed that over 570 million Protestants,Angli-
case with Jonathan Edwards or George Whitefield, the cans, Independents, and sometimes even Roman
towering figures in colonial America at mid-century, or Catholics were Pentecostal. Having become the domi-
with John Wesley,who eventually moved out of the Church nant form in the emerging world, Pentecostalism seemed