Retrieving the Radical Tillich: His Legacy and Contemporary Importance (Radical Theologies and Philosophies)

Paul Tillich is best known today as a theologian of mediation. Many have come to view him as an out-of-date thinker a safe exemplar of a mid-twentieth-century theological liberalism. The way he has come to be viewed contrasts sharply with the current theological landscape one dominated by the notion of radicality. In this collection, Russell Re Manning breaks with the widespread opinion of Tillich as 'safe' and dated. Retrieving the Radical Tillich depicts the thinker as a radical theologian, strongly marked but never fully determined by the urgent critical demands of his time. From the crisis of a German cultural and religious life after the First World War, to the new realities of religious pluralism, Tillich's theological responses were always profoundly ambivalent, impure and disruptive, asserts Re Manning. The Tillich that is outlined and analyzed by this collection is never merely correlative. Far from the dominant image of the theologian as a liberal accommodationist, Re Manning reintroduces the troubled and troubling figure of the radical Tillich. "Paul Tillich (1886-1965) is best known today as a theologian of mediation. Fifty years after his death in 1965, for many Tillich has become an out-of-date thinker, a safe exemplar of a mid-twentieth-century theological liberalism. By contrast, from post-liberalism and Radical Orthodoxy to radical secular theologies, the current theological landscape is dominated by the notion of radicality. This collection shows forth Tillich as a radical theologian, strongly marked, but never fully determined by, the urgent critical demands of his time. From the crisis of a German cultural and religious life in ruins after the horrific defeat of the First World War, to the new realities of religious pluralism, Tillich's theological responses were always profoundly ambivalent, impure and disruptive, and never merely safely correlative. Far from the dominant image of Tillich as a liberal accommodationist in its place re-emerges the troubled and troubling figure of the radical Tillich"-- Provided by publisher Front Matter....Pages i-ix Introduction....Pages 1-19 Front Matter....Pages 21-21 A Homage to Paulus....Pages 23-29 Paul Tillich and the Death of God....Pages 31-46 God Is a Symbol for God....Pages 47-64 The Nemesis Hex....Pages 65-80 Parataxis and Theonomy....Pages 81-98 Peacemaking on the Boundary....Pages 99-110 Front Matter....Pages 111-111 The Irrelevance and Relevance of the Radical, Impure Tillich....Pages 113-131 Socialism’s Multitude: Tillich’s The Socialist Decision and Resisting the US Imperial....Pages 133-157 Changing Ontotheology: Paul Tillich, Catherine Malabou, and the Plastic God....Pages 159-177 Can There Be a Theology of Disenchantment? Speculative Realism, Correlationism, and Unbinding the nihil in Tillich....Pages 179-192 Depth and the Void....Pages 193-207 The Critical Project in Schelling, Tillich, and Goodchild....Pages 209-231 Radical Apologetics: Paul Tillich and Radical Philosophical Atheism....Pages 233-247 Back Matter....Pages 249-274 "This collection of essays stages the first sustained conversation between the great protestant theologian and philosopher Paul Tillich (1886-1965) and radical theology. The book explores Tillich's influence on mid-twentieth-century 'Death of God' theology, reassesses the radical character of Tillich's own theology, and argues for his ongoing significance for contemporary work in radical theology"-- Provided by publisher