Tillich, << TIHL ihk, >> Paul (1886-1965), was an important German-born theologian. Tillich was a brilliant student of culture. In Theology of Culture (1959), he analyzed the forms of culture, showing the religious dimension in all cultural activities. Tillich developed a theory of religious symbols and myths, which he discussed in Dynamics of Faith (1957). His masterpiece, the three-volume Systematic Theology (1951, 1959, 1963), interprets the meaning of God and Jesus Christ in correlation with philosophical questions of modern life and thought.
Paul Johannes Tillich was born on Aug. 20, 1886, in Starsiedel, near Leipzig. His thought and life were transformed by his experiences as a Lutheran chaplain in World War I (1914-1918). He encountered what he called “the power of nonbeing” in wartime anxieties concerning death, guilt, and loss of meaning. In The Courage to Be (1952), he understood God to mean “the power of being itself” in the experience of courageously conquering anxiety.
Tillich left Germany in 1933 after the rise of Nazism. He settled in the United States, teaching at Union Theological Seminary, Harvard University, and the University of Chicago. He died on Oct. 22, 1965.
