Paul Tillich and the Theology of German Religious Socialism

Abstract

Although Tillich is better known for his later work in the United States, it was in his earlier religious socialism that he forged many of the central features of what proved lasting in his theology. The political ferment following the collapse of imperial Germany after the First World War had given rise to a widespread expectation of social and cultural transformation. As a leading theoretician of the German religious socialist movement, Tillich's theology of culture and categories of theonomy, kairos and the demonic emerged as key interpretive readings of political developments that held both promise and danger. As the fascist menace assumed ever larger proportions, Tillich developed his thinking through a critical appropriation of the Marxist tradition and in dialogue with the Frankfurt School. His theology of culture proved able to embrace the secular through identifying those respects in which it could be viewed as imbued with religious substance and stands in refreshing contrast to the ill-considered rejection of the secular that has become a disturbing trend in recent theology.