Harvard Theological Review | Cambridge Core
Tillich and the Perennial Philosophy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 June 2011
Owen C. Thomas
Extract
In an earlier essay I proposed the paradoxical theses that the main religio-philosophical alternative in the West to Judaism and Christianity has always been the perennial philosophy in its various forms, and that Christianity (and less so Judaism) has always been an amalgam or synthesis of the ideal types, biblical religion and the perennial philosophy.
TypeResearch Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 89 , Issue 1 , January 1996 , pp. 85 - 98
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0017816000031825[Opens in a new window]
CopyrightCopyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1996
Tillich and the Perennial Philosophy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 June 2011
Owen C. Thomas
Abstract :
Paul Tillich represents Christian tradition as a synthesis of biblical religion and the perennial philosophy.
Tillich's synthesis, which is only partially successful, involves the description of God as both being-itself and personal.
Tillich also relates creation and fall to the universal shift from essence to existence, while fulfillment is interpreted as the transition from existence to essence.
Tillich's synthesis is most successful in relation to the nature of the divine and least successful in the interpretation of creation and fall as a change from essence to existence.
Extract
In an earlier essay I proposed the paradoxical theses that the main religio-philosophical alternative in the West to Judaism and Christianity has always been the perennial philosophy in its various forms, and that Christianity (and less so Judaism) has always been an amalgam or synthesis of the ideal types, biblical religion and the perennial philosophy.
An example of the former is the concept delineated by the biblical theology movement of the 1940s and 1950s. By the latter I mean the religio-philosophical world view exemplified by Neoplatonism and Vedanta, and by the philosophical foundation of Gnosticism, Rosicrucianism, and Theosophy, and propounded by such authors as René Guénon, Frithjof Schuon, S. H. Nasr, and Huston Smith.
TypeResearch Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 89 , Issue 1 , January 1996 , pp. 85 - 98
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0017816000031825[Opens in a new window]
CopyrightCopyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1996
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