Page 62 - History of Christianity II- Textbook

Paul JohannesTillich 1886-1965

Paul Johannes Tillich was a German-American theologian and
Christian existentialist philosopher. Tillich, along with contemporary Karl
Barth, is considered by many as one of the most influential Liberal
Protestant theologians of the twentieth century.

He believed that Christianity needed reconstruction as a result of the
changing world, and he promoted faith in human experience. He
promoted the view that God was NOT an omnipotent, omniscient being,
but rather God is an eternal essence and a God above God. He taught that
God is both personal and transpersonal, that God is only manifested in the structure of beings.

Tillich created a theology by converting the Christian faith into a faith created by human culture. His
writings influenced the development of liberal Christian thought among major universities in the US in
the 50’s and 60’s. He taught at Harvard Divinity School from 1955 to 1962. He then moved to the
University of Chicago and remained professor of theology until his death in 1965 due to a heart attack.

Liberal Protestantism reached zenith in American in the 1970s and 80s largely due to his influence.

11.4 Let’s Practice…
1. According to Charles Fox Parham, how important was experiences in the life of a believer?

2. How did Albert Schweitzer further confuse believers in his day?

3. What did Rudolph Bultmann believe about the Bible?

4. Explain how God used Horace Allen to bring the Gospel to Korea:

5. In what ways did Karl Barth twist the Scriptures to a create false doctrine of salvation?

6. Paul Tillich was one of the premier leaders in the Neo-Orthodox movement. How did he reconstruct
Christianity?

11.5 Let’s Personalize this Lesson…
Activity: As we have studied church history, notice that the “gift of tongues” has not been
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mentioned over the almost 2000 years of church history since the 1 century. Suddenly it
reappears in 1906 with the Azusa Street revival in Los Angeles, California, USA. I Corinthians
13:8 says that tongues will “cease.” The Greek literally means, will “cease of itself” or “fade
away.” That’s exactly what we have seen in church history. It ceased with the Apostles. Yet
almost 1900 years later, it reappeared as gibberish. The original tongues were definite foreign
languages (see Acts 2:8-11) that people could understand. Today’s tongues are considered “angelic
languages” but a true analysis is that what people experience today as tongues is not a language at all,
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but gibberish or repetitive sounds. Today’s “tongues” are not the Bible tongues of the 1 century!
The charismatics have made these experiences equal with God’s revelation. Can you see how this is
nothing more than Neo-orthodoxy infiltrating the church? When my experience or my revelation
becomes God’s words, then we have entered a very slippery path into doctrinal heresy.
What’s your view or what do you think (as the Neo-orthodox would ask)?

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