The Fabric of Paul Tillich's Theology

by David H. Kelsey

Overview

By taking seriously Tillich's claim to be a confessional Church theologian rather than a metaphysician with religious interests, this carefully ordered study gains a fresh perspective on the structure of argument upon which his theological enterprise rests. Scriptural material is shown to control his judgments in much the same way that literature controls those of the literary critic--a particularly illuminating comparison in view of his argument that the verbal icon provided by the biblical picture of Jesus as the Christ bears analogia imaginis to the historical Jesus and hence provides the sole access to the original Christian revelation. Tillich's movement from symbols as data to theological judgments as conclusions is seen to be warranted, not by his ontology, but by his presentation of the phenomenology of revelatory events. Though historical study of Jesus and of the Bible is in principle irrelevant to this use of scripture, his confusions in this area are examined, and the structural flaws in his accounts of the biblical picture of Jesus are shown to yield a Christian theology in which Christology is oddly dispensable. Finally, his discussion of God is used as a test case for the analysis of the general structure of his argument, and the various sorts of conclusions that he feels Scripture authorizes him to draw are cogently appraised. David H. Kelsey is professor of theology at Yale Divinity School, New Haven, Connecticut.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781610975674
Publisher:	Wipf & Stock Publishers
Publication date:	07/22/2011
Pages:	214
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

David H. Kelsey is professor of theology at Yale Divinity School, New Haven, Connecticut.

Table of Contents

Preface vii

Note on Citations xi

1 The Fabric of theological Argument 1

The Source and Norm for Theology 2

The Structure of Systematic Theology 8

2 The Picture, Revelations, and symbols 19

The Function of Symbols in Revelation 21

The Content of the Picture 25

Religion or Revelation? 32

Revelations and Religious Symbols 40

3 The Role of ontological analysis 51

The Limits of Ontological Analysis 52

The Ontology of the Self 62

The Uses of Ontology 77

Ontology and God as Spirit 82

4 Historical Research and Theology 89

The History of The Symbols 89

The Historicity of Jesus 91

The Historical Accuracy Of The "Analogy" 96

Some Interim Conclusions 101

5 The Content of a Verbal Icon 105

The Picture As Verbal Icon 107

Formal Analysis of The Picture 114

6 The Content of a Holy Object 127

Power as Content 128

The "Validity" of the Picture 132

The Issue 139

The Picture and the Spirit 143

Aesthetics As Warrant 147

Conclusion 152

7 "God" as Religious Symbol: A Test Case 154

Explanation Of "God" 155

Criticism Of "God" 165

Conceptualization Of "God" 167

8 Theology and Proclamation: An Appraisal 176

The Content of Preaching 177

The Strategy of Preaching 189

Critique 194

Index 199