Irrelevance and Relevance of the Christian Message [Paperback]

A. Durwood Foster (Adapter, Introduction), Paul Tillich (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1996

Here is Paul Tillich's never-before-published transcript of his 1963 Earl Lectures at Union Theological Seminary. Delivered just two years prior to his death, they represent Tillich's full-orbed understanding of the relevance of Christian preaching and theology.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"God is greater than the religion in which God is manifest." With this sentence, Paul Tillich summarizes his position that much of Christianity in its present form is irrelevant to the essence of Christianity and its worth to modern Christians. In intelligent, thoughtful arguments, Tillich acknowledges the existential emptiness of modernism and proposes that preachers and ministers employ the ideals of Christian agape (unconditional love) and grace to fill the gap--but in novel and daring ways instead of dull, traditionalist methods. Tillich was one of the great theologians of his time, and it is interesting to read his words in this publication, decades after they were written as a lecture series, and judge how successfully Christianity has responded to his admonishments.

Review

The Irrelevance And Relevance Of The Christian Message is the first publication of Paul Tillich's 1963 Earl Lectures at the Graduate Theological Union. Delivered just two years before his death, these lectures present Tillich's heartfelt and deeply personal understanding of the relevance of Christian preaching and Christian theology. Why, Tillich asks, has the Christian message become seemingly irrelevant to contemporary society? Is the Gospel able to give answers to the questions raised by the existentialist analysis of the human predicament? Yes, he answers -- but in order to do so Christian teaching and preaching need to undergo dramatic renewal, the root of which requires an affirmation of love as central to Christian identity. Further, we need to recognize that this task is not limited to preachers and theologians; all of us together are responsible for the irrelevance or the relevance of the Gospel in our time. The Pilgrim Press has done an invaluable service to the Christian community by making the thoughts and insights of Paul Tillich available to a whole new generation of Christian readership. -- Midwest Book Review

Product Details

• Paperback: 64 pages
• Publisher: Pilgrim Press (November 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0829810811
• ISBN-13: 978-0829810813
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,960,353 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Helpful as a brief introduction to Tillich's thought, January 29, 2002

By 

Douglas P. Harley (Santa Barbara, California United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Irrelevance and Relevance of the Christian Message (Paperback)

Readers who are interested in an easy-to-read, brief summary of Tillich's thought and don't wish to tackle his 3-volume Systematic Theology will find this series of lectures helpful. You may wish to complement this with Tillich's Dynamics of Faith to get a sense of Tillich's basic ideas.