Systematic Theology, Vol 2 Quotes

“man is free, in so far as he has the power of contradicting himself and his essential nature. Man is free even from his freedom; that is, he can surrender his humanity”
― Paul Tillich, Systematic Theology, Vol 2: Existence and the Christ

“Biblical literalism did a distinct disservice to Christianity in its identification of the Christian emphasis on the symbol of the Fall with the literalistic interpretation of the Genesis story. Theology need not take literalism seriously, but we must realize how its impact has hampered the apologetic task of the Christian church. Theology must clearly and unambiguously represent “the Fall” as a symbol for the human situation universally, not as the story of an event that happened “once upon a time.”
― Paul Tillich, Systematic Theology, Vol 2

“Freedom is not the freedom of indeterminacy. That would make every moral decision an accident, unrelated to the person who acts. But freedom is the possibility of a total and centered act of the personality, an act in which all the drives and influences which constitute the destiny of man are brought into the centered unity of a decision. None of these drives compels the decision in isolation. (Only in states of disintegration is the personality determined by compulsions.) But they are effective in union and through the deciding center. In this way the universe participates in every act of human freedom. It represents the side of destiny in the act of freedom.”
― Paul Tillich, Systematic Theology, Vol 2

“Complete demythologization is not possible when speaking about the divine.”
― Paul Tillich, Systematic Theology, Vol 2