Every generation produces new theologians who approach their theological tasks in various ways. For most, their efforts probably fall under a similar category to Kuhn’s “normal science”, trying to solve some of the problems of theology using the methods and predispositions they inherited. However, every generation also spawns a few theologians who “protest” past approaches or conclusions and attempt of forge new ground, sometimes creating what Kuhn called a paradigm shift. Paul Tillich was one of those. He is considered by many as one of the all time great Christian theologians and certainly one of the most influential in the 20th century. Why? One of the reasons, I believe, was is willingness to embrace criticisms of Christianity coming from all perspectives including the hard sciences, the human sciences, art, secular thought, etc. In fact, the foundational method that he employed in theology was what he called “the method of correlation”. He did not believe the religious message could remain static, using the same language, symbol, and metaphor of the past. Instead the message needed to correlate to the current situation. His was an answering theology. The religious message of any particular time was based on the questions being asked in that period. In other words, the theologian seeks to discover the existential questions arising in the culture of the time and only then offers religious answers to them. (more…)
