Paul Tillich's Interpretation Of Faith

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For Paul Tillich, “faith is a state of being ultimately concerned”(pp.1) about something completely, for instance, it is a task for one’s complete being. Faith is also a centering function of the whole personality. Tillich states, "faith as ultimate concern is an act of the total personality. It happens in the center of the personal life and includes all its elements" (pp. 4). Tillich defines faith as something centralizing to the life of the individual. He claims faith incorporates all factors of the personality, both conscious and unconscious. According to Tillich, our ultimate concern should take up a significant part of our lives and we should see it as the most important thing. For Tillich, a person’s ultimate concern is something that …show more content…

He states, “the most ordinary misinterpretation of faith is to consider it an act of knowledge that has a low degree of evidence” (pp. 31). For Tillich, faith is not a belief or trust with a certain level of probability. He also states, “the term ‘faith’ should not be used in connection with theoretical knowledge, whether it is a knowledge on the basis of immediate, prescientific or scientific evidence, or whether it is on the basis of trust in authorities who themselves are dependent on direct or indirect evidence” (pp.32). Therefore, faith is not a form of theoretical knowledge. We believe the authority and their opinions but we never have faith in them unconditionally. According to Tillich, faith is more than trust. Later in the text, he argues that many historical conflicts have affected from the misinterpretation of faith as an act of knowledge reinforced by religious authority. In Summation, Tillich describes that faith is not an act of knowledge connected to unpredictability and also faith is not a belief which stands on incomplete evidence or verification, therefore, it does not have to be supplemented by an act of choice and the will to believe does not develop

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