Paul Tillich (1886-1965) : Plaidoyer pour une théonomie entre autonomie et hétéronomie

Abstract

Paul TILLICH draws his theological system from his experience of WWI, which he lived through as a rupture and the end of a world. The fundamental question facing the theologian is that of the reality, the credibility, and the authority of the Christian faith. Tillich tries to meet modern man in order to reconcile him, distressed as he is, with God, with himself, and with the world. For this purpose, he develops a cultural theology which rests upon man's fundamental need for meaning and he tries to re-define the relationships between culture and religion, between autonomy and heteronomy. The theologian firmly advocates a theonomy which would reconcile religion and culture and which he sees at work in German expressionism. Through the concept of theonomy he reverts to the protestant principle: they both aim at overcoming the ambivalence lying in culture and religion, which implies a permanent synthesis between autonomy and heteronomy. Thus Tillich endeavors to restore to protestantism its universal value as a protest against all systems resting on domination and enslavement.