Tillich, Paul Johannes
TILLICH, PAUL JOHANNES (1886–1965), German-American theologian and philosopher, was born in Starzeddel (now Starosiedle, Poland), in Brandenburg, Germany, on August 20, 1886, the son of a Lutheran pastor. He attended the University of Berlin, from which he received his Ph.D., and the University of Halle, where he received his doctorate in theology. After passing his second theological examination at Halle, he was ordained into the ministry in 1912.
Career and Theory Formulation
During World War I Tillich served as a military chaplain. These years had a profound impact on Tillich's understanding of human reality. The effect of the war's devastation, both physical and spiritual, is reflected in a letter that he wrote in November 1916: "I have become purely an eschatologist [in that] what I, along with others, am experiencing is the actual end of the world of this time." Completing his military service in December 1918, Tillich received his qualification for university teaching (Habilitation) at the University of Berlin in 1919. This was also the year in which he published one of his most influential essays, "On the Idea of a Theology of Culture" (Über die Idee einer Theologie der Kultur). The essay presented the principles for interpreting culture theologically that Tillich followed throughout his career and that became the basis of a new field of theological study.
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