Summary

In this chapter, Tillich discusses courage under the rubric of participation, the first of two dimensions that he believes cohere with the basic polar structure of being and individual affirmation—self and world. Self and world correspond to the basic ontological dyad that constitutes the core of existential being. Ontological self-affirmation is prior to all differences, for Tillich, and it is centered, ultimately, on the individual self. The individual self exists within a whole (the world) without being collapsed into or completely identified with it. At the same time, however, the whole is not and cannot be what it is without its parts, including each single individual. Participation therefore involves both a partial nonidentity and a partial identity. One participates in his or her world, society, and community, but these collectives do not -...