Post Series
1–Introduction
2–On the Human Condition
3–On the Person and Work of Jesus Christ
4–On Salvation
5–Conclusion
Finally, how does Tillich conceive of our salvation? What do we attain and how do we receive it? For Tillich, what we ultimately attain and what ultimately solves for our problem of meaningless existence is the New Being; the central concept to Tillich’s understanding of the solution to the human problem is the New Being. The New Being is what everyone needs and what everyone universally searches for. As Tillich says, “The quest for the New Being is universal because the human condition of estrangement is universal.” ((Tillich, Systematic Theology, 2:86.)) The New Being, of course, is the new reality that enables personal conquest over separation from that which is of ultimate meaning because of our existence. It is a saving “power” that triumphs over existence. Salvation is to be conceived, then, as the healing and saving power of the New Being right now in history. ((Tillich, Systematic Theology, 2:167.))
Though Jesus is considered the bearer of the New Being, Tillich seems to suggest he isn’t necessarily the exclusive saving power of the New Being: “he is the ultimate criterion of every healing and saving power…in him the healing quality is complete and unlimited. Therefore wherever there is saving power in mankind, it must be judged by the saving power of Jesus as the Christ.” ((Tillich, Systematic Theology, 2:168. (emph. mine))) In other words, while Jesus is the standard for salvation—in that he bore and represented the new reality of existential conquest—he is not the exclusive entry point into it. Instead, he stands as a model for anything that brings hope, healing, reconciliation, and love. Where there is healing, there is the New Being; where there is love, there is the New Being. The latter, love, is actually the power of Tillich’s concept of salvation. For Tillich, in the work of Jesus on the cross his self-surrender in death showed that a new reality began in and through him; the example of Jesus’ loving self-surrender is somehow the power to bring about humanity’s salvation. As Tillich explains, “‘Love never ends,’ says [Jesus’] greatest apostle. Love is the power of the new in every man and in all history. It cannot age; it removes guilt and curse. It is working even today toward new creation. It is hidden in the darkness of our souls and of our history.” ((Tillich, Shaking of the Foundation, 186.)) Love powerfully works toward salvation, because it creates what Tillich calls the unambiguous life, another term for New Being.
Tillich often frames our human problem—existential estrangement—using the term ambiguity. Ambiguity is the gap between the essential and the existential, between intended created goodness and estrangement from that goodness. The quest for the New Being, then, is a “quest for the unambiguous life…All creatures long for an unambiguous fulfillment of their essential possibilities.” ((Tillich, Systematic Theology, 3:107.)) In other words, humans want to reconcile how they are with how they ought to be, to reconcile reality with ideality. The unambiguous life is rooted in the reality of the New Being, which forms the goal of life and point of salvation. According to Tillich, the unambiguous life is symbolized in three religious symbols: Spirit of God, Kingdom of God, and Eternal Life. He says the unambiguous life—the life that reconciles the gap between the essential and existential, the ideal and the real—can be described by any of the three symbols and is what humans attain in salvation, the solution to the human problem.
Tillich defines the Spirit of God as “the presence of the Divine Life within creaturely life.” ((Tillich, Systematic Theology, 3:107.)) This presence is also called the “Spiritual Presence,” which is a “meaning-bearing power which grasps the human spirit in an ecstatic experience.” ((Tillich, Systematic Theology, 3:115.)) In other words, this religious symbol stands as the power that brings meaning to bear upon the experience of a human at the point the human mind is grasped by that which is of ultimate meaning. ((Tillich, Systematic Theology, 1:111-12, describes ecstacy in this way: “Ecstacy (‘standing outside one’s self’) points to a state of mind which is extraordinary in the sense that the mine transcends its ordinary situation…Ecstacy occurs only if the mind is grasped by the mystery, namely, by the ground of being and meaning.”)) It is the guide of what Tillich terms, essentialization, the process of regaining one’s essence. According to Tillich, “the Spiritual Presence elevates the human spirit into the transcendent union of unambiguous life and gives the immediate certainty of reunion with God.” ((Tillich, Systematic Theology, 3:128.)) In short, it is the presence of the New Being where by the individual experiences a reunion with the divine essence, with that which ought to be. In a trinitarian sense, it is the part of Being-Itself that liberates individuals from the conditions of estrangement and forms the Spiritual Community, the communal embodiment of the Spiritual Presence, which is the communal unambiguous life. ((Tillich, Systematic Theology, 3:150.)) If the Spiritual Presence is a spiritual symbol for the “becoming” of the way things ought to be individually, the Kingdom of God is the social symbol for the way things become as they ought in history.
For Tillich, the Kingdom of God “is the answer to the ambiguities of man’s historical existence, but because of the multidimensional unity of life, the symbol includes the answer to the ambiguity under the historical dimension in all realms of life…[It] embraces the destiny of the life of the universe…” This symbol is the answer to the concrete ways in which the gap between the ideal and real is expressed in humanity’s actual historical existence. The symbol includes both “the struggle of unambiguous life with the forces which make for ambiguity, and the ultimate fulfillment toward which history runs.” ((Tillich, Systematic Theology, 3:150.)) The Kingdom of God—which is also the unambiguous life and New Being—stands as the historical symbol for the ultimate meaning and aim of all life universally. It symbolizes the reunion of essence and existence experienced within human life and history. While the ambiguities of life still manifest themselves, thus requiring an on-going process of resolution, the Kingdom is the foretaste of resolution. This historical process is represented by the language of maturity, in which humanity develops toward that which is of ultimate meaning in existence. ((Tillich, Systematic Theology, 3:364-365.))
The Kingdom is manifest historically whenever there is human progress and development, including pre-Christianity with Israel’s exodus from Egypt, “the East-West encounter in present-day Japan,” and development of Western culture in the last 500 years. ((Tillich, Systematic Theology, 3:365.)) The Kingdom, then, is the inner-historical progressive gap-closing process between essence and existence in history, which seems to cash-out as humanistic progress. Ending racism, curing cancer, and building the European Union—all good things for sure—are modern day marks of human progress, of the the unambiguous life in history and expressions of the Kingdom of God. While the Kingdom is a symbol for the progressive resolution of self-estrangement in history, the actual resolution of ambiguous life, however, is the trans-historical symbol of salvation represented by Eternal Life.
The final symbol for the unambiguous life, which for Tillich is salvation, is Eternal Life. It is the supposed final resolution of the problem of ambiguity through a final fulfillment of life. Tillich views Eternal Life as the conquest of the ambiguities of life beyond history and is the transcendent side of the Kingdom of God, while also preserving the content of history. ((Tillich, Systematic Theology, 3:396.)) As Tillich explains:
Its basic assertion is that the ever present end of history elevates the positive content of history into eternity at the same time that it excludes the negative from participation in it. Therefore nothing which has been created in history is lost, but it is liberated from the negative elements with which it is entangled within existence. The positive becomes manifest as unambiguously positive and the negative becomes manifest as unambiguously negative in the elevation of history to eternity. Eternal Life, then, includes the positive content of history, liberated from its negative distortions and fulfilled in its potentialities. ((Tillich, Systematic Theology, 3:397.))
Tillich was quoted at length, because of the significance of his definition. Tillich argues that somehow the positive elements—which are taken as positive human progress, especially ethical—live on while the negative parts of humanity are removed. Since he states that which has been created will not be lost, including all humans, only the elements of existence that are contrary to the essence of life will be removed; history will be liberated of those parts and actions which distort it through human existential progress. This end, however, is actually not really an end at all. Instead, Tillich envisions it as present; somehow the past and future are present now.
Tillich re-interprets eternal to mean right now, hence his well-known phrase the eternal now. He argues that the past and future meet in the present, that both are included in the “now,” which is considered eternal. According to Tillich, the result of this interpretation is that, “the eschaton becomes a matter of present experience without loosing its futuristic dimension: we stand now in the face of the eternal, but we do so looking ahead toward the end of history and the end of all that is temporal in the eternal.” ((Tillich, Systematic Theology, 3:396.)) As Tillich goes on to argue, “The fulfillment of history lies in the permanently present end of history…” ((Tillich, Systematic Theology, 3:396.)) What’s clear is that there is no terminus to history, in the classical Christian sense; history is not fulfilled but rather history continues to unfold and is elevated to the eternal—that which is of ultimate meaning in existence. Tillich believes that the end of history is actually expressed in the present, the eternal is experienced right now. What happens now, then, is a progressive “burning” of that which is negative in favor of that which is positive, which is symbolized in of ultimate judgment. Rather than an actual judgment taking place at the parousia when Jesus returns to judge the living and the dead—which the historic Christian faith insists—Tillich argues judgment to mean, “here and now, in the permanent transition of the temporal to the eternal, the negative is defeated in its claim to be positive, a claim it supports by using the positive and mixing ambiguously with it.” ((Tillich, Systematic Theology, 3:397.))
Notice that people are not in view here, but non-entities called “the positive” and “the negative,” which might include the negative outcomes of human progress like pollution and ethical actions like war. While both terms are incredibly vague, they must be synonyms for the essential and existential that Tillich has been arguing throughout his works. In other words, Eternal Life is the ever increasing human development of that which is existentially positive in place of that which is existentially negative. It is a present experience of future ends, which could be construed as a reversal of the human problem—transition from essence to existence.
While these effects of salvation are historical in scope, it’s clear they apply to individuals universally, too. As Tillich states, “Only if salvation is understood as the healing and saving power through the New Being in all history is the problem put on another level. In some degree all men participate in the healing power of the New Being.” ((((Tillich, Systematic Theology, 2:167.)) )) As he writes elsewhere, “No longer is the universe subject to the law of death out of birth. It is subject to a higher law, to the law of life out of death by the death of him who represented eternal life.” In his suffering and death Jesus as the Christ represented the height of ultimate meaning, which means that “nature has received another meaning; history is transformed and you and I are no more what we were.”((Tillich, New Being, 178-179.)) All individuals right now participate in the inner/trans-historical reality of the New Being.
Though what is attained in salvation can be summarized by the concept of the New Being, how is it attained? Tillich envisions the effect of salvation unfolding for the individual in threefold: participation, acceptance, and transformation. These three characteristics reflect the classical theological categories of Regeneration, Justification, and Sanctification. Through this ordo saludis, the problem of existential estrangement is overcome and the gap between essential and existential is resolved.
First, Tillich emphasizes that “the saving power of the New Being in Jesus as the Christ is dependent on man’s participation in it.” ((Tillich, Systematic Theology, 2:176.)) This subjective participation is preceded by the objective reality that the New Being is in fact true: “[Regeneration] is the new state of things, the new eon, which Christ brought; the individual ‘enters it,’ and in so doing he himself participates in it and is reborn through participation.” ((Tillich, Systematic Theology, 2:177.)) As one pastor has framed this participation, “So this reality, this forgiveness, this reconciliation, is true for everybody. This reality then isn’t something we make true about ourselves by doing something. It is already true. Our choice is to live in this new reality or cling to a reality of our own making.” ((Bell, Velvet Elvis, 146.)) For Tillich, participation in the New Being is through faith.
As with the traditional Christian faith, in Tillich’s gospel an individual enters into the New Being through faith, which is the state of “being grasped by a power that is greater than we are, a power that shakes us and turns us, and transforms us and heals us. Surrender to this power is faith.” ((Tillich, New Being, 38.)) Elsewhere, Tillich defines faith as “the courage to say yes to one’s own life and life in general, in spite of the driving forces of fate, in spite of the insecurities of daily existence, in spite of the catastrophes of existence and the breakdown of meaning.” ((Tillich, New Being, 53. (emph. mine))) For Tillich, then, faith is about one’s courage to embrace that which is of ultimate meaning in existence, which of course is how he defines God. Faith is not totally committing one’s life to a Being God in repentance one has rebelled against (i.e. God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth). Rather, “faith is the state of being grasped by that toward which self-transcendence aspires, the ultimate in being and meaning,” it is the “reception of the message that one is accepted.” ((Tillich, Systematic Theology, 3:130; 2:85. (emph. mine))) Acceptance of one’s acceptance, then, is the entry-point into salvation. After this self-acceptance through regeneration comes the central event of salvation: Justification.
The second characteristic of salvation is justification, which he defines thus: “the eternal act of God by which he accepts not as estranged those who are indeed estranged from him by guilt and the act by which he takes them into unity with him which is manifest in the New Being in Christ.” ((Tillich, Systematic Theology, 2:178.)) It is the act of “making man that which he essentially is from which he is estranged,” which he says in no way dependent on man, but instead is God’s acceptance of humanity despite themselves. ((Tillich, Systematic Theology, 2:178.)) How can this be if Tillich has all along viewed the term God symbolically, signifying that which is of ultimate existential meaning, that which is the aim of life over against estranged existence? It is unclear, actually. Because though Tillich says God is the one who forgives, he also equates forgiveness with being able to accept oneself. ((Tillich, Systematic Theology, 2:179.)) Furthermore, for Tillich the reconciliation of which justification provides is not to a Being God, but is a ceasing to be hostile toward existence itself:
Be reconciled to God. Cease to be hostile to him, for he is never hostile to you…for one is hostile, consciously or unconsciously, toward those by whom one feels rejected. Everybody is in this predicament, whether he calls that which rejects him “God,” or “nature,” or “destiny,” or “social conditions.” Everybody carries a hostility toward the existence into which he has been thrown… ((Tillich, Systematic Theology, 2:179.))
While initially, Tillich’s definition seems theocentrically orthodox, it is instead incredibly humanistic. In essence, it seems as though we are called to be reconciled to ourselves in our existential condition. This makes sense considering Tillich believes the questions of past—How do I become liberated from the Law? (Paul); How do I find a merciful God? (Luther)—are replaced by our contemporary one: How do I find meaning in a meaningless world? ((Tillich, Systematic Theology, 3:227.)) A person is “justified,” then, “because they are accepted with respect to the ultimate meaning of their lives.” ((Tillich, Systematic Theology, 3:228.)) What exactly this means, however, is unclear. How can “the ultimate meaning of life” accept someone? Is this not simply double-speak for a person accepting the meaning of their own lives, or perhaps accepting how they ought to live (i.e. their essentiality) as a way of creating meaning for themselves in their meaningless existence? Deep acceptance of one’s self, then, is the heart of Tillich’s gospel. Tillich has already said that entry into salvation (Regeneration) comes by accepting that one is accepted, that Life has already accepted humankind. Here justification is also linked with self-acceptance. As with everything else in Tillich’s gospel, an actual Being God is non-existent with regards to the act of reconciliation. The same is true in the end with Sanctification.
Finally, after participating in the New Being and accepting that they are accepted, humanity experiences salvation as transformation by the New Being, or Sanctification. Tillich defines this transformation as, “the process in which the power of the New Being transforms personality and community, inside and outside the church.” ((Tillich, Systematic Theology, 2:179-180.)) Sanctification is the progressive conquest of the ambiguities of the personal life, a closing of the gap between essential goodness and existential estrangement, between how man ought to be and how he is, between ideality and reality. ((Tillich, Systematic Theology, 2:180.)) Whereas the traditional Christian faith conceives this process of being put back together again in Christ as wholly directed by God through the Holy Spirit, Tillich conceives this process of transformation as a complete human endeavor. We have the power within us by consequence of Jesus’ participation and overcoming of existential estrangement in his suffering. As Tillich writes, “sanctification is not possible without a continuous transcendence of oneself in the direction of the ultimate…The self-transcendence which belongs to the principle of sanctification is actual in every act in which the impact of the Spiritual Presence is experience” ((Tillich, Systematic Theology, 3:235, 236.)) These acts include prayer, meditation, solitude, communal Spiritual experiences, acts of creativity; “It is like the breathing-in of another air, an elevation above average existence.” ((Tillich, Systematic Theology, 3:236.)) Again, as with the first two parts of salvation, Sanctification is entirely anthropocentric, where any act that transcends existence and reaches for that which is of ultimate meaning aids in the process of personal transformation. The Holy Spirit as third person of the Trinity is not the agent of transformation, human gumption and ingenuity is.
