Boundaries of Belief: Commentary

306 COMMENTARY
Boundaries of Belief ligious obligation" and the "religious reserva-

tion." The religious obligation is to work God's
THE PROTESTANT ERA. By PAUL TILLICH. will on earth, to establish justice and love in
Translated with a concluding essay by economic and social relations (Tillich is a de-
James Luther Adams. University of vout socialist), and to hasten the day of mes-
Chicago Press. 323 pp. $4.00. sianic redemption. The religious reservation is
to protest against any absolute claim to truth
Reviewed by IRVING KRISTOL made in the name of a relative, historical
reality-whether that reality be a totalitarian
THESE eighteen essays by an outstanding Prot- state, a religious institution, a dogmatic creed,
estant thinker are so compact and significant or a social movement-and it is thus possible
that they require extended commentary and crit- to be loyal to the Protestant principle without
icism. All that can be done in this brief re- belonging to a Protestant, or any other church.
view is to point to some of the leading themes There is an inevitable trend in human com-
and the way they are used. Actually there is munities toward idolatry-the worship of cer-
only one theme: "The first element in Prot- tain institutions and beliefs as having absolute
estantism is and must always be the proclaim- and unquestionable validity, as being at long
ing of the human boundary situation." last "the final word." What the Protestant
The concept of the "borderline" or "border principle asserts is that the only absolute truth
situation" runs through all of Tillich's writings is this: man can never attain absolute truth-
in much the same way that all of Thomas "the final word" is always with God and it
Mann's work weaves about the tension be- comes as a judgment upon man. The Prot-
tween life and the artist, with a self-conscious estant era, Tillich says, is coming to an end
and creative egocentricity. In the autobio- with a thunderclap of moral and social col-
graphical sketch that formed the first part of lapse; but whatever the religious forms that
his Interpretation of History (936), Tillich the future will throw up, they too will be
wrote: 'The concept of the borderline might subordinate to the Protestant principle.
be a fitting symbol of the whole of my per-
sonal and intellectual development. It has been IT IS obvious that this approach is less a prod-
my fate, in almost every direction, to stand uct of primitive, uncontained faith than of
between alternative possibilities of existence, sophisticated disillusionment. Not disillusion-
to be completely at home in neither, to take ment with God, to be sure, but with men
no definitive stand against either." From this and their works-even with religious men and
vantage point he has acted as a productive their works. Of all theologians, Tillich is the
mediator between faith and reason, theology most sensitive to history. The future, as he
and philosophy, Lutheranism and socialism, sees it, is already full of incessant, stubborn
religion and culture. And, again like Mann, idolatries in which some men who claim the
Tillich has deftly universalized his predica- absolute truth will battle those who deny it.
ment; he has elevated the "border situation"- Lest such a prospect lead to nihilistic despair,
between the infinite and the finite, the con- Tillich has discounted it in advance, and has
ditioned and the unconditional, faith and incorporated it into an enduring perspective on
anxiety-into the essence of the human con- the human condition. But if all philosophy
dition, and the locus of the religious declara- and theology can be misused by fate, what is
tion. the point of it all? The point, Tillich answers,
The religious declaration has two main is that there is one belief that is above history:
clauses. The first proclaims the permanent "the certainty that fate is divine and not dem-
crisis which lends its name to "crisis theology." onic"-the religious confidence that the world
This refers ultimately to man's separation from is to be redeemed.
God and his perpetual judgment under God; Tillich knows that at present organized re-
the crisis in mankind is an eternal one that ligion is, on the whole, a pretty dreary affair,
results from man's being a spiritual animal and as a religious radical he is not so much
Who exists tensely on that borderline which is concerned with crying woe as with reorganiz-
the human line. ing society, and turning up a soil into which
The second clause proclaims the "Protestant religious institutions will be able to sink their
principle," which in turn consists of the "re- roots. But he also believes that there is today
BOOKS IN REVIEW 307
a vast, unrecognized religious impulse-unrec- inspired person, as well as a divinely inspired
ognized because it operates outside the one, testifies to the existence of the uncon-
churches and because it often considers itself ditional, the infinite-as something he fears and
non-religious or even anti-religious. To meet refuses to embrace.
the challenge of this, Tillich daringly extends This process of "justifying through faith"
Luther's doctrine of "justification through those who most vehemently reject faith and
faith," and discovers the possibility of discern- justification has something of the air of a
ing God "at the very moment when all known debater's trick. But it is, I think, more than
assertions about 'God' have lost their power." that; and we seem implicitly to concede its
Tillich's doctrine of "justification through relevance when the term "religious" is applied
faith" involves a re-definition of "the religi- to such "unbelieving" writers as D. H. Law-
ous": it is no longer a belief in a supernatural rence or James Joyce. Somehow it seems ap-
being but rather a state of "ultimate concern," propriate.
a sense of something ultimate, unconditional,
and all-determining-and this may express it- IT IS still too early to estimate the sum total
self in secular as well as in religious forms. of Tillich's contribution to modern thought.
Even unbelief or disbelief can be an ultimate His work will certainly excite criticism for
concern, and as such are testimony to truth: many years to come, and in some respects he
thus, "he who seriously denies God affirms has left himself vulnerable. (His use of
him"-the important word here is seriously. Marxist concepts tends to be stiff, and his
Doubt, despair, disgust, denial-all of these references to scientific method are arguable.)
can be religious provided that they represent It is possible, too, that the strident intellectual-
an experience of the "unconditional," and the ism of his religious thought is only the last
acknowledgement of an absolute claim upon gasp of religious futility; one is tempted to say
one's person. (Tillich's idea of the "uncondi- with Hobbes that "It is with the mysteries of
tional" is too subtle and complicated to be dis- our religion, as with wholesome pills for the
cussed here. Briefly, it is a quality we experi- sick, which swallowed whole have the virtue
ence with our whole being in encountering to cure, but chewed are for the most part cast
reality, an existential intuition.) A demonically up again without effect."
BOOK REVIEWERS IN THIS ISSUE

NATHAN GLICK has contributed reviews to pre- THEODOR H. GASTER is professor of comparative
vious issues of COMMENTARY, and has written religion at Dropsie College and contributes reg-
literary and movie criticism for various journals. ularly to this magazine.
GEORGE J. BECKER is assistant professor of Eng- DENNIS H. WRONG is an instructor in sociology
lish at Swarthmore College. at New York University.
MORDECAI KosOVER is with the foreign affairs IRVING KRISTOL is an assistant editor of COM-
department of the American Jewish Committee. MENTARY.
COMMENTARY
is printed by
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306 COMMENTARY

Boundaries of Belief ligious obligation" and the "religious reserva-

BOOK REVIEWERS IN THIS ISSUE

THE COMET PRESS, INC.

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