The Protestant Era

by Paul Tillich, James Luther Adams (Translator)

What is wrong with Christian civilization? Does Protestantism need a reformation? Paul Tillich ses the end of the Protestant era approaching - with the rise of technology and dehumanization - yet he argues for the continuing validity of Protestant principles in the affairs of mankind.

Even if the modern world is witnessing the decline and fall of Protestantism's greatest historical age, a new spiritual and social reformation can take place, using the original prophetic and creative power that lies at the heart of Protestant thinking and action.

Tillich calls for the shaping of a new philosophy of history and culture to face the disasters of secularism and calls for a realization that Protestantism is not limited to any particular historical period but can always find new forms of expression to serve church and society. [from back cover material]

Genres: Theology, Religion, Philosophy

270 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1948

About the author

Paul Tillich was a German-American theologian and Christian existentialist philosopher. Tillich was – along with his contemporaries Rudolf Bultmann (Germany), Karl Barth (Switzerland), and Reinhold Niebuhr (United States) – one of the four most influential Protestant theologians of the 20th century. Among the general populace, he is best known for his works The Courage to Be (1952) and Dynamics of Faith (1957), which introduced issues of theology and modern culture to a general readership. Theologically, he is best known for his major three-volume work Systematic Theology (1951–63), in which he developed his "method of correlation": an approach of exploring the symbols of Christian revelation as answers to the problems of human existence raised by contemporary existential philosophical analysis.

Reviews

[James R]

Scholarship since 1990 & the world since 1968 has made this book irrelevant. There are far deeper issues that Christianity now has to deal with in their history. I would highly recommend avoiding any of these older books that were written before 1990. The true history of Christianity is one of genocide, lies, and obedience to authority. We now know there was no "early church" but instead many different groups, all of them with equally valid claims to the true teaching of the early Christians. All heretical groups were long ago wiped out, so we only have the remnants of one group. This wasn't really known in the early 20th century, but has since become clear.

[CosmicUnity · Rating 3 out of 5]

We are seeing mainline protestant church decline for a combination of reasons, yet it will be interesting to see if Tillich's prediction of the "protestant principle" surviving comes true.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved most of this book. The last section on the events of the second world war, didn't age well. The best essays in the book were those explicitly addressing the Protestant principle, the self-critical voice raised against any form of religion which sets itself up as an ultimate concern.