Liebe - Macht - Gerechtigkeit

by Paul Tillich

Speaking with understanding and force, Tillich offers a basic analysis of love, power, justice, and all concepts fundamental in the mutual relations of people, of social groups, and of humankind to God. His concern is to penetrate to the essential, or ontological foundation of the meaning of each of these words.

Genres: Philosophy, Theology, Religion, Christianity, Love, Nonfiction, Social Justice

86 pages, Paperback

Published November 1, 1991

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

[Wil Roese · Rating 3 out of 5]

Professor Tillich uses ontology to discover the root meanings of love, power and justice. Ontology attempts to discover the common structure of everything that is. Nothing can be known without ontology because to know something is recognize it exists. Love, power and justice have an ontological dignity in that they are often used to describe the ontology of other things yet they can not be described ontologically by anything more basic.

The emotional aspect of love can not be defined or commanded but is an expression of the total involvement of the being. Love is the drive to reunite with that witch has been separated. I think what Tillich means is that to love another person is to teardown the boundaries that separate us and treat the other as if it where part of the self.

Love brings pleasure and happiness when fulfilled and pain and suffering when it is not fulfilled but to be motivated by the pain or pleasure is to live a corrupted life. Eros and agape are not two different types of love but two characteristics of the only one type of love. Without eros love of God becomes mere obedience of God. Phili requires familiarity with and therefore is only possible between equals. Self-love is only meaningful metaphorically for love requires separation of the subject that loves from the object of that love.

Being can not be defined because every possible definition of being presupposes existence but being can be stated metaphorically as the power of being. The power of being is the power over nonbeing. Nonbeing is therefore not foreign to being. Being that contains nonbeing is finite. The self-affirmation of a being is proportional to its power of being. The power of being of an individual becomes apparent in its interactions with nature, other individuals and groups. The more centered a being is the more power of being it posses. Love is the foundation of power and "compulsion is the strange work of love." The strange work of love is to destroy that which opposes love.

An object grows by transcending itself. But in transcending itself a being risk losing itself. Justice is expressed in the form of laws. Power is expressed in the making of laws. Love is the highest principle of all justice. The law given by God is consistent with man's essential nature.

The concept of God as all-powerful does not mean that God can do whatever He wants but that God is the power of being in all that is. In God love, justice and power are one.

[Sheryl Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

I left a ten-year career in corporate management to attend seminary and find an answer to the burning question: how, if power comes from God, can it be used for such evil. I already knew the answers provided by the social sciences, but they were shallow and unhelpful. I came across Love, Power and Justice in my first year of seminary and it changed my way of thinking and changed my life. Love, power and justice are three aspects of relationship, group dynamics, politics. Each can be viewed accurately only in light of the others. My "ontology"--my belief in what is real--was challenged by this book. It took several readings of Tillich's Systematic Theology before I began to understand the inconsistences and errors in my assumptions about reality and to begin the journey of forging a new, more deeply considered view.

[Rob · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dense, philosophical, and abstract. I couldn't get through it.

[Bryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the first complete book I've read by Tillich. It was perhaps deceptively easy to read because he uses simple writing to discuss very deep and complex questions. Therefore at times my understanding did not keep up with my reading. But what I did understand was very interesting and thought provoking. The most definite thing is that Love, Power and Justice are the three aspects of "being" that provide the world in which we libs and move and have our being and therefore it is of inestimable importance that they need to be considered. A few sentences just before the end seemed especially prophetic in light of the current cultural climate in the West, though written in the early 1950's.

"Let us assume for a moment that this were possible. Under an unchangeable central authority all encounters of power with power are regulated. Nothing is risked, everything decided. Life has ceased to transcend itself. Creativity has come to an end. The history of man would be finished, post-history would have started. Mankind would be a flock of blessed animals without dissatisfaction, without drive into the future. The horrors and sufferings of the historical period would be remembered as the dark ages of mankind. And then it might happen that one or other of these blessed men would feel a longing for these past ages, their misery and their greatness, and would force a new beginning of history upon the rest. This image will show that a world without the dynamics of power and the tragedy of life and history is not the Kingdom of God, is not the fulfillment of man and his world."

But it seems scary that the attempt is being made toward the "central authority."

[Gabriel Parks · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a good book of philosophy. While reading it, I found myself continuously making connections to different personal relationships and how the three titular concepts have played out in them. I agree with other reviews that I've seen that viewed the epistemological-methodological approach Tillich took to be a weaker point of the book. I enjoyed getting to know Tillich more as a thinker, I appreciated how his views seemed pretty heterodox, and how he engaged with a wide range of thought--always on behalf of his desire for a Christian synthesis. I will be revisiting this one in the future.

[Gabe Wisnewski-Parks · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a good book of philosophy. While reading it, I found myself continuously making connections to different personal relationships and how the three titular concepts have played out in them. I agree with other reviews that I've seen that viewed the epistemological-methodological approach Tillich took to be a weaker point of the book. I enjoyed getting to know Tillich more as a thinker, I appreciated how his views seemed pretty heterodox, and how he engaged with a wide range of thought--always on behalf of his desire for a Christian synthesis. I will be revisiting this one in the future.

[Allen Abbott · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting--albeit entirely too short-- attempt at grounding love, power, and justice in the "nature of being." In this book, Tillich describes (1) love as the reunification of beings after existential estrangement, (2) power as the dynamic self-actualization of beings, and (3) justice as the proper form in which self-actualized beings are unified. Given the regressive tendencies in European and American theology, Tillich's thought is surprisingly innovative (even if it is a little dry). Not for everyone, but the more I read Tillich, the more I like him.

[Kenny Innes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tillich explores the ontological grounding of Love, Power and Justice, finding their ultimate unification in God. It’s a theological and philosophical exploration where he attempts to show the foundations for human exploitation of these matters should be grounded in being and ultimate being. Can be a bit heavy going, but stick with it as the view from the top of the hill is refreshing.

[Maxwell Westjohn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oddly enough, the best thing I learned from this book was a greater understanding of the Trinitarian Mystery. This book also includes an incredible analysis of Love, Power, and Justice (somewhat unsurprisingly) that is extremely useful in abstract reasoning and philosophy. The next step after this book, though, is learning how to apply it to practical life.

[Terry · Rating 3 out of 5]

It does not surprise me that my second reading of this paean to ontology spread out over a year. I am still deeply impressed by the reasoning used and conclusions arrived at, but I no longer have the patience with philosophical discourse that I had 47 years ago.

[João Victor Mattos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paul Tilitch its a great philosopher and theologian, with a excelent existecialist background, which bring together these three ontological concepts (love, Power and justice) for realize a complete new work on foundation of philosophy

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the few English-language works by Tillich I had not read. I read that it influenced Martin Luther King's thinking somewhat, so I was intrigued. This was a different book than I expected, and I am glad. I put off reading it thinking I had read everything ethically-related by Tillich, but this dives to the heart of things conceptually and was well worth the read. Also it was briefer than I expected. Tillich clarifies a lot of muddled language here in the way that only old-school Germans can.

[Adam Ross · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was the first book by Tillich I read, and it was ultimately not a satisfying one, despite a lot of insights. His essential thesis, that love, power, and justice, are all interconnected, is a good one. But his emphasis on ontology as the means by which we connect the three of them, I found to be problematic. Perhaps it is my own study of philosophical ontology, especially in the postmodern epistemological framework, that soured this part of Tillich's argument for me. He was, after all, writing a long time ago, and his confidence in ontology seems dated to me.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very deep. I think of this often. JB Philips book Your God is Too Small is an interesting contrast.
While Tillich refers to the Ground of Being as a way to refer to God, this in depth study of the nature of Being describes some intrinsic aspects of our own experience of being. Did I understand it? Not sure, but I sure enjoyed trying to. :-)

[Shane Wagoner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paul Tillich is the only person I've ever seen who so enthusiastically, skillfully, and successfully (in my opinion) unites the Christian idea of Love with Nietzche's Will to Power. Gone are the days of divine commands and biological imperatives, these are ethics from the mind of God.

[Brian Tringali · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like ontology, but I particularly was challenged by the discussion of "creative justice" and the need for it. Most readers will focus on the concepts of being and love. But I think Tillich offers a mind-stretching view of the concept of justice and the role it has to play.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good explanation of why one without the other two and two without the remaining one doesn't really mean that much.

[m · Rating 3 out of 5]

good short dense book, but I'll still have no truck with ontology.