Doubt is not the opposite of faith; it is one element of faith.
Paul Tillich
One Element of Faith
Topic: Belief & Faith
Out of the element of participation follows the certainty of faith; out of the element of separation follows the doubt in faith. And each is essential for the nature of faith. Sometimes certainty conquers doubt, but it cannot eliminate doubt. The conquered of today may become the conqueror of tomorrow. Sometimes doubt conquers faith, but it still contains faith. Otherwise it would be indifference…
The fundamental symbol of our ultimate concern is God. It is always present in any act of faith, even if the act of faith concerns the denial of God… Atheism, consequently, can only mean the attempt to remove any ultimate concern – to remain unconcerned about the meaning of one’s existence. Indifference toward the ultimate question is the only imaginable form of atheism…
Doubt is not the opposite of faith; it is one element of faith.
Paul Johannes Tillich (August 20, 1886 – October 22, 1965) was a German-American Christian existentialist philosopher and Lutheran Protestant theologian who is widely regarded as one of the most influential theologians of the twentieth century.
Among the general public, 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. In academic theology, 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.
Dynamics of Faith
Wilson, Andrew, editor. World Scripture II. Universal Peace Federation, 2011, p. 774 [Paul Tillich - Dynamics of faith (1957)].
Paul Tillich
Resources
Copyright © 2017 – 2025 LuminaryQuotes.com About Us