Dynamics of Faith by Paul Tillich

Dynamics of Faith is a book by the Christian Protestant theologian Paul Tillich. Heavily inspired by theologians like Rudolf Otto, he tries to give an account of faith as a response to the existentialists, who were all very critical of religion.

I think his account of faith as that which ultimately concerns us is very interesting and makes for a more fruitful philosophical term than faith as a low-probability belief, although I do think people tend to use the term more like the latter, and as Wittgenstein says, usage is meaning. I also think, surprisingly, that he has a lot in common with Nietzsche. In particular, the fusion of the Dionysian and Apollonian aspects in Nietzsche’s Birth of Tragedy has similar characteristics to what Tillich calls “what ultimately concerns us.” And Nietzsche’s criticism in The Antichrist, that Christianity makes the nothing holy, overlaps with Tillich’s definition of idolatrous faith, which is faith that tries to make the finite into the infinite. They only differ, in that aspect (Of course, Nietzsche has other problems with Christianity as well, such as his claim that Christianity goes against our nature.), in whether Christianity is itself idolatrous or not (to put it in Tillich’s terms).

I will try to write more on this later in a proper article. But I would recommend that book to anyone who struggles to accept religious “fairy tales,” while still thinking that there is something true about religion. It is, to some extent, a minimal metaphysical account of religion.