The Power of Symbols

The Power of Symbols

It has been over forty-nine years since the prolific Christian writer, Paul Tillich, left the earthly city. Through his extensive collection of theological writings, Tillich has been able to inspire and educate thousands of people seeking to better understand the many mysteries and ambiguities of Christianity. Throughout Paul Tillich’s sermons on Symbols, he seeks to explain the meaning of symbols in Christianity, art/poetry, and nationalism in order to demonstrate why man’s ultimate concern can only be expressed symbolically.

Paul Johannes Tillich was born to a conservative Lutheran pastor father and a more liberal mother on August 20, 1886 in Starosiedle, Germany. From an early age, Tillich used the bible and word of God as a constant companion and as a source of inspiration. When he was fifteen years old, his father moved the family to Berlin, Germany. This move was priceless for young Tillich, who utilized his surroundings to learn about many different topics and opinions. Upon graduation high school, Tillich enrolled at various universities, where he earned a Doctorate in Philosophy and Licentiate of Theology degree. In 1912, he became a Lutheran minister until he joined the German army on the onset of World War One. After serving in the war, he dedicated his life to education. Everything was swell for Tillich until Adolf Hitler rose to power in 1933 and banned Tillich from spreading his polemic teachings at any German universities. Due to this event, Tillich moved his family to the United States and began teaching theology. It was at Union Theological Seminary in New York that Tillich wrote some of his most fascinating sermons, which resulted in a newfound popularity and following. He later taught theology at some of the United States’ most prestigious universities, where he continued to write and expand his ever-growing legacy. It was late in his career that Paul Tillich wrote “Dynamics of Faith” in which he expounded the meaning of symbols and symbolism in Christianity.

Before the importance of religious symbols is explained, a symbol must be defined and characterized. Some people might confuse signs with symbols, but “Decisive is the fact that signs do not participate in the reality of that to which they point, while symbols do (Tillich, 42).” That is the first characteristic of a symbol, and it shows why a yield sign and a Christian cross are so different. A yield sign is not a participant in what it symbolizes, but a cross “takes part in the power and meaning of what it symbolizes (Williams, Paragraph 3).” A Christian cross symbolizes the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross to save humanity, and someone who wears a cross might do it to have a constant reminder of what ones ultimate concern should always be, God. The second characteristic states that a symbol participates in that to which it points, such as a nations flag, Third, a symbol opens up levels of realities which otherwise are closed for us, such as in art and poetry and it also unlocks dimensions and elements of our soul which correspond to the dimensions and elements of reality. We can only access some of our inner dimensions and feelings through symbols, such as rhythms. Some music and works of art cannot be given justice by mere words, and it is that feeling of excitement that your body generates when it comes across a beautiful symbol. Symbols can also not be produced unintentionally, and they cannot be invented. Tillich states that many of the most important political or religious symbols are “created or at least accepted by the collective unconscious of the group in which they appear (Tillich, 43).” Similar to humans, symbols grow over time and eventually die when no one responds to their meanings. This is why symbols are so important in our lives, and why symbolic items are all around us. Tillich later discusses religious symbols and their effects and implications in everyday life.

A person’s ultimate concern must be expressed symbolically because whatever we suppose to be our ultimate concern is “godly” or holy because it takes precedence over everything else in our lives. Paul Tillich brilliantly stated that if one were to choose a nation as their ultimate concern, “the name of the nation becomes a sacred name and the nation receives divine qualities which far surpass the reality of the being and functioning of the nation (Tillich, 44).” The nation then comes to symbolize the “true ultimate,” which is clearly idolatrous. People also tend to choose success as their ultimate concern, which could ruin ones soul because it requires “sacrificing all other values in life for the sake of a position of power and social predominance (Tillich, 44).” Tillich ties this in by exclaiming, “Concepts designating ordinary realities become idolatrous symbols of ultimate concern (Tillich, 44).” It seems that Tillich is urging his audience to make a choice. The choice is between living an idolatrous lifestyle on Earth and choosing God as a symbol of your ultimate concern (faith). Those that prefer to live a life filled with vices and choose to chase humanly satisfactions will only live in the earthly city until they die, but those that pledge their human life to glorifying God and pursuing faith will live eternally in the City of God when they leave this Earth. So what should be the fundamental symbol of our ultimate concern? I agree with Tillich that it should be God because he is “always present in any act of faith, even if the act of faith includes the denial of God (Tillich, 45).” Even an atheist affirms God since he “affirms ultimacy in his concern (Tillich, 46).” Although this is difficult to comprehend, God is the basic symbol of faith and a symbol of God. In order to better understand this point, the two distinct elements of God must be explained. The first is the element of ultimacy, “which is a matter of immediate experience and not symbolic itself” and second is the element of concreteness, “which is taken from our ordinary experience and symbolically applied to God (Tillich, 46).” Tillich uses the Jewish people to explain this by stating that those who glorify Yahweh have “an ultimate concern and a concrete image of what concerns them ultimately (Tillich, 46).”

All of the attributes that we have given our God, such as “power, love, justice are taken from finite experiences and applied symbolically to that which is beyond finitude and infinity (Tillich, 47).” God is a symbol of faith because humans have given him characteristics from our human experience, which symbolizes our infinite concern. I especially enjoyed Tillich’s comment on faith when he defined it as the “acceptance of symbols that express our ultimate concern in terms of divine actions (Tillich, 48).” There are many other symbols of faith which are