Chapter III

Symbols of Faith

from Paul Tillichs DYNAMICS OF FAITH

1. The meaning of symbol Mans ultimate concern must be expressed symbolically, because symbolic language alone is able to express the ultimate. CHARACTERISTICS OF SYMBOLS: (1) Signs and symbols .... they have this in common: they both point beyond themselves. But signs do not participate in the reality to which they point, while symbols do.
E.g., the flag participates in some greater reality while the red light at the corner does not. (others: a trophy, e.g., a game ball; a photo of a loved-one; a name of a sacred hero, personal or communal: Jesus, Buddha, or Babe Ruth or Jackie Robinson, or Albert Schweitzer or Vincent Van Gogh). Signs can be changed or replaced for practical reasons, while symbols cannot be simply replaced. (this relates to their living, organic, communally important nature).

(2) Symbols participate in the reality to which they point.

(3) They open up levels of reality which are otherwise closed to us...
for example, poems and songs and paintings reveal things about reality which science cannot.

(4) They unlock dimensions of the soul which correspond to dimensions of reality unlocked for us.
There are within us dimensions of which we cannot become aware of except through symbols. p. 43

(5) Symbols cannot be produced intentionally. They grow out of the collective unconscious of the individual or group. (6) As they are alive, they also grow and die...
from failure to get a response in the people where they originally found expression. p. 43.

Religious symbols
Ultimate Concern must be expressed symbolically. But all symbols are concrete, finite, limited. Hence, doubt about them as adequate to express ones UC must always exist. And risk must be taken in being Uconcerned. Religious symbols of UC... God
p. 44,45: Religiously speaking, God transcends his own name.

I.e., no finite reality can express the ultimate directly and properly ... e.g., neither the nation nor success They are idolatrous symbols. (p. 44) for UC is infinite, while the concrete is always finite.

Discussions about the existence of God are meaningless. It is meaningless to question the ultimacy of an ultimate concern.
The symbolic expression of god or of ultimate concern varies endlessly in human history. These various gods are not to be found in the whole of reality: no divine being exists in this concrete sense.

The question is: which of these innumerable symbols of faith is most adequate to the meaning of faith?
Which expresses the ultimate without idolatrous elements?

Other symbols of faith: power, love, justice, etc.

Taken from concrete, human, daily experience, they are used to express the ultimate, but they are not actualities to be looked for in nature and history.

3.

SYMBOLS AND MYTHS

Myths = stories of the gods (Greek word, mythos) Myths are symbols of faith combined in stories about divine-human encounters. p. 49 Myths are always present in every act of faith, because the language of faith is the symbol.

Criticism of Myth: First: rejects many gods for One God. Second: Monotheism: criticized by demythologization
Bringing the divine into the concrete... into action in space and time... limits the divine... turns the infinite in to the finite, and hence, the ultimate is not vulnerable to criticism: it is limited, not ultimate in this concrete form.

1. 2.

recognize a symbol as symbol, and myth as myth meaning or kerygma is then to be searched for.

Broken myth ... myth understood as myth but not rejected.

Third:

the attempt to reject all symbols and myths

This must be rejected as a criticism of myth: It can never be successful. Symbol & myth are forms of human consciousness which are always present. One can replace one myth by another, but one cannot remove the myth from mans spiritual life. For the myth is the combination of symbols of our ultimate concern. p. 50

the Radical criticism of myth Origin: primitive mythological consciousness fears demythologization.
It thinks that the broken myth has lost its truth and convincing power. Without the literalness of the myth, ones security and certainty seem threatened. Authoritarian politics and religion support this resistance, in order to give security to the people under their control and to give power to themselves.

Resistance to demythologization: LITERALISM

Symbols & myths are taken literally, in their immediate meaning.

The character of the symbol to point beyond itself is disregarded. Examples:

Creation, the fall of Adam, virgin birth, resurrection and ascension, the second coming of Christ & the apocalyptic catastrophe of the end of the world... all understood to be events in time and space.

Presupposition of this literalism: that God is a being like other beings in the universe.
This deprives God of ultimacy, and reduces God to the level of finitude and concrete realities. Faith, if it takes its symbols literally, becomes idolatrous! p. 52

Two stages of literalism:

1. Natural: original, innocent, believing state of mind ...
The primitive period of individuals and groups consists in the inability to separate the creations of symbolic imagination from the facts which can be verified through observation and experiment. p. 52 ...which sees the myths as real events, in accordance with their own worlds views and metaphysical ideas. This state has a full right of its own and should not be disturbed...in individuals or groups... up to the moment when mans questioning mind breaks the natural acceptance of the mythological visions as literal. p. 52

Two reactions are possible at this questioning moment:

1. Replace the unbroken myth with the broken myth. 2. Repress questions (half consciously, half unconsciously) and revert to literalism, with the support of authority: e.g., the Church or Bible. This is reactive literalism:

2.

Reactive literalism

clings to fundamental, literal acceptance of myth and symbols as concrete realities. Unjustifiable if a mature mind is broken in its personal center by political or psychological methods, split in his unity, and hurt in his integrity. p.53 This is repression and aggression against autonomous thought.

Summary:
Symbols of faith cannot be replaced artificially by other symbols, nor removed by scientific criticism. They have a genuine standing in the human mind... Their symbolic nature is their power and truth Nothing less than symbols and myths can express our ultimate concern. p 53 Final question: are myths only about nature? Tillich says no: there are historical myths, too... earth as a battleground between good and evil God choosing and leading his people history having a beginning, middle, and end Christ living and dying in time, being resurrected, coming again at the end of time...