Tillich’s Theology of Faith
God is the central notion of Tillich’s theology, and he aptly opposes all other concepts. From Tillich’s perspective, God is the power of being, which opposes non-existence. Moreover, God is the foundation of being, from which all beings proceed and in which all beings participate (Tillich). However, God is not just a kind of being different from others. God is infinite and transcends both essence and existence.
Any existence implies finiteness; therefore, according to Tillich, if someone says that God exists or even more so tries to prove it, he contradicts himself. Tillich believes that God is qualitatively different from every being, creation, and existence. That is why people can perceive God only through its symbols and cannot grasp its ultimate being. God is entirely different from everything people know. Moreover, for Tillich, the incarnation of God is impossible by definition. For Tillich, Jesus as Logos opposes skepticism and reveals the meaning of existence, but he does not reveal God Himself.
The definition of God as self-being or as the Absolute is, in fact, the only non–symbolic statement of Tillich’s theology. Everything else can only be portrayed through symbols. Any other definitions, such as “living God” or “almighty God,” are only symbols of that transcendent God, about whom people can only say that He is self-being (Tillich). If people forget that these are only symbols, then they belittle God and reduce Him to the level of their categories. Thus, Tillich tries to preserve the ability to talk about God through symbols and His radical transcendence. From Tillich’s perspective, any ‘personal God’ is understood as a symbol of the Absolute God.
Caputo’s Theology of Faith
Caputo’s theological views are singular in that he believed that the power of God consisted of impotence and uncertainty, and the greatness of God lay in the fact that he is the least among people. According to Caputo, the kingdom of God subordinates the principles of the world to the power of widows and orphans, the poor, and the humiliated. Caputo refers to the text The Epistles to the Corinthians, where the Apostle Paul points out that God confuses the habitual existence of the world by taking the side of those whom the world considers nothing and nobody.
By saying that God ‘dissolves’ into the kingdom and then further into ‘acts of compassion,’ Caputo means that God exists in the context of human existence as a critical force that calls into question the structures of coercion and domination. The name “God” refers to a provocative force calling for the realization of justice and does not refer to anyone or anything with its adequate power.
The kingdom of God does not mean any identifiable social or political reality but a call that demands one to identify oneself with widows and orphans, comfort the oppressed by injustice, and mercifully accept those the world considers nothing. The kingdom of God “exists” in mercy events motivated by the call of commitment (Caputo). The “being” of the Kingdom is revealed in acts of love. The name”God” means the persistence of the call, the anonymous urge to engage in the works of mercy, liberation, and healing (Caputo). Thus, it can be concluded that God needs men to exist to embody God in ethical and political actions, manifesting the Kingdom of God in the human community.
Works Cited
Caputo, John. The Folly of God: A Theology of the Unconditional. Polebridge Press, 2016.
Tillich, Paul. Dynamics of faith. Zondervan, 2001.