Bulletin The North American Paul Tillich Society

Volume XLI, Number 2 and 3 Spring and Summer 2014 Editor: Frederick J. Parrella, Secretary-Treasurer Religious Studies Department, Santa Clara University Kenna Hall, Suite 300, Room H, Santa Clara, California 95053 Associate Editor: Jonathan Rothchild, Loyola Marymount University Assistant to the Editor: Vicky Gonzalez, Santa Clara University Telephone: 408.554.4714/ 408.554.4547 FAX: 408.554.2387 Email: [email protected] Website: www.NAPTS.org/ Webmeister: Michael Burch, San Rafael, California ______

In this issue:

ο An Apology and Information from the Editor ο 2015 NAPTS Dues are Due ο The Fiftieth Anniversary of Tillich’s Death: A Special Program on Tillich’s Theological Legacies ο New (and Some Different) Publications ο “Tillich’s Unsteady Affair with Being-Itself” by Durwood Foster ο “The Demonry of Christianity: Tillich’s Concept of the Demonic and the Deconstruction of Religious Racism” by Eric A. Weed ______

An Apology from the Editor and A Special Program: News about Issues and Dues Tillich’s Theological Legacies

our Spring Bulletin (vol. 41, 2) is being sent ifty years ago, on October 22, 1965, Paul Til- Y to you at last. I humbly apologize for the de- F lich died, just days after having given his final lay. A number of academic commitments and public lecture. Consideration of the theological some significant personal issues made it impossi- endeavor between then and now highlights how ble for me to finish the Bulletin on time this year. seminal his thought has been within the field of At the same time, however, another issue religion. In contemporary parlance, it could be deeply concerns me. I have not received the said that in many ways today’s Academy is Tillich number of papers that I would like in order to gone viral. On this panel, leading scholars address create separate issues. For this reason, I am com- how Tillich’s ideas have contributed to their work bining volume 41, numbers 2 and 3, (Spring and in religion and science, theology and culture, the- ology and psychology, black liberation theology, Summer) into this one issue. feminist theology, ground of being theologies, and I urge everyone who has presented a pa- theology and world religions. The vibrancy of Til- per at the 2014 meeting to send it to the Bulle- lich’s contribution to the constructive work of tin ([email protected]) as soon as possible. these scholars indicates the lasting nature of his Many thanks. Bulletin of the North American Paul Tillich Society, vol. 41, nos. 2 and 3, Spring and Summer 2015 2 influence on the field. Mangum McCaslin, with Afterwords by Anne Dale Owen and Jane Dale Owen. Panelists and Topics Bloomington and : Uni- versity Press, 2015. —Harvey Cox on Theology and Culture —Robert Russell on Theology and Science —Praise for Jane Owen’s memoir: —Pamela Cooper-White on Theology and Psy- “New Haromny reflects Jane Owen’s unique chology ability to combine contemplation with action, —Willie Jennings on Theology and Black Libera- making the town an eternal altar that cherishes the tion Thought past but looks toward the future.” —, actor Respondents “Owen’s memoir is poetically told and is a —Mary Ann Stenger on Theology and Feminist powerful testament by an extraordinary woman Perspectives who had a higher purpose. For her, was —John Thatamanil on Theology and World Reli- a prayer that could awaken the soul.” gions —Don Gummer, sculptor

Presider • Stone, Ronald H. Between Two Rivers: A Memoir of —Sharon P. Burch Christian Social Action and Ethics. Blue Ridge Summit, PA: Rowan and Littlefield, 2015. New Publications Between Two Rivers chronicles the life of noted scholar of religion, politics, and philosophy, [Editor’s Note: New Publications by members Ronald H. Stone. From his childhood between of the Society are always welcome, whether they the East and West banks of the Des Moines River be scholarly works on Tillich, scholarship on an- through graduate work in New York between the other subject, or, as one can see in our first two Hudson and the East River through his scholarly listings below, a publication of a different kind: a career and retirement in Pittsburgh, between the novel of suspense and murder, and a journey into Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers, the book mystical ecstasy or psychosis while the author was highlights Stone’s focus on Christian social ethics a student of Tillich at Harvard.] and his prolific writing in the area. The book in- cludes unique insights into some of the renowned • Cozzens, Donald. Masters of Ceremonies. A Novel, scholars Stone worked with closely, including ed. Michael Coyne. Chicago: Il Extenso Press, Reinhold Niebuhr and Paul Tillich, and it discuss- distributed exclusively by ACTA Publications, es Stone’s scholarship on the relationship between 2014. religion and politics. Ronald H. Stone taught for years at Pittsburgh • Dole, Robert. “My Meeting with Paul Tillich: Theological Seminary and the University of Pitts- ‘Estranged and Re-United.’” The Toronto Jour- burgh. After retiring, he continues to teach in nal of Theology 30, 2 (2014): 301-306. Carnegie Mellon University’s Osher Life Long Dr. Dole is a retired professor of English at Uni- Learning Program. He studied at Union Seminary versité du Québec à Chicoutimi. After an experi- and Columbia University in New York City, ence in Paul Tillich’s class at Harvard and subse- where he served as Reinhold Niebuhr’s last teach- quent hospitalization as a schizophrenic, the au- ing assistant and met Paul Tillich. He has pub- thor attempts to understand the relationship be- lished more than twenty books on religion, poli- tween religious revelation, mystical ecstasy, and tics, and philosophy, and served as the president psychosis. of the North American Paul Tillich Society and founding board member of the Niebuhr Society. • Owen, Jane Blaffer. New Harmony, Indiana: Like a —About Between Two Rivers: River, Not a Lake. A Memoir. Edited by Nancy Between Two Rivers chronicles the life of noted scholar of religion, politics, and philosophy, Ronald H. Stone. From childhood through re- Bulletin of the North American Paul Tillich Society, vol. 41, nos. 2 and 3, Spring and Summer 2015 3 tirement, it highlights Stone’s focus on Christian he said had occurred, while hungrily awaiting his social ethics and his writing in the area. The book disclosure of its meaning. includes insights into the renowned scholars But Paulus and Reinie were globulin cashed. It Stone worked with, including Reinhold Niebuhr was a mistake to assume anyone could not be mis- and Paul Tillich. taken. Over the decades, though his factual au- —Praise for Between Two Rivers: thority remains impressive, I have become con- “This memoir is a treasure of reflection and vinced Tillich sometimes seriously misrepresented analysis, giving us Ronald Stone’s account of his history. Systematically, as distinct from historical- exemplary career in speaking with intelligence and ly, the most glaring mistake Paulus made was ar- relevance to three publics—the church, academy, guably to equate God as he did for a short but and general public.” critical time with “being-itself.” The crucial in- —Gary Dorrien, Reinhold Niebuhr Professor stance occurs in Volume One of Systematic The- of Social Ethics, Union Theological Seminary; ology, the flagship of Tillich’s career-filled pub- author of Kantian Reason and Hegelian Spirit lishing. The following passage saliently espouses “being-itself” as the conceptual spine of Paulus’s “A fascinating overview of Christian theology, doctrine of God, averring blatantly what became ethics, and American politics over the past sixty unacceptable to him in ST II six years later, viz., years as lived out in the life of a major Christian that God is literally being-itself. At the same time social ethicist, Between Two Rivers offers insight and the passage harbors emphatically the further inspiration for living one's Christian faith as an problematic of identifying God and being wheth- activist in politics, church, and the academy.” er symbolically or not. This latter stance was nev- —Mary Ann Stenger, Professor Emerita in er explicitly surrendered by Tillich, not only as Humanities, University of Louisville such or in itself—which was, of course, his own ______business as systematician—but also as the alleged- ly historical position of the Augustinian-Franciscan Tillich’s Unsteady Affair “ontological”—as contrasted with the Thomistic with Being-Itself “cosmological”—way of thinking. Paulus used this historical claim to buttress his systematic Durwood Foster stance, which is the nub of the issue I want to raise here. My plaint is that in so doing our At Union Seminary when I was there (1946- revered master egregiously misrepresented the 53), it was counter-intuitive to think of Tillich ev- Augustinian-Franciscan position. He writes: er being mistaken historically in the sense of what The statement that God is being-itself is a actually happened. Some would shrink from Pau- non-symbolic statement. It does not point be- lus’s system; and many confessed he was over yond itself. It means what it says directly and their heads. But no one I knew dared question his properly; if we speak of the actuality of God, baseline reporting of Western and world thought. we first assert that he is not God if he is not Here the authority of “Mr. Theology,” as Time being-itself. Other assertions about God can Magazine saluted him, was pontifical. His wide be made theologically only on this basis. [ST I, mastery was much admired, and the UTS faculty 138-9] even put this philosophical theologian in charge It is crucial to realize that despite this unwa- of the required course in historical theology. Not vering assertion Tillich himself, with ST II in that everyone didn’t know to err is human, since 1957, did correct and abandon—in all he thence Reinie Niebuhr was our house theologian along wrote afresh—the position that God is literally with Paulus. Both these giants were famous—and being-itself. In doing this he resumed what had infamous—for teaching universal fallenness and been his own earlier position through the 1920s the inevitable twisting of intended objectivity. and 1930s—the pan-symbolism about God that Nevertheless, as excitement chafed for Tillich’s notably W. M. Urban had critiqued. Tillich’s cor- vaunted system to get published, a kind of hyp- rected position was as follows: notic acquiescence seemed to swallow whatever [T]he question arises…whether there is a point in which a non-symbolic assertion about God must be made. There is such a Bulletin of the North American Paul Tillich Society, vol. 41, nos. 2 and 3, Spring and Summer 2015 4

point, namely the statement that everything cannot be being-itself because that tradition holds we say about God is symbolic. Such a state- there are two kinds of being—uncreated and cre- ment is an assertion about God which itself ated—and God is essentially the first of these but is non-symbolic…This is the point at which not essentially or in general the second. [I have we must speak non-symbolically about God, added “essentially” and “in general” here to allow but in terms of a quest for him. In the mo- for the Christological paradox, which otherwise ment, however, in which we describe the need not encumber the issue before us.] Tillich character of this point…a combination of opportunely inflates the meaning of being-itself to symbolic with non-symbolic elements occurs. encompass “ground of being,” the aboriginal If we say that God is the infinite, or the un- mystery preceding being and non-being, thus conditional, or being itself, we speak rational- gaining accord with traditional Christian utter- ly and ecstatically at the same time…The ance. But he does not always do so, thus inviting point is both non-symbolic and symbolic. now and again the charge of pantheism or athe- [ST II, 9-10] ism. In any event, his personal holding of God to Some erudite Tillichians, such as Rob James be being-itself, whether inflated or not, is his own with whom I debated the issue at the San Francis- systematic viewpoint to which he has every right. co meeting in 2011, may continue to think there Though shared with some others—notably, I was no change in Paulus’s espousal of being-itself find, with Meister Eckhart—such at bottom is not as literally the meaning of God. This would ap- an issue of history and tradition but rather “ob es pear to show the awed credence I shared at Un- stimmt oder nicht” [“whether it’s right or not”]. On ion. It was, and is, undeniably sheltered by Til- that issue, I am not presently confronting Tillich. lich’s failure to be as clear about the change as he Whatever is systematic about the issue I here should have been. He did not explicate that ST I leave open, wishing to concentrate instead on the was in error, nor attempt to alter subsequent pub- historical aspect. Granted, the two aspects— lications of the volume. Nor did he repudiate his systematic and historical—are intimately mingled. espousal of “being-itself” as (along with “uncon- But surely, that is the more reason to get them ditional,” “absolute,” and “infinite”) one of three clearly disentangled. Once again, what I here wish or four partly non-symbolic while also partly sym- to question and deny is whether Tillich was right bolic designations of God. In San Francisco three to assert “being-itself” is conceptually equivalent years ago, I did not quarrel with this retaining by to God for the mainline Christian tradition as that Tillich of being-itself as a cardinal Christian as- took form in Augustine and the Franciscans, was cription to God. Now I am convinced I must. To dismantled by Aquinas, and must or might be re- reiterate: whereas before I attacked only its literal habilitated to make Christian theology relevant equivalence to God—in this echoing the second today. thoughts of Paulus himself—I now am compelled II to question being-itself in its common sense meaning as an acceptable designation for God as For Paulus, producing his magnum opus was understood biblically and in the mainline Chris- a creative strain through decades of anxious prep- tian tradition. aration. Anticipated in his earliest reflections, it In the mainline Christian tradition, überhaupt, congealed preliminarily as the lectures on dogmat- the unconditional being of God, is categorically ics at Marburg, 1924-5. It does not mention be- prior to and distinct from “finite” being, which is ing-itself. Tillich at Union in the late 1930s and construed as the creation by this God “out of noth- 1940s was brimming with new impulses, but if we ing” (ex nihilo). About this, I believe there is broad focus specifically on being-itself, there is no refer- scholarly consensus, irrespective of what position ence to that notion, which would become for one may take on the question of an “analogy of years his cardinal category, until the mid ’40s. being” (analogia entis) between God and creation. Then, in a pair of articles, “The Two Types of Of course, this assertion requires in its own right Philosophy of Religion,” 1946, and “The Problem to be established and defended in depth and de- of Theological Method,” 1947, Paulus articulated tail, but I do not propose in this short notice to the core thrust he was preparing for his awaited undertake that. My point here is simply that if the masterwork. Its method, expounded in the latter statement is true, God for the Christian tradition article, would be the correlation of existential Bulletin of the North American Paul Tillich Society, vol. 41, nos. 2 and 3, Spring and Summer 2015 5 questions and theological answers, and its inmost will be this volume.” Counter fire too began to theological substance, ringingly enunciated in the erupt, from fundamentalists and liberals, from first article and assumed in the second, would be Barthians and Catholics, from linguistic analysts the identity of God and being. That first article, I and Whiteheadians. Tillichian theological insight have come to feel, could well be the most prob- processively entered combat worldwide and does lematic piece Paulus ever wrote. not now seem to be losing or clearly winning, es- God identical with being? Wouldn’t that be pecially where God’s relation to being is con- pantheism? Indeed, how else could one adequate- cerned. ly define pantheism? But throughout the 1946 But wait! Was there ever adequate critique— article, Tillich declaims it was the “ontological” was there ever any critique?—of the 1946 “Two position of Augustine and the Franciscans, exem- Types” article? The eerie scantiness, if not ab- plified as the Middle Ages crested in Bonaventura. sence of such critique, exacerbates my present The article proposes this as the first of two basic concern to take a hard fresh look at this launch types of philosophy of religion, the second type pad of Tillich’s affair with being-itself. Contrary to being the “cosmological” approach of St. Thomas our revered master, I dispute that Augustine and which is said to reject God’s identity with being, the Franciscans identified God and being. Augus- undertaking instead to prove God as cause of the tine did famously say “esse qua esse bonum est,” but world. All other philosophies of religion are held where did he ever say “esse est deus”? It seems pa- to be mixtures of the two basic types. According tently a misconstruction to assert God as being- to Tillich, the ontological type anchors the mean- itself was the mainline Christian stance till Thom- ing of God in our human reality, so that es- as undermined it. There was indeed a prominent trangement from and with God are ipso theological figure who equated God and being in facto estrangement from and reunion with our the early 14th Century. This was Meister Eckhart, own self and world. By definition, religion is our and he was indicted for heresy by Franciscan ultimate concern. The second or cosmological Pope John XXII! The Augustinian emphasis on approach undermines this intrinsic mutuality, creation ex nihilo compellingly requires the contrary. making God a stranger whom we may or may not Nor is it true, I further submit, that St. Thom- accidentally meet. Accentuation of this approach as disjoined God from being. For the angelic doc- in Scotus and Ockham—so Tillich continues— tor, God categorically is “He who is” (qui est). leads unavoidably to the religious distempers of That being, in the unconditionality of which we modernity. To grapple therewith, to answer mod- do not ipso facto participate, is God’s alone. But ern meaninglessness with a viable theology, he only if you implicitly repudiate or ignore the doc- insists we must reestablish God’s identity with trine of creatio ex nihilo, which Thomas robustly being. affirms and articulates, could you hold our being This was in 1946. Five gruelingly creative and the world’s is ontologically disjoined from years later, Systematic Theology I was launched amid God. Please, comrades, examine carefully this such cheering as H. Richard Niebuhr’s that it is 1946 article! “great theology because the sense of God in it is Paulus respected and loved bold critique. He great.” Union Seminary President, Henry Van would never approve timid submission to himself Dusen, presciently averred that, “by century’s end as an authority figure. if any work of current theology is still discussed, it ______

The Annual Meeting of Please remit your dues the NAPTS and the AAR to the Secretary Tillich Group is in Treasurer as soon as Atlanta this November. possible! Please plan to join us.

Bulletin of the North American Paul Tillich Society, vol. 41, nos. 2 and 3, Spring and Summer 2015 6

The Demonry of Christianity: ic nature within groups like the Ku Klux Klan or Tillich’s Concept of the Demonic the Aryan Nation; rather, I will demonstrate how and the Deconstruction of the mundane in the life of the U.S. is in fact creat- Religious Racism ed and maintained through the demonry of a white supremacist Christianity. In doing this Eric A. Weed work, I am continuing the use of Tillich's theolo- gy to investigate creative and human realities in the same vein that James Cone, Gustavo [Editor’s Note: Two photos accompany this paper, Gutierrez, and Valerie Saiving used Tillich's but they could not be produced in this printed method to construct theological systems that take version. They will be sent to those who receive seriously their experiential context and history. the Bulletin electronically, and will be posted with In order to lay a foundation for later parts of the Bulletin on the website, NAPTS.org] this paper, I will begin by critically describing Til- ______lich’s method of correlation and his concept of the demonic. The clearest exposition of Tillich’s “White people in this country will have quite correlative method is found in the first volume of enough to do in learning how to accept and love his Systematic Theology. Tillich establishes his meth- themselves and each other, and when they have od in order to seek an appropriate theological achieved this—which will not be tomorrow and foundation for an understanding of the human may very well be never—the Negro problem will situation in regards to the duality of being and no longer exist, for it will no longer be needed.” non-being, and the ways in which this duality is —James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time determinative on one’s life. According to Tillich, the existential assault of non-being seeks answers The last sixty years in the field of theology have in many different ways and “the method of corre- brought about many changes that have increasing- lation explains the contents of the Christian faith ly specialized the field. The formalization of con- through existential questions and theological an- textual and liberation theologies have created swers in mutual interdependence.”i The creation more experiential and existential theologies that of this method enables the theologian, in Tillich’s take seriously the particularities of all persons and opinion, to best correlate the unity of all person’s creation. Through this approach, theology has existential estrangement with being-itself that is taken on a more individual character as opposed revealed in Jesus, who is the Christ. The necessary to the theological systems of previous centuries. st result of Tillich’s method is the breakdown of As we move farther into the 21 century, this normative theological systems for one that under- trend will seemingly continue, but in what ways stands that time and space are unique factors in can this new theological reality be enhanced? the interpretation of one’s situation. I employ Til- An aspect of contextual and liberation theolo- lich’s method as a form of cultural criticism gies that cannot be denied is the influence of the th through the investigation of history to reconstruct 20 century theologian Paul Tillich. The work of popular theologies that are not bound to the pil- Tillich is often understood primarily through his lars of Christian doctrine. In this way, Tillich of- discourse on ontology after his exile from Ger- fers a lens into interpreting the past. By under- many and his new life in the United States, but, it standing the events of history through Tillich’s can be argued, that in his early career Tillich was method of correlation, the theologian is better constructing a theology heavily based on the exis- equipped to read the present. While others see tential experience of life that has come to be a Tillich’s method as primarily useful in the present centerpiece of contextual and liberation theology. situation, his work opens the door to the past. To In this paper, I seek to recapture the theologi- interpret how the Christian message was used cal connection between the early Tillich and con- then and how these past interpretations inform temporary elements in the field of theology. I will the present is key to deconstructing white racism. do this by applying Tillich’s method of correlation This is particularly important in understanding the and his concept of the demonic to white suprem- transformation of the theology of Christian su- acy in the United States. To be clear, this does not premacy to white supremacy. mean I will be demonstrating the obvious demon- Bulletin of the North American Paul Tillich Society, vol. 41, nos. 2 and 3, Spring and Summer 2015 7

Before turning to how Tillich applied the de- solution to the Jewish question. In addition to monic in his own life, it is necessary to briefly de- this, Hitler gave a speech in which he declared the scribe what is meant by the demonic. The obvious imminent annihilation of the European Jewry. In and most insightful answer comes from his essay February, the Soviet military counter assault be- “The Demonic” in The Interpretation of History. In gan to gain momentum and started pushing the this essay, Tillich describes the demonic as some- German military back on the Eastern front. Final- thing that takes over the power of being and ly, in March, allied strategic bombing campaigns therefore divides one’s personality.ii In this way, started to bomb Germany proper in earnest. the demonic destroys the form of individual being The combination of these three events by subjecting it to a new universal power of demonstrated the inevitability of Nazi failure dur- meaning, but this meaning is found in a finite ing the war, and Tillich sought to address this in- character that lends itself to creative-destruction. evitability in his broadcast to the German people. Tillich recognized two places in which the Tillich started his radio broadcast by arguing that demonic operated in his own time in the form of people seek to hide from the law of death and economic capitalism and the social meaning of resurrection.vi By pointing to people’s desires to nationalism.iii Two recent works have also found evade death and resurrection, the problem of the concept of the demonic useful in the contem- modern western society is unveiled in the drive porary setting. Bruce P. Rittenhouse, in Shopping for progress that makes whole societies within the for Meaningful Lives: The Religious Motive of Consumer- Christian world believe in their own immortality; ism, argues that in the age globalization people are and as a result, societal structures constructed finding ultimate meaning in a consumerist culture themselves in ways that denied the finitude of all that function as a religion in contradiction to the created objects, particularly nations.vii The drive ground of being.iv The other is the article, “An for the immortality of the German people led to Unintended Conversation Partner: Tillich’s Ac- the devastation of the First World War that Tillich count of the Demonic and Critical Race Theory,” experienced first hand, and ultimately, the rise of by Stephen G. Ray. In this article, like myself, he Hitler’s creative destruction. argues that through the lens of the demonic, the Tillich continues his broadcast by describing category of race can be interpreted as the Holy the present situation of Germany as one that wit- because of its ability to provide ultimate meaning nessed the death of its own nation, and through to persons through the symbols and practices of Nazism, this reality has been twisted, like the Ha- white supremacy.v These recent works demon- kenkreuz or the swastika, to a cultural religious strate the relevance and need for theology to con- expression where ultimate meaning is found in tinue to embrace Tillich’s concept of the demonic death rather than life. In this way, all of Nazi to enhance the awareness of quasi-religious de- Germany was shaped to give purpose and mean- structive patterns that hold meaning in the world. ing only through the service of Germany, and In the second part of this paper, I will focus more importantly, Hitler. There is no clearer ex- on Tillich’s application of his method and the ample of the Nazi belief in death than in Tillich’s concept of the demonic to the demonry of Na- reference to Gregor Ziemer’s Education for Death: zism through his radio addresses into Nazi Ger- The Making of the Nazi and later the Walt Disney many on behalf United States government during propaganda film adapted from the book. the Second World War. Tillich’s radio address, Tillich’s reference to Education for Death is in- entitled “The Death and Resurrection of Na- structive in understanding how he views the oper- tions,” that aired in April 1942 is particularly im- ative power of the demonic at the socio-national portant to understanding and applying the de- level.viii Ziemer’s work argues that from birth the monic to contemporary meanings and symbols. Nazi party controls every aspect of one’s life until First, to better understand Tillich’s perspective at the destiny of death.ix The Nazi belief of ultimate the time the radio address aired it is important to purpose as found through the sacrifice of one’s know that three significant events took place in life to the propagation of the Führer and Germa- the preceding months that radically altered the ny redirects the creative energy of the German course of the European theater. First, in January people that comes to culmination in the true pur- 1942, the Nazi government held a meeting in pose of life which is a sacral death for the better- Wansee to finalize what would be called the final ment of Germany. For this redirection of creative Bulletin of the North American Paul Tillich Society, vol. 41, nos. 2 and 3, Spring and Summer 2015 8 forces to work, the Nazi Party had to create a black in America. As the New York Amsterdam state conditioned to believe only that Nazism and News said on August 27, 1930, “Every fair-minded Germany were central to collective and individual person will admit that in the United States a col- meaning, to the extent that non-Germans were a ored man is lynched for the crime of being a Ne- threat to the life force of Nazi Germany. In this gro.”xiv A reality whites cannot understand, in- worldview, all actions garnered ultimate meaning cluding myself, is the legacy of the continual exis- by promoting the Nazi way.x The visualization of tential assault against blacks, as well as other non- ultimate meaning is succinctly depicted in the last whites, through the disposable nature of their be- scene of the Disney propaganda film where Nazi ing in the United States of America. Blacks are soldiers are educated to see, speak, and go only by used, abused, and killed for the explicit benefits of the orders of the Nazi Party. With muzzles, blin- whites and there is no further proof needed than ders, and chains connecting the young Nazi men the picture of the Marion lynching that was sold they are marched to the front lines to fulfill their to whites as souvenirs of the momentous occa- destiny through annihilation.xi sion in a town that had never had the honor of In the final piece of this paper, I will turn to lynching a Negro.xv how the demonic operates in the United States As Harvey Young in his article “The Black under the guise of white supremacy. While this Body as Souvenir in American Lynching,” states: cannot be an exhaustive analysis of demonry in On the scheduled day and at the appoint- the U.S. context, it will provide a historical vi- ed hour, scores of spectators would assemble gnette as a way of arguing for further investiga- to witness the public staging of vengeance tion. One can search the history of this country acted upon the accused by the victim or the and, from the very beginning of its mythical victim’s family, the prolonged torture of the founding by the Puritans, one will find a sordid accused by the lynching organizers, the lynch- history of racial oppression. In this section, I will ing (by burning, hanging, or shooting) of the focus on a more recent event of mob violence in accused, and the dismemberment of the ac- Marion, Indiana. On August 7, 1930, two black cused’s body into souvenirs. As public per- men named Thomas Schipp and Abe Smith were formances, lynchings far surpassed all other lynched in front of the Marion County court- forms of entertainment in terms of their abil- house for the alleged murder of Claude Deeter, a ity to attract an audience and the complexity white man, and the assault of a white woman of their narratives. A lynching was an event— named Mary Ball.xii Newspapers in Chicago re- something not to be missed.xvi ported that as many as 5,000 spectators gathered The bodies of Schipp and Smith act as sacred around the courthouse to witness the beating, symbols of the mundane character of white Chris- mutilation, and hanging of both Schipp and tian supremacy. The physical act of lynching is by Smith.xiii no means mundane in any sense, but to it is take a While this event might not be particularly sur- wide view of the lynching scene that does not fo- prising to a student of U.S. history, the symbolic cus on Schipp and Smith, but rather on the white and sacral meanings of lynching in America are crowd. This refocusing starts to reveal the real often ignored or misperceived by the observing character of whiteness in America. In this picture eye of whites and left to the devices of black is the freely exposed and joyous faces of white scholars to investigate the meaning. men and women who do not fear legal recourse The case of the lynching of Schipp and Smith because vigilante justice by whites against non- is forever imprinted in U.S. history through a whites does not warrant legal action. The demonic widely distributed picture of the lynching scene can be found by not looking at the picture for that shows the battered and bruised bodies of what it presents at the surface level but by digging Schipp and Smith hanging from the courthouse deeper into the symbolic level of white power for tree with torn and tattered clothes draped on their the sake and propagation of white power. lifeless bodies while surrounded by white sight- By the nature of U.S. demographics, all the seers and revelers. As one gazes at the horrifying people in this picture, including the couple on the scene, the reality of two Americas takes shape. left who are expecting a child, the older woman The first is of a black America where the accused looking over her shoulder, or the man with the can be humiliated and murdered simply for being tattooed arm pointing at Schipp and Smith are Bulletin of the North American Paul Tillich Society, vol. 41, nos. 2 and 3, Spring and Summer 2015 9 educated in the Christian tradition. This does not poignant truth he speaks in those powerful words mean that everyone who witnessed the lynching is also found in the work of James Cone and Paul in Marion, Indiana on August 7, 1930 was a reli- Tillich. While all three men say it differently, the giously devout Christian, but they were raised and key here is the need for the breakdown of white lived in a society permeated by the symbolism and Christian supremacy, but this is not easily done, as doctrine of Christianity. What can be seen in this is evidenced by its ability to reincarnate itself in picture is the destructive creativity of a demonic every generation of white Americans. There is no Christianity that is shaped and maintained easy answer, and to think there is belittles the lives through the elevation of whiteness to a divine sta- of Thomas Schipp and Abe Smith. However, one tus and a religious fervor that prioritizes white place I argue a glimmer of an answer can be over non-white by providing ultimate meaning to gleaned is from the concept of courage. Tillich, the fortunate few who embody the proper class, and later Cone, focused on the courage to be, and faith, gender, and pigment of the demonic divine. Baldwin points to the need for whites to love In Dusk of Dawn: An Essay Toward an Autobiography themselves. This could possibly be a place to of a Race Concept, W.E.B. Du Bois describes the begin because the courage to be means being able social commitment to the concept of a race like to love one’s self in spite of the existential assault this, of finitude. Practically, this group imprisonment with- I know some will expect me to present con- in a group has various effects upon the pris- crete examples of how to apply this courage to be oner. He becomes provincial and centered to the problems of race in the U.S., but this con- upon the problems of his group. He tends to clusion will disappoint you. I do not know, nor do neglect the wider aspects of national life and I desire to feign platitudes, that will only make human existence. On the one hand, he is un- people feel better. Too many have died at the selfish so far as his inner group is concerned. hands of a demonic white supremacist Christiani- He thinks of himself not as an individual but ty. However, this does not mean that Tillich’s as a group man, a ‘race’ man. His loyalty to concepts are not useful in the search for future this group idea tends to be almost unending answers. There are two instances where Tillich and balks at almost no sacrifice. On the other will be invaluable to the academy and society as a hand, his attitude toward the environing race whole. First, his method of correlation makes it congeals into a matter of unreasoning resent- possible to take seriously experience and location ment and even hatred, deep disbelief in them to better recognize the particularities of the exis- and refusal to conceive honesty and rational tential dilemma—instead of creating a normative thought on their part.xvii experience that discounts the individuality of be- In this rather long quotation from Du Bois, ing. Second, the demonic provides a key to wade we begin to see the crux of white supremacist through the religious and cultural demands of the faith systems. Ones natural tendency in looking at world and to recognize where freedom of being is the lynching of Schipp and Smith is to see only denied and replaced with destructive meaning that their dangling bodies in the fashion of Billie Holi- leads to further estrangement from one’s self, day’s Strange Fruit, but there is another story to be others, and the ground of being. told in this image. If one looks deeper into the white crowd surrounding their sacrifice to the i Paul Tillich, Systematic Theology, vol. 1 (Chicago: demonic white Christ, a soul-distorting image of University of Chicago Press, 1973), 60. structural whiteness appears that places the white ii Paul Tillich, The Interpretation of History, trans. body at the top of the divine food chain. Du Bois N.A. Rasetzki and Elsa L. Talmey (New York: Charles eloquently hypothesizes Tillich’s ultimate concern Scribner’s Sons, 1936), 86. through the sacrifice of one’s self to the ultimate iii Ibid., 120. meaning of a white supremacist Christianity and iv Bruce P. Rittenhouse, Shopping for Meaningful its white Christ, even at the cost of one’s soul. Lives: The Religious Motive of Consumerism (Eugene, OR: This is the second America where white life is val- Cascade Books, 2013), 9. ued and superimposed over and against all others. v Stephen G. Ray Jr., “An Unintended Conversa- In closing this paper, I return to the where it tion Partner: Tillich’s Account of the Demonic and began with the quote from James Baldwin. The Critical Race Theory,” International Yearbook for Tillich Bulletin of the North American Paul Tillich Society, vol. 41, nos. 2 and 3, Spring and Summer 2015 10

Research, vol. 9, ed. Christian Danz et al. (Berlin: De xii 5,000 See Mob Hang Rapists in Court Yard, Gruyter, 2014), 67. Chicago Daily Tribune, August 8, 1930. vi Paul Tillich, Against the Third Reich: Paul Tillich’s xiii Ibid. and Indiana Mob Murders Two; Police Wartime Radio Broadcasts into Nazi Germany, ed. Ronald Aid K.K.K. Hoodlums, The Chicago Defender, August H. Stone and Matthew Lon Weaver (Louisville, KY: 16, 1930. Westminster John Knox Press, 1998), 17. xiv The President Speaks, The New York Amsterdam vii Ibid., 18. News, August 27, 1930. viii Ibid. xv Indiana Mob, August 16, 1930. ix Gregor Ziemer, Education for Death: The Making of xvi Harvey Young, “The Black Body as Souvenir in the Nazi (New York: Oxford University Press, 193?), American Lynching,” Theatre Journal 57 (2005): 641. 13. xvii W.E.B. Du Bois, Dusk of Dawn: An Essay To- x Ibid., 17. ward An Autobiography Of A Race Concept (New Bruns- xi Education for Death: The Making of the Nazi, di- wick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1995), 132. rected by Clyde Geronimi (1943, Walt Disney Produc- tions), DVD (Walt Disney Productions, 2004).

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The Officers of the North American Paul Tillich Society

President

Charles Fox, SUNY/ Empire State College/ Mentor of Philosophy and Religious Studies Emeritus

President Elect Bryan Wagoner, Davis and Elkins College

Vice President Daniel Peterson, Seattle University

Secretary Treasurer Frederick J. Parrella, Santa Clara University

Past President Duane Olsen, McKendree University

Board of Directors

Term Expiring 2015 Tom Bandy, www.ThrivingChurch.com Adam Pryor, Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas Devan Stahl, Saint Louis University

Term Expiring 2016 Christopher Rodkey, Penn State University, York Zachary Royal, Garrett Theological Seminary M. Lon Weaver, Marshall College Preparatory, Duluth

Term Expiring 2017 Rachel Sophia Baard, Villanova University Verna Ehret, Mercyhurst University Lawrence Whitney, University