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 Indianapolis: Indiana 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.” —Meryl Streep, 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, sculpture 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.