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Philip Arthur Bence PhD Thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText

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139<br />

Similarly, the objectivity of God's action in<br />

salvation may have prevented Barth from seeing the need<br />

for, and possibility of, salvation, not only in behalf<br />

of, but within individual lives. Barth stated that,<br />

though God has justified and sanctified all persons, God<br />

has not brought all persons into awareness of their<br />

renewal in Christ.'s And Barth went on to say that it<br />

was not the preacher's responsibility to call hearers to<br />

decision. He felt that God's prior action was completely<br />

adequate without the knowledge of, or any action by, the<br />

human individual.7<br />

This theology of obiectivity offers little to change<br />

man's present existential experience. In order to meet<br />

man's need for participation in his own salvation, it is<br />

appropriate that preaching should call men to accept and<br />

experience God's offer of grace.<br />

D. PAUL TILLICH<br />

Paul Tillich worshipped the Infinite God, and sought<br />

to bring others to kneel only before the truly Ultimate.<br />

While daily interacting with the world of being, man<br />

moves forward in his search for knowledge. But,<br />

according to Tillich, in relation to the Divine, man<br />

faces Being of a completely other order. God is not<br />

merely the highest being. He transcends all being as<br />

Being itself. Finite man can, thus, never achieve any<br />

objectively true (non-symbolic) knowledge of the<br />

Infinite.<br />

According to Tillich, awe before the unknowable God

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