Philip Arthur Bence PhD Thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText

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faith, it cannot be replaced. God has spoken through the
events it describes, as well as the writing and original
distribution of its contents. God still does speak
through the Bible and the Christian religion founded upon
its premises.6e
But, according to Tillich, men do Scripture a harm
when they dogmatize its symbolic statements of truth.
Symbols retain optimum value only when seen as symbols.
As God is the Being above being (Being Itself), man can
know him and speak of him only symbolically. In fact,
anything can transmit the holy; nothing is excluded from
the possibility of becoming a divine symbol, and, thus, a
source of preaching content. For Tillich, the Bible
can be only one source of appropriate symbols.
Tillich's perspective on the relation between
preaching and its recipients is considered in greater
detail below. One can hardly overestimate the importance
of contemporary culture and thought in Tillich's theology
and, following that, his views on preaching. The degree
to which the contemporary world provides the reference
point for selection of preaching topics allows his
followers to include the questions of modern man as a
source of preaching content (See below).
In the opening pages of his Systematic Theology,
Tillich lists the sources of his theology, and,
ultimately, sources for preaching. These include the
Bible, historical theology, church history,
denominational structure, and the history of religion and