Philip Arthur Bence PhD Thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText

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from essence to existence results in personal guilt and
universal tragedy." Tillich, Systematic Theology. Volume
2. (London: Nisbet, 1957), P. 51.
ed4 Ibid. 111:300.
e ".15This study employs the theologians' printed
sermons only where necessary to amplify their overall
theology. It does not consider these sermons as a models or
sources of information on preaching practice. Here,
however, as added support for a rather unexpected point (the
proclamatory nature of preaching in Tillich's thinking), a
brief examination of Tillich's preaching practice proves
helpful. Two short sermon quotations which appear in
chapter two (for other reasons) illustrate the point.
Tillich proclaimed as the climax to one sermon, "Simply
accept the fact that you are accepted" (See above, p. 55).
In the slightly longer quotation appearing just above that
first one, Tillich again employs a proclamatory style.
Tillich, "The Relevance of the Ministry," in
Making the Ministry Relevant. p. 24, underlining mine.
e7 It would be inappropriate for this study to offer
detailed prescriptive statements relating to the teaching of
preaching. To even insinuate that a single body of teaching
content or methodology could be suitable for all settings
would deny the basic differences among those settings.
e'1'he statements enclosed by inverted commas are not
actual quotations, but merely short summaries of the
theologians' thinking. See above for fuller explication and
documentation.
e5"Barth's unequivocal "nein" (See "No," translated
by Peter Fraenkel. In Natural Theology. (London:
Centenary Press, 1946.) to natural theology exaggerated the
truth. Universal revelation in the physical world around
us, or the awareness of God within us, can offer valid
knowledge of God. These 'intuitions', however, pale in
value before God's more definitive self-revelations. The
former are virtually useless as a source of preaching.
Their value lies in their preparation of hearers for the
more complete truth of Christian preaching.
Paul Tillich appropriately stated that anything can
convey God to us. But, perhaps, he did not state
emphatically enough the value priority of the Biblical
symbols, particularly that of Jesus Christ.
°Stewart, in particular, preached all his sermons
from this 'pulpit'. Yet, he, with preaching Jesus first (as
Lloyd-Jones with the Bible), did not see (or at least did
not explicitly state) his debt to a specific theological
tradition.
1 See the third of chapter four's theological
consensus statements--above, p. 147.
' 11 See the fifth of chapter four's theological
consensus statements--above, p. 147.
'5.• For the purposes at hand, we may ignore proponents
of a limited God, e.g., Edgar S. Brightman, A Philosophy of
Religion. (London: Skeffington and Son, n.d.).
"Some assert that their positions are derived from
Scripture alone. A more accurate statement might be: 'It