Philip Arthur Bence PhD Thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText

58
What Tillich wrote of working with children applies to
his view of all preaching: "We seek to answer their
questions and in doing so we, at the same time, slowly
transform their existence so that they come to ask the
questions to which the Christian message gives the
answer.
As the people come to ask deeper questions, the
preacher then can offer the Christian message. Just as
the preacher helps his hearers to ask the questions which
Christianity answers, he hopes they will accept the
answer, God's free grace. Yet it would be wrong to seek
methods which lead to greater numbers of decisions. In
fact, "for this there is no method. To communicate the
Gospel means putting it before the people so that they
are able to decide for or against it. . . All that we
who communicate this Gospel can do is make possible a
genuine decision."'5°
Thus, the preacher's primary goal is not to change
the mind or will of the hearer. He merely sets the stage
for God to come and act decisively. Far more important
than anything that the preacher does "is the creative
character of the Spiritual Presence, that is, the
creation of the New Being, which does not excite the
subjectivity of the listener but transforms it."'"
God alone initiates the creation of the New Being.
Tillich accepted (and almost welcomed) the presence
of several tensions within his theology.
Foremost of these is the paradoxical co-existence of