Coffee and Tillich

I was stopping by a non-establishment coffee house to chill and relax. I sat down drinking a large french roast coffee. It was kinda tasty. My eyes began to wander as they finally came to rest on the bookshelf and then something written Paul Tillich. I had heard of him before somewhere. Yet, I was pretty certain he was not reformed (as in Calvinistic) before I picked the book up. I decided to take a read. It started off about religion being a function of man's spirit. Not necessarily belief/trust but religion itself in a broad sense. Jumping between different faculties like morality, art/myth, reason, and feelings before realizing that it could not be at home in any of these. It is the ultimate ground for all of those and outside of those things rather than a single one. I thought some of these examples really applied to only people who were 'religious' but not christian. It showed that religion finds its ultimate expression as something integral to life itself. It is interesting because it agrees with Reformed thought.


He continued to discuss the ontological arguement and cosmological arguments. I don't read much religious philosophy about these things. (I would rather understand doctrine in relation to the Word.) He discusses Western christianity's attempt to prove God by reason. I didn't spend time to understand it completely. (It would be a waste.) Yet, I have thought about the arguements for God before with different terms. Christianity is rational unlike a lot of religions but reasonings are self-consistent. That is to say that to God himself is the ground for that knowledge. To continue down a path to prove God, one must already believe Him. It is an impossiblity unless one is taught of God. It is impossible for those who aren't spiritual to spiritually discern the things of God.

Furthermore, the only places in nature that we can discern God in are the places he has interacted with nature. This means creation, Christ himself, and the actions of the Holy Spirit. We must show people Christ and him crucified if they are to know God, even in the use of reason. If Christ did not rise from the dead, our faith is futile.