400 - Religion and Culture; Essays in Honor of Paul Tillich

Religion and Culture; Essays in Honor of Paul Tillich
Edited by Walter Leibrecht
399 pp. New York, Harper & Brothers, 1959. $7.50.

Professor Tillich deserves a Festschrift as much as any contemporary American theologian does. His impact upon the American intellectual community both in and out of the Churches is widely known. The catholicity of his interests are well described by the title of this volume; indeed there is only one more inclusive title that it could be given, God and the World. Since Kegley and Bretall previously edited a volume of commentary on Tillich's thought, the Festschrift could not duplicate that important task. Thus we have a volume of essays on miscellaneous subjects, with only a few addressed in any sense to the contribution of Paul Tillich. The editor contributes a laudatory summary of Tillich's life and thought. The list of contributors makes a distinguished roster of intellectual leaders in contemporary life: Fromm, Jaspers, Reinhold Neibuhr, Barth, Ferré, Hopper, Przywara, Weigel, H. Bornkamun, Florovsky, C. Hartshorne, Heim , Loewith, Marcel, J. L. Adams, Bultmann, Lehmann, Kurt Leese, Pauck, Brunner, Bennett, Thielicke, Charles Malik, and Y. Takeuchi.

Many of the essays are synoptic versions of key ideas in the thinking. of the authors. Hartshorne rehearses familiar themes from his philosophical theology; Heim gives us an account of the religious foundations of modern secularism; Niebuhr appraises socialism; Bennett discusses the contemporary world revolution in the light of the themes of justice and freedom; Jaspers worries through the problem of individuality in mass society; Hopper indirectly communicates a theme from the master of indirect communications, S. K.; and Fromm philosophically reflects upon tile "limitations and dangers" of psychology. A satisfactory review of cacti of these essays would require the commentary of specialists in the various fields represented. All of these imply a problem of religion and

401 - Religion and Culture; Essays in Honor of Paul Tillich

culture, but none addresses it directly. Reading them, however, is virtually a general education in the ideas of the authors.

Persons acquainted with the writings of Karl Barth have long known of his fascination for Mozart. They have also detected Barth's capacity to be whimsical. In this volume several things Barth has written on Mozart are gathered together. In the field of music, "I must confess: there is he and nobody else." There is a delightful "Letter of Thanks to Mozart." "Thus you have repeatedly given me . . . courage (not haughtiness), tempo (not exaggerated tempo!), purity (not boring purity!), and peace (not complacent peace!)."

Brunner writes briefly about an object of his fascination, the Mulkyokai (Non-Church) movement in Japan. His enthusiasm for the movement could be predicted by those who have read his recent statements on the doctrine of the Church. Brunner rejoices that "It is now possible to be a disciple of Christ, to live with Christ, and in fellowship with others to do something in his name-without the necessity of becoming a 'Church.' Both the theologian and the sociologist can have a field day with such a statement.

Three other essays were especially appreciated by the present reviewer. Father Florovsky deals with the predicament of the Christian historian, arguing his case in relation to many widely and lesser known philosophers of history. Paul Lehmann continues to develop themes in his Christian ethics. James Luther Adams fills an important lacuna in contemporary English literature with his essay on "Rudolph Sohm's Theology of Law and Spirit."

Just as a volume with such varied essays defies review by one person, so any reader will find essays of interest to his own disposition. One of the longest is on "Buddhism and Existentialism," for example, and is of interest to those concerned with either of the topics or the conversations between Eastern and Western thought. One of the shortest is Karl Loewith's "Knowledge and Faith: From the Pre-Socratics to Heidegger." This reviewer gets the impression that the Tillich Festschrift became a convenient place for many contributors to deposit some work done in the past but previously unpublished, or published in the past but somewhat revised. This affects both the intrinsic merit of some of the articles, and certainly the merit of the book as a collection. A collection of essays specifically directed to the problem of the relation of religion to culture would have been a more appropriate honor to Professor Tillich.

James M. Gustafson
Yale University Divinity School
New Haven, Connecticut