416 - The Meaning of Health: Essays in Existentialism, Psychoanalysis, and Religion

The Meaning of Health: Essays in Existentialism, Psychoanalysis, and Religion
By Paul Tillich
Edited by Perry LeFevre
Chicago, Exploration Press, 1984. 251 pp. $19.95 ($9.95 paper).

Paul Tillich's writings on issues of interest to pastoral theologians are scattered in many different journals. Perry LeFevre, who is "convinced that Tillich's influence on the dialogue between religion and theology and the human sciences dealing with personal existence is unmatched," worried that Tillich's contribution to this dialogue might be lost on the new generation of students. The editors of Exploration Press, the publishing arm of the Chicago Theological Seminary, agreed with LeFevre and published this fine collection. The volume consists of twenty-six publications from 1944 to 1972, and includes journal articles, published addresses, book reviews, book forewords, interviews, dialogues, and a funeral address for Karen Horney.

The volume includes articles on the challenge of psychology for Christian theology and practice, including "Psychotherapy and the Christian Interpretation of Human Nature," "Is Psychotherapy a Religious Process"," and "Existentalism and Psychotherapy." There are also articles on pastoral theology, including "Theology of Pastoral Care," "Theology and Counseling," and "The Impact of Pastoral Psychology on Theological Thought." The topic of health is addressed in such articles and lectures as "The Relation of Religion and Health: Historical Considerations and Theoretical Questions," "Anxiety, Reducing

Agencies in our Culture," and "The Meaning of Health." Articles reflective of Tillich's theological anthropology include "Estrangement and Reconciliation in Modern Thought," "Human Nature Can Change," "What is Basic in Human Nature?," and the aforementioned "The Relation of Religion and Health." Tillich reviews two books by Erich Fromm plus David E. Robert's pioneering work, Psychotherapy and a Christian View of Man.

Tillich's analyses and critiques of Hegel, Marx, James, and Jung on "the question of reconciliation" in the essay, "Estrangement and Reconciliation in Modern Thought," should disabuse today's theological students of the view that Tillich simply offers theological "answers" to fundamental cultural "questions." The two interviews transcribed and edited by James B. Ashbrook will enable today's theological seminarians to understand why Tillich's influence on the dialogue between theology and the human sciences remains unmatched. In one interview, Tillich says: "There is so much nonsense in theological language that I really want to talk psychologically so that it makes sense to me." How long has it been since a major theologian has had the courage to talk psychologically in order to make sense theologically?

Donald Capps
Princeton Theological Seminary
Princeton, N.J.