Faith consists in being vitally concerned with that ultimate reality to which I give the symbolical name of God. Whoever reflects earnestly on the meaning of life is on the verge of an act of faith.
Paul TillichRead
Man's ultimate concern must be expressed symbolically, because symbolic language alone is able to express the ultimate.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Symbolic language is essential for expressing deep and ultimate concerns of humanity.
In this quote, Paul Tillich suggests that the most profound aspects of human existence, such as ultimate concerns or existential questions, cannot be fully articulated in straightforward language. Instead, they require symbolic representations that can convey deeper meanings and emotions, as symbols resonate with human experiences and beliefs in a way that conventional words may not.
Themes
Symbolic LanguageUltimate ConcernsExpressionMeaningExistence
In practice
Example use cases
In a presentation about the importance of art in expressing complex emotions.
More from Paul Tillich
All quotes →Cruelty towards others is always also cruelty towards ourselves.
Paul TillichRead
He who risks and fails can be forgiven. He who never risks and never fails is a failure in his whole being.
Paul TillichRead
The courage to be is the courage to accept oneself, in spite of being unacceptable.
Paul TillichRead
The citizens of a city are not guilty of the crimes committed in their city; but they are guilty as participants in the destiny of [humanity] as a whole and in the destiny of their city in particular; for their acts in which freedom was united with destiny have contributed to the destiny in which they participate. They are guilty, not of committing the crimes of which their group is accused, but of contributing to the destiny in which these crimes happened.
Paul TillichRead
Wine is like the incarnation--it is both divine and human
Paul TillichRead
Similar quotes
What is life without incompatible realities?
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
History is the long struggle of man, by exercise of his reason, to understand his environment and to act upon it. But the modern period has broadened the struggle in a revolutionary way. Man now seeks to understand, and act on, not only his environment, but himself; and this has added, so to speak, a new dimension to reason and a new dimension to history.
Edward Hallett CarrRead
Our knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite.
Karl PopperRead
In lazy apathy let stoics boast, their virtue fixed, 'tis fixed as in a frost.
Alexander PopeRead
It’s just like when you’ve got some coffee that’s too black, which means it’s too strong. What you do? You integrate it with cream; you make it weak. If you pour too much cream in, you won’t even know you ever had coffee. It used to be hot, it becomes cool. It used to be strong, it becomes weak. It used to wake you up, now it’ll put you to sleep.
Malcolm XRead
Much as we deplore our condition in life, nothing would make us more satisfied with it than the changing of places, for a few days, with our neighbors.
Phillips BrooksRead