Page 11 - Alumni Horae: Vol. 93, No. 3 Spring 2013

Following is an excerpted version of Tillich’s 1956 speech at St. Paul’s:
. . . Another unsolved problem of contem-
porary education must be brought out,
namely its claim to be humanistic. Genuine
humanism is a matter of absolute serious-
ness. It is religious in substance, though
cultural in form. It considers the human
potentialities as expressions of man’s
being a mirror of the universe and its
creative ground. When the religious sub-­
stance of humanism disappeared, the mere
form was left, abundant, but empty. And
today the means of mass communication
mediate these empty remnants of former
cultural creations to everybody day and
night. But we must ask: Which of these
cultural goods speaks to us as the German
poet Rilke felt that the torso of a Greek
Apollo spoke to him: “Change thy life?”
Cultural goods have become trimmings,
means for having a good time, but nothing
ultimately serious, nothing through which
the mystery of being grasps us. Humanism
has become empty, and so has the human-
istic ideal of education.
It is not surprising that this double
emptiness, the emptiness of adjustment
to the demands of the industrial society,
and the emptiness of cultural goods with-
out ultimate seriousness, lead to indiffer-
ence, cynicism, despair, mental disturbances,
early crimes, disgust of life. Neither is it
surprising that, in reaction to this empti-
ness, forces arose which tried to reestab-
lish systems of life and thought which
give meaning and spiritual security, and
which make inducting education toward
a meaning of life possible. This refers to
the totalitarian movements of our cen-
tury; it also refers to the resurgence of
ecclesiastical authority, both in the Cath-
olic and in the Protestant sector. One
could observe how the European youth
before the Second World War was long-
ing for symbols in which they could see
a convincing expression of the meaning
of existence. They desired to be initiated
into these symbols which demanded
unconditional surrender, even if they
showed very soon their demonic-destruc-
tive character. The young ones wanted
something absolutely serious-in contrast
to the playing with cultural goods. They
wanted something for which they could
sacrifice themselves, even if it was a dis-
torted religious-political aim. From here
the place of the Church School in the spir-
itual geography of our time can be deter-
mined. It is a place where the medieval
tradition of inductive education is still
alive, although the demands of technical
education into the structure of our indus-
trial society are acknowledged, but in
which the problem of humanistic educa-
tion is unsolved.
Therefore, every religious education
must try to find the existentially impor-
tant questions which are alive in the minds
and hearts of the pupils. It must make the
pupil aware of the questions which he
already has. After this has been done, he
can be shown that the traditional symbols
in myth and cult originally were conceived
as answers to the questions implied in
man’s very existence. The correlation of
question and answer gives meaning to
the answers and opens up the mind of the
pupil to the symbols into which religious
education has inducted him. But, where
questions are asked or provoked, and the
answers are interpreted in the light of the
question, there humanistic spirit is at work.
For humanism starts with the most radical
question, the question of being – of being
generally and of my own being particularly.
The humanistic question is radical; it goes
to the roots and does not accept anything
whatsoever as being beyond questioning.
One has often thought that this is the
opposite of religious faith, which has been
described as an unquestionable certainty
in which all asking comes to rest. Indeed,
there are interpretations of faith, which
make faith a castle surrounded by walls
of authority which doubt cannot pierce.
But this is certainly not the Biblical or the
Protestant concept of faith.
In every act of faith, there is risk, and the
courage to take this risk, and the neces-
sary doubt which distinguishes faith from
mathematical or empirical evidence. Faith,
and the radical question with which hu-
manism starts, do not contradict each
other, if faith is seen as comprising itself
and the doubt about itself. The Church
School, on its way of inducting pupils into
the symbols and realities of the Christian
life, must remain aware of the fact that
Christianity has accepted the humanistic
principle by identifying Jesus as the Christ
with the universal Logos, the creative
structure of everything that is. Christian-
ity includes humanism and the radical
question of truth which is the first prin-
ciple of humanism. The inducting edu-
cation of the Church School can and
must include the principle of humanist
education, the correlation between
question and answer, the radical­ism
of the question, the opening up of all
human possibilities, and the providing
for chances which the pupil may develop
in freedom. . . .
The conquest of literalism without the
loss of the symbols is the great task for
religious education. It brings the human-
istic element into the Church School and
enables the pupil to re­main in the unity
of the Church as a mature, critical, and
yet faith-determined personality. If the
Church School is strong enough to take
this humanistic principle into its own life,
it can not only maintain its limited place
in the present cultural situation, it can
become increasingly important in our
period of a growing tide of religious
concern - to encounter the danger of
being swallowed by the almost irresist-
ible forces of our technical civilization
- in all realms of life including religion
and education.
For the problem of the Church School
is more than the problem of the Church
School. It is the problem of the relation
of Christianity and culture generally and
Christianity and education especially. The
problem is infinite and must be solved in
every generation again. Within this frame,
the Church School is like a small labora-
tory in which the large questions of Church
and world can be studied and brought to
a preliminary solution, a solution which
could become an inestimable contribu-
tion to the solution of the larger problem.
On the other hand, it is the duty of the
Church School, as of every other institu-
tion in which the problem of Christian
education is central and concrete, to look
beyond its own boundaries, traditions,
and laws, at the situation of the Church
in the world today, and at the situation of
the younger generation in our world and
in our Church. We are grateful that this
memorable occasion gives us an impulse
to do so, and we hope that rich fruits will
come out of it. 9