Abstract

This is a study of Paul Tillich’s non-supranaturalist interpretation of the history of salvation. The question lies at the core of his 1923 debates with Karl Barth. Two articles written by Tillich in 1927 and 1928 on belief-ful realism advocate a faith which sees the divine at the heart of the real, not turning away from reality. The 1927 article, “Eschatology and History,” elaborates a philosophy of history which shows the signs of transcendence in the depths of history, at the point where meaning is threatened by meaninglessness. The 1930 article, “Christology and the Interpretation of History,” proposes Christ as the center of history ; this proposal secures the meaning of history not as an intervention from outside, but as an irruption in history of its unconditioned ground.