Notes
Paul Tillich was a German-American Christian existentialist philosopher and Lutheran Protestant theologian who lived from 1886-1965. He argued that, regardless of one’s awareness of it or not, all people are religious. To him, religion was not the belief in a deity of some sort, but is something that is so important to them that they would sacrifice even their lives for it. In this way, religion answers the question of the meaning of life, because everyone has something that makes them exist and he labels this “religion.” His ultimate concern is that one is obligated to obey the demands of their religion in order to reap the rewards. In the Judeo-Christian religion, eternal life, joy, peace, and a relationship with god are promised to those who obey the ten commandments, worship God and keep the faith. His faith is the background behind his primary critique of the Freudian worldview, which is that Freud's anti-religious dogmatism led him to ignore this basic human yearning that only religion can answer. In his eyes, Freud was therefore limited to the narrow prism that people only fear death and any other anxiety is infantile or neurotic, and religion is an illusion to deal with the world.
Tillich’s condescending view of Freud’s theories of anti-religionism stems from his belief of how religion was relevant to the rise of the Nazi Party and World War II in Germany. Tillich was raised in Germany, and saw the beginnings of the Holocaust from the German side. He witnessed Jewish people lose their jobs, their homes, their lives, and their freedom because of their devotion to the Jewish religion. During the Holocaust, the Jewish people kept their faith despite being tortured for it because it was what made their lives meaningful. Tillich also witnessed many Christians who believed that to be true to their faith, they had to protect and support the Jews. These Christians hid Jews away and helped save them, even though most of the Germans around them were persecuting those who aided the Jews. In this way, the helpful Germans were more devoted to the values of their faith than to being Christian alongside their neighbors. He also saw the Nazis sacrifice their personal beliefs, integrity and values for the sake for the party. They lived for the party, and even though we look down upon their actions, Tillich witnessed that their beliefs really did fuel their controversial actions.
The question is, why did so many people in Germany interpret their religion to allow them to kill other humans, while some German Christians aided the Jews and other persecuted people? Freud believes that religion is only for unhealthy people, and maybe unhealthy people make weak decisions. Freud argues that religion was an illusion, yet it is important for those dysfunctional people for multiple reasons: to give consolation to create faith that God will do what is right, to give requirements by setting boundaries, to give rewards, to guarantee that you will be provided for, and to give answers about the origin of people and the meaning of existence. However, according to Freud, this develops during childhood because of childhood neurosis that prevents a child from getting a good handle on reality.
To break Tillich’s arguments down, both an axiological and ontological approach can be used. An axiological perspective is a philosophical study of the value of an action. Tillich’s axiological view of religion is his understanding of the value of religion and using this approach, it can be seen that the value of religion outweighs other values and is the ultimate concern. Ontology, the philosophical study of the nature of being, becoming, existence, or reality, as well as the basic categories of being and their relations fuels Tillich’s understanding of religion and how religion informs the meaning of existence. Tillich claim that religion is an intrinsic part of the creation the world around every person and is not an illusion, as Freud deems it, but a part of every person’s worldview.
The difference between Freud and Tillich is that Freud sees religion only in theological and doctrinal terms and in psychological terms of what people think, therefore, it is not valid, but Tillich sees religion in ontological terms and in axiological terms as how it describes human behaviour both individually and on a group level. It provides an argument that religion has little to do with a dysfunctional childhood and is an intrinsic part of how the human mind creates its values.
No comments:
Post a Comment