20 August 1946. Tillich and Existentialism Tillich has often been called an existentialist theologian. Existentialism is a philosophical movement that became especially popular from the 1940s through the 1960s. It is not always easy to characterize. Who or what we are is not simply given to us but depends at least in part on what we become.
Existence precedes essence.
Like Barth, Tillich believed that any adequate answer to the human puzzle would be highly dialectical, or tensive, involving a mixture of affirmations and denials that cannot be resolved into a formally coherent system. They remain in tension with one another. So it is no surprise that today s reading is full of all kinds of dialectical, tensive statements, especially on the last page. And Tillich concludes that these are not just contradictory nonsense. He wants to respect the integrity of both religious communities and their cultural settings.