Abstract

According to Thompson, since Tillich believes that the modern scientific and philosophic views of reality do not provide an adequate ontological foundation for human values, he attempts to convert the present generation to a new philosophy which overcomes this deficiency. The principal "task" of Being and Meaning, says Thompson, is to examine Tillich's new philosophy to determine whether it fulfills the criteria of adequacy, comprehensiveness, coherence, and consistency. Thompson insists that since Tillich feels an urgent need to convert his contemporaries to his philosophy of life, he adopts the style of the rhetorician and thus attempts to persuade others rather than to convince them by logical proof of the truth of particular ideas within his system. "Tillich's Systematic Theology has the character of a belief-system rather than a system of theoretical knowledge". Nevertheless, Thompson indicates that Tillich's philosophy as a whole has an impressive consistency and coherence. However, he contends that Tillich fails to justify particular ideas in his philosophy.