ich can be conceived only if attributes can be perfected, (2) that therefore God exists, and (3) that God is the First Cause of all attributes. Tillich simply disclaims rationalistic, theistic "proofs" for the existence of God. God cannot be "proven" by argumentation, and to attempt to do so is to miss the point of God altogether. His view is that scholasticism (and the Roman Catholicism that proceeds from it) is limited by its determination to reach conclusions. The concept of God and still more the concept of the existence of God cannot be confined by logic or human reason: "God does not exist. He is being-itself beyond essence and existence. Therefore, to argue that God exists is to deny him. The method of arguing through a conclusion also contradicts the idea of God" (Tillich, ST I, 1951, p. 205; emphasis added).
McKelway questions whether Tillich has missed the point in criticizing St. Anselm's proof for the existence of God, based on the fact that Anselm "addresses himself to God in whose reality he already believes, for t
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