The Dialectic of Inclusion: Systematic Theology in Dialogue
In the historiography of twentieth-century theology, Tillich is remembered by former students, colleagues, and intellectual antagonists alike with affection and admiration. Gilkey speaks fondly of "the incredible stamp that [Tillich's] personal presence made" on those who knew and worked with him (1990, p. xv). Elsewhere, he cites the dramatic theological differences between Tillich and Brunner on one hand and between Tillich and Reinhold Niebuhr on the other, noting, however, the "essentially friendly and certainly respectful" character of the rivalry (p. 202). The philosophical-theological dialogues at the University of Chicago that took place between Mircea Eliade and Tillich and the end of Tillich's life in 1965 were recalled by Eliade as "the almost charismatic experience of witnessing a creative mind in the very process of creation . . . for he was not afraid of the strangeness and sometimes almost demonic expressions of religious experience" (Eliade, 1966, p. 33). Thomas's (1990) transcription of dialogues between Tillich and Zen Master Hisamatsu Shin'ichi at Harvard in 1957 is marked by a charming collegiality, despite rather abundant evidence of vast differences in their philosophical predispositions. The relevant point is that despite Tillich's differences of opinion with other theologians and despite evidence that Tillich never changed certain core ideas about the method, content, or form of his theology, there is also evidence in Tillich of a certain openness to other--even opposing--views. Wilhelm Pauck notes that Tillich was always "willing to share what he possessed. . . . . [H]is mind was wonderfully open to the concerns of others and he liberally gave to them of the treasures of his own life" (Pauck, 1966, pp. 29-30).
All of this is consistent with Tillich's reputation as a personality for comity and mediation (Thomas, 1990, p. xi; Gilkey, 1990, passim)....