Theology at the End of Culture: Paul Tillich's Theology of Culture and Art (STUDIES IN PHILOSOPHICAL THEOLOGY)

This book is a reconsideration of Paul Tillich's (1886-1965) project of a theology of culture and art. Concentrating on his widely neglected pre-emigration writings (1910-1933) , Re Manning reconstructs and defends Tillich's proposals for theology of culture as a philosophically sophisticated programme of theological engagement with culture and art. 'On the boundary' between the extremes of liberal Christian humanism and neo-orthodox isolationism, Tillich's project is shown to be a powerful continuation of the mediatory intentions of the 'Schleiermacher-Troeltsch line' of modern Protestant theology to overcome the 'intolerable gap' between religion and culture. Further, this book offers an assessment of the continued relevance of Tillich's project in the situation of contemporary philosophical theology. Beyond the dominant antithetical types of postmodern theology-Mark C Taylor's a/theology and the 'radical orthodoxy' of John Milbank-Re Manning argues for the possibility of a 'Tillichian postmodern theology of culture' able to engage with the spiritual situation 'at the end of culture'.