Tillich's Idea of the "Church on the Boundary"

Tillich's Idea of the “Church on the Boundary”

Keith K. CHAN

This paper is intended to present the development of Paul Tillich's ecclesiology focusing on the shift of his theological foundation of the idea of church. In his earlier writings, Tillich emphasizes the dialectical relationship between religious socialism and the church. This relationship is grounded on the Christological and prophetic spirit. Under the Protestant principle, the Christian church is established in form-negating and form-creating power. However, in his later period, Tillich tries to build his ecclesiology within a pneumatological perspective in which spiritual presence as the essence of the church is emphasized in a sense that this dynamic and critical power is not limited to the boundary of Christian tradition. The latent and manifestation stages represent the dialectical relationship between organized church and other religious-secular groups. Although there is a theological shift in the development of Tillich's understanding of the church, certain important insights remain unchanged. Firstly, the Christian church must always be examined under the critical power in order that she will not be regarded as absolute. Secondly, in order to maintain this self-critical power, the dialogical and dialectical relationship with other groups – whether this group is the religious socialism in the early Tillich or other religious communities in the later Tillich – can enrich the resources of critical power of the Christian church. Lastly, under a Spirit-Christological perspective, the protestant principle and catholic substance are regarded as the critical and formative power respectively in Tillich's idea of the church. We will see that Tillich's idea of the church may provide an insight towards an ecumenical understanding of the church.