The Courage to Be

Rating:
Summary: A fabulous and stimulating reading !
Review: Professor Tillich has written a marvelous book that provokes insight, incites thought, and instigates courage.
"The courage to be" makes a great and stimulating reading for the
intellect, and will teach the reader about the history of the concept and the process of courage.
The courage to be is the greatest achievement that any human can ever reach. As we tackle our daily lives, and wrestle with our socialization and acculturation processes and familial demands, we lose our courage and ourselves in the process; Then we go on for the rest of our lives looking for that piece of the puzzle which we might never find. Losing your courage is losing your heart and becoming dead while you're alive. Reading this book might get you back in touch with your pulsating heart and might awaken your courage that was once decimated by the clamorous world of socialization and survival. Finding the courage to be who we were meant to be at birth is the essence of our spirituality!


Rating:
Summary: The courage of an unsuitable title for suitable art
Review: The Courage to Be is not a self improvement manual or a recipe for efficient administration of the journey of life. Written in the smoothest language possible it becomes the equivalent of a Jazz-Blues fusion experiment in which neither is distinguishable and the final product is new and original. Philosophy, theology and history fuse for the esthetical purpose of narrating a path for intellectual freedom. This book is a literary Prozac that depends on the slowly released drug of honest, clear and non-pretentious writing about the history of high thought.

Rating:
Summary: Simply brilliant
Review: This book characterizes anxiety, being, and courage and how they relate to the individual and society. It would help to have some understanding of other philosophers such as Kierkegaard, Hegel, Martin Luther, etc. before reading this book. However, it also may help those who know little about these men to get an understanding for their beliefs. Tillich certainly knows his history of philosophy, and this book is a good place to learn about existentialism, anxiety, and of course, courage.

Rating:
Summary: Rich with good ideas
Review: This book has more good ideas in it than clam chowder has calories. It's packed into every page, every line. Tillich is concerned with how the question of finding the courage to face up to existential doubts about death, meaninglessness, and guilt are tied to the ontological questions of being versus nonbeing. How can we affirm our existence when it seems so temporary, meaningless and full of moral failure? Tillich explores with incredible freshness and insight age old strategies, from Spinoza to the Stoics (his discussion of the Stoics alone is worth the price of the book). He gives a brilliant account of how people find the courage to overcome existential anxiety through particpation in groups and through individual strategies like existentialism. Finally, he explores the theological implications in a way that may challenge anyone who has stereotyped Tillich as a mouthpiece for Christianity. The book is excellently written, never dumbed down but always graspable. He also litters the book with brilliant asides on subjects like the history of existential angst and its relations to social relations and a great exploration of existential art. Don't pass this one up.

Rating:
Summary: Rich with good ideas
Review: This book has more good ideas in it than clam chowder has calories. It's packed into every page, every line. Tillich is concerned with how the question of finding the courage to face up to existential doubts about death, meaninglessness, and guilt are tied to the ontological questions of being versus nonbeing. How can we affirm our existence when it seems so temporary, meaningless and full of moral failure? Tillich explores with incredible freshness and insight age old strategies, from Spinoza to the Stoics (his discussion of the Stoics alone is worth the price of the book). He gives a brilliant account of how people find the courage to overcome existential anxiety through particpation in groups and through individual strategies like existentialism. Finally, he explores the theological implications in a way that may challenge anyone who has stereotyped Tillich as a mouthpiece for Christianity. The book is excellently written, never dumbed down but always graspable. He also litters the book with brilliant asides on subjects like the history of existential angst and its relations to social relations and a great exploration of existential art. Don't pass this one up.

Rating:
Summary: Very Deep Book
Review: This is the best book I've ever read pertaining to the existential viewpoint. A viewpoint which I regard as very relevant. This book is about the existence of the individual and how the concepts of "being", "anxiety", and "courage" (to name a few) define that existence. It can be a bit difficult to read at first, especially if you're not familiar with the subject matter or the writings of some of the existentialist thinkers throughout history. A good prerequisite to reading this book would be "Irrational Man" by William Barrett. Get both.

Rating:
Summary: This book is a real eye opener!
Review: Though not an easy read, The Courage to Be is definitely worth the struggle. I'll admit that I originally read this book as required for a class, but I have to say that it was one of the best experiences of my academic career. I am an avid reader, but was glad to have my professor's guidance and class discussions to help me see and understand things I might not have otherwise. I don't think Tillich has to be lumped into any kind of category in order to be worth reading-- his ideas transcend any one category. After reading this book, I knew what I had always felt about God and religion but never had the words for. The Courage to Be made me the Tillich fan I am today, and though it can be frustrating at times, I wouldn't trade my copy for anything!

Rating:
Summary: A classic!
Review: Tillich is one of the most creative and influential theologians and philosophers of the twentieth century. He is particuluarly influential here in America. When this book was first issue it was recognized as one of the great books of popular philosophy/theology yet written. In it, Tillich takes the reader through the different ways a person can be (essentially different ways of living). The reader will find this book not only useful in terms of their own self evaluation and helping others, but they will find it a book that, when properly understood, changes peoples lives. A word to the wise: Many people have complained that this book is a little difficult to read at first. This is because Tillich uses terminology which he has invented. He is not always good about telling the reader know what he means. However, after you read more and more of the book you get a good grasp of what he means. Stick with it. You wont be sorry.

Rating:
Summary: The spirit and the machine
Review: Tillich's book makes a number of points very clearly, but the
principal point of the book is obscured by round-about language.
In the last chaper Tillich speaks of the "God above God". He writes concerning the God who is not above God: "He deprives me of my subjectivity . . . God appears as an invincible tyrant, the being in contrast with whom all other beings are without freedom and subjectivity. . . . This is the god Nietzsche said had to be killed because nobody can tolerate being made into the mere object of absolute power. This is the deepest root of atheism." The God not above God is the Jewish image of God divorced from anthropomorphic aspects. He does not state this, but it is clear it is what he means. He speaks of Bergson's fight against the tyranny of spacial relationships. He states elsewhere in the chapter that: " The God above God is present, although hidden, in every devine-human encounter. Biblical religion, as well as Protestant theology are aware of the paradoxical character of this encounter." If one removes the anthropomorphic elements from the Old Testament God the result is how Albert Einstein describes the Jewish God: "The Jewish God is nothing more than the negation of superstition." This would of course be the combination of natural law and spacial relationships. Einstein goes on to say that the rest of God is imagination. Therefore, the God Tillich rejects is the physical laws and spacial relationships before which subjectivity is absurd in that it is simply a form of self-deception to be unaware of the laws which will, aware or un-aware, be obeyed. Therefore the individual as a subjectivity-having being is of necessity based upon ignorance. Keat's line "A thing of beauty is a joy forever" would be impossible were the God as natural law and spacial relationships embraced in a pure form. The "thing" would simply be a mass of some specific gravity, of
a particular set of dimensions, a given distance from the observer and so forth. Much of current Jewish theological argument is about this same point, rationalism (man is a part of a giant machine and everything else is self-deception) as opposed to the combination of the rationalst view with one of the universe of possible self-deceptions the view personified by Abraham's argument with God concerning the destruction of Sodom and the selecter of the Jewish people as chosen. The implication of Tillich's argument is also that visualization of God such as the One who argues with Abraham or selects a people is simply a form of self deception, one of the universe of forms of self deception which needs be employed or some other form substituted. Abraham argues with God, and it seems to make sense in the Bible. It would make no sense if anyone argued with gravity or that gravity selected one group over another. The Jews would be, as implied by the quote from Einstein, be more vulnerable to this need for self deception simply because persons of other groups would be more removed from the God of natural law and spacial relationships. It is part of the human condition, not at all unique to Judaism, but it would be subject to amplification among Jews because Judaism is a more mechanistic and therefore more efficient view of the universe. Being more efficient and therefore potentially more powerful, there would be greater opportunity for Jews to engage in behaviors which might create ill-feeling among others than would groups with less effieient mentalities. Tillich does not in any way say or imply that this is the only cause of self deception of course. Obviously, a realization of the true nature of the universe is necessary if great vulnerability is to be avoided. The acquiring of this realization without the need to find harmful self-deception is perhaps the greatest challange the world faces. Judaism has much to teach the world; it is time the world listened. Tillich points at least in the general direction of where the world needs to go, but he himself says that the correct balance between the subjective and the mechanistic is "Under the Cross."
Therefore, he, himself, points to the need for realization of combining a mechanistic core with a modifying but useful as opposed to harmful form of self deception, but does not embrace it. Tillish says that the purpose of the Christian clergy is to keep people from realizing the true, without self deception, relationship between man and the universe. He points to the road, but he will go no further.

Rating:
Summary: The spirit and the machine
Review: Tillich's book makes a number of points very clearly, but the
principal point of the book is obscured by round-about language.
In the last chaper Tillich speaks of the "God above God". He writes concerning the God who is not above God: "He deprives me of my subjectivity . . . God appears as an invincible tyrant, the being in contrast with whom all other beings are without freedom and subjectivity. . . . This is the god Nietzsche said had to be killed because nobody can tolerate being made into the mere object of absolute power. This is the deepest root of atheism." The God not above God is the Jewish image of God divorced from anthropomorphic aspects. He does not state this, but it is clear it is what he means. He speaks of Bergson's fight against the tyranny of spacial relationships. He states elsewhere in the chapter that: " The God above God is present, although hidden, in every devine-human encounter. Biblical religion, as well as Protestant theology are aware of the paradoxical character of this encounter." If one removes the anthropomorphic elements from the Old Testament God the result is how Albert Einstein describes the Jewish God: "The Jewish God is nothing more than the negation of superstition." This would of course be the combination of natural law and spacial relationships. Einstein goes on to say that the rest of God is imagination. Therefore, the God Tillich rejects is the physical laws and spacial relationships before which subjectivity is absurd in that it is simply a form of self-deception to be unaware of the laws which will, aware or un-aware, be obeyed. Therefore the individual as a subjectivity-having being is of necessity based upon ignorance. Keat's line "A thing of beauty is a joy forever" would be impossible were the God as natural law and spacial relationships embraced in a pure form. The "thing" would simply be a mass of some specific gravity, of
a particular set of dimensions, a given distance from the observer and so forth. Much of current Jewish theological argument is about this same point, rationalism (man is a part of a giant machine and everything else is self-deception) as opposed to the combination of the rationalst view with one of the universe of possible self-deceptions the view personified by Abraham's argument with God concerning the destruction of Sodom and the selecter of the Jewish people as chosen. The implication of Tillich's argument is also that visualization of God such as the One who argues with Abraham or selects a people is simply a form of self deception, one of the universe of forms of self deception which needs be employed or some other form substituted. Abraham argues with God, and it seems to make sense in the Bible. It would make no sense if anyone argued with gravity or that gravity selected one group over another. The Jews would be, as implied by the quote from Einstein, be more vulnerable to this need for self deception simply because persons of other groups would be more removed from the God of natural law and spacial relationships. It is part of the human condition, not at all unique to Judaism, but it would be subject to amplification among Jews because Judaism is a more mechanistic and therefore more efficient view of the universe. Being more efficient and therefore potentially more powerful, there would be greater opportunity for Jews to engage in behaviors which might create ill-feeling among others than would groups with less effieient mentalities. Tillich does not in any way say or imply that this is the only cause of self deception of course. Obviously, a realization of the true nature of the universe is necessary if great vulnerability is to be avoided. The acquiring of this realization without the need to find harmful self-deception is perhaps the greatest challange the world faces. Judaism has much to teach the world; it is time the world listened. Tillich points at least in the general direction of where the world needs to go, but he himself says that the correct balance between the subjective and the mechanistic is "Under the Cross."
Therefore, he, himself, points to the need for realization of combining a mechanistic core with a modifying but useful as opposed to harmful form of self deception, but does not embrace it. Tillish says that the purpose of the Christian clergy is to keep people from realizing the true, without self deception, relationship between man and the universe. He points to the road, but he will go no further.