PAUL TILLICH (1886 - 1965) holds a unique position among the thinkers of the twentieth century. A philosopher and theologian, he seeks to provide answers to the theoretical and practical problems of our time by uniting the tradition of Western thought: ancient Greek, Christian, and Western European.

The courage to be is the resistance to the anxiety of the fate of modern man, the reaction to the anxiety of death, to the anxiety of a lack of meaning, to the anxiety of guilt. Courage belongs to anyone who 'sees the abyss with the eyes of an eagle, anyone who with the claws of an eagle grasps the abyss,' anyone who rises above circumstances and transcends nothingness through participation in the divine essence.

In the appendix of this volume, the author's work 'Biblical Religion and the Demand for Ultimate Reality' is also included, as well as his two essays 'Philosophy and Theology' and 'Ethics in a Changing World.'