Tillich’s Two Principles of Identity and Contradiction in His Early Period

It is well known that Paul Tillich was greatly influenced by F. W. J. Schelling. This is evident when we consider the fact that Tillich’s dissertations for the degrees he received from the University of Breslau and the University of Halle both dealt with Schelling’s philosophy. The second dissertation, “Mysticism and Guilt-Consciousness in Schelling’s Philosophical Development,” is especially important. In this dissertation, Tillich tried to understand Schelling’s philosophy from the viewpoints of mysticism and guilt-consiousness, that is, from the two principles of identity and contradiction. He recognized Schelling’s philosophyas the synthesis of these two principles. These viewpoints were not only Tillich’s interpretation of Schelling’s philosophy, but were also Tillich’s own concern. He accepted Schelling’s viewpoints in developing his systematic theology, which aimed to make a synthesis of these two principles. The purpose of this paper is to delineate these two principles and to demonstrate the synthesis of them mainly in Tillich’s second dissertation, which came to be an element in the background of Tillich’s theology.departmental bulletin pape