Love, Power, and Justice: Ontological Analyses and Ethical Applications (Galaxy Books)

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Summary: Interesting and exciting blend of philosophy and theology
Review: Calvin O. Schrag (emeritus, Purdue University), while a graduate student at Harvard in the 1950s, was Paul Tillich's assistant. He humorously observed that Tillich was considered by some narrow-minded academics to be a "thinker, not a philosopher." _Love, Power, and Justice_, now celebrating its 50th birthday from original publication, is a short volume that integrates Tillich's passions in philosophy, especially existential thought, and Christian theology. The result is in an exciting synthesis of strands of 20th century thought.

I had long desired to do a careful read of this text, so I assigned it to my Ethics class. We went through it, chapter by chapter, and discussed the relevance of each of the volume's three major concepts to our core course concepts: philosophy, critical thinking, freedom, responsibility, and political justice. I believe that the text served its purpose quite well, and would use it again in a course. Teaching it gave me a deeper insight into the mind of Tillich as well as the important ethical concepts of love, power, and justice.

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Summary: Tillich Weighs in on Love
Review: This preeminent 20th century Christian theologian argues in this small book that love, power and justice all imply an ontology and must be understood in aspects of being itself. It is in this book that he famously defines love as "the drive toward the unity of the separated" (25). He also refers to love as the moving power of life and believes all love includes qualities of eros and agape.

Tillich does not believe that one can speak of self-love in anything more than a metaphorical sense. After all, if love is the drive toward the reunion of the separated, it is difficult to speak meaningfully of self-love.

In his exposition of the nature of power Tillich notes that love is the foundation, not the negation, of power. Love is the ultimate principle of justice, although justice preserves what love unites. "The basic assertion about the relation of God to love, power and justice is made, if one says that God is Being-itself" (109). However, everything that one says about Being-itself, must be said symbolically.