Extended abstract
Paul Tillich, the twentieth-century existentialist theologian and philosopher, stands among those who sought to lead theology out of the confines of rigid dogmatic concepts toward an existential understanding of the sacred. For him, revelation is neither a metaphysical event nor a historical report of a divine message, but a fundamentally ontological reality - a question not about the existence or non-existence of a being called God, but about Being itself in the Heideggerian sense. From this perspective, revelation is no longer the transmission of analyzable propositions or doctrines; rather, it is the manifestation of the hidden, a momentary disclosure of the unconditional truth that becomes possible only within the depth of human existential experience.
Within this framework, the way human beings encounter the divine determines the destiny of that encounter. If one’s approach remains at an instrumental or objectifying level, revelation is reduced to an ontic phenomenon and is thereby emptied of meaning. In contrast, when the human subject transcends the boundaries of conditioned concepts and opens itself to the unconditional, revelation is realized as an event of ontological openness - not merely the communication of a message, but a transformation in the very mode of being.
Tillich also conceives the central problem of monotheistic religions in terms of their relation to “the Unconditional.” Throughout the history of thought, this reality has appeared under various names - the Idea of the Good, the Absolute Spirit, or the Ultimate Truth - yet it has always been threatened by idolatry, understood as the sanctification of material and historical determinations. Whenever humanity seeks to pour the Unconditional into finite and tangible forms, the danger of idol-making arises. For this reason, Tillich distinguishes between authentic monotheism and idolatrous tendencies: genuine monotheism is realized in transcending every finite form, whereas idolatry attempts to imprison the infinite within shape and matter.
Within this horizon, Tillich understands the finality of revelation in Jesus Christ not in a temporal or historical sense, but in a philosophical and essential one. Christ, in his view, represents the “final revelation” because he embodies within himself the negation of all spatial and temporal limitations - not implying that no revelation could occur before or after him, but that in his event, the very essence of revelation in its pure philosophical sense becomes manifest. Jesus becomes the Christ through his passage beyond the confines of individuality and corporeality, through a self-emptying that reveals divine being; idolatry, on the other hand, strives to deify that very finite person and to reduce the Unconditional once more to the conditional.
To articulate this understanding, Tillich turns to the concept of the symbol, which he sets in contrast to the sign. A sign merely indicates something beyond itself, while a symbol participates in the very reality it reveals. Religious language, therefore, is symbolic: its words, rituals, and even images are not passive instruments of reference but active participants in the expression of the sacred. Through this lens, faith itself becomes a symbolic act - an existential participation in ultimate meaning rather than mere assent to doctrinal propositions.
In this context, Tillich establishes a special affinity between revelation and art. Literature and art, especially in the twentieth century, have, through their existential orientation, opened new channels for symbolizing the divine. Art, in this sense, is not a direct representation of God but a language for the experience of the impossible - an attempt to articulate what cannot be contained within logical propositions. If revelation is the disclosure of truth, art, too, may be regarded as a revelatory event, since it unveils a hidden truth through sensory forms.
In his analyses of death, sin, anxiety, and salvation, Tillich shows that the existential dimensions of human life can be expressed only through symbolic language. Just as Dante in the Inferno dramatizes the structures of spiritual ruin through vivid imagery, or Kafka renders the anxiety of meaninglessness and guilt through allegorical narrative, the language of art does not state propositions but reveals experience. According to Tillich, when such images are taken literally, they become absurd; but when seen as symbols of existential truth, they lead us toward an understanding of the divine.
Thus, Tillich’s theology navigates a path between theological dogmatism and secular relativism. Against those who would reduce revelation to the language of science or logic, he insists that revelatory truth does not belong to the order of verifiable propositions. Yet he also resists those who dissolve the sacred into mere poetic metaphor. The symbolic language of religion is neither mere linguistic play nor empirical description; it constitutes a mode of discourse in which human existence encounters divine reality.
Consequently, art and literature, for Tillich, may serve as dwellings for the event of revelation, since they translate existential human experience into symbolic form. The experience of suffering, anxiety, guilt, or redemption within a work of art corresponds to what traditional theology calls the “manifestation of the holy.” Tillich perceives this kinship between aesthetic and religious experience as an opportunity to rethink theology itself - as a realm in which faith is not the acceptance of doctrinal systems but an existential response to the Unconditional. Ultimately, Tillich understands revelation not as an external or historical occurrence, but as an inner movement within human consciousness - a moment in which the hidden becomes manifest, though never confined within any final form. Art, literature, and the symbolic language of religion are all expressions of this unveiling. Revelation, in this sense, is the continuation of humanity’s primordial quest for meaning and truth. Hence, Tillich arrives at a theology that, while faithful to the monotheistic tradition, remains profoundly open to dialogue with the modern world - a theology that seeks revelation not beyond history, but in the very depths of human experience.