Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• mohammad elkhani
• seyyed mehdi mir hashemi esfahlan

Abstract

Paul Tillich (1886-1965) is a German-American Christian theologian
who suggests that language of religion is symbolic; it means that the
realm of the religion is full of religious symbols. These symbols have
properties which empower them to express the religious believes and
purposes. One of the symbols properties is representation; i.c. similar
to signs. they refer to something beyond. But symbols (unlike signs
which are arbitrary and conventional things) are grown from the
collective unconscious, and participate in transcendent power and
concept of the symbolic object.
The religious symbols appear in different forms such as objects,
persons and natural events, and only their capacity for religious
situation gives them symbolic meaning. Therefore, to affirm the
original of religious symbols in referring to the Transcendent. They
must be negated in finite meaning.

Keywords

• Paul Tillich
• symbolic language
• religious symbols
• affirmation and negation
• representation
• Participation