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Religion as a living experience does not ask the question of its own future. It is only interested in its content, the eternal and people's relation to it. Religion cannot imagine any past or future in which man has lived or will live without an ultimate concern, i.e., without religion. Vertical and horizontal are spatial metaphors for qualities of people's religious experience. "Vertical" points to the eternal in its presence as the ground of people's being and the ultimate meaning of their lives. It points to people's ability to elevate themselves over the inescapable anxiety of finitude and over the destructive despair of guilt, in their personal and social existence. "Horizontal" points to the transforming power of the eternal whenever it manifests itself. It is the prophetic fight for social justice and personal righteousness, the struggle against the structures of evil in our souls and our communities, the work for the formation of men and the world.

Paul Tillich nastoji ovim djelom problematizirati vlastito viđenje odnosa filozofije i teologije. Njegov pokušaj i originalni doprinos izgradnji teologijskog sistema u tom smislu svakako je prepoznat kao jedan od najutjecajnijih. Tillich zastupa tezu kako su filozofijski koncepti neophodni za teologijsko istraživanje. Pritom je ujedno riječ o obrani njegova stajališta u kojem smatra neprirodnim razdvajati filozofiju od teologije. U svome djelu Tillich polemizira s Barthom i njegovim učenicima koji su izbjegavali upliv filozofije u teologiju. Nasuprot tomu, Tillich pokazuje da na pitanja koja postavlja filozofija, teologija nudi i na njih nastavlja svoje odgovore. Tako se dvije disciopline isprepliću i jedna na drugu upućuje u čemu je i bit Tillichove filozofijske teologije. Tom cilju Tillich posvećuje većinu svoje akademske karijere. Budući je Tillichov teologijski projekt u Hrvatskoj umnogome nepoznat, ovaj bi prijevod predstavljao značajan znanstveni doprinos razumijevanju odnosa dvaju disciplina, kao i njihovih suvremenih tendencija.

This volume contains hitherto unknown lectures held by the Protestant philosopher and theologian Paul Tillich (1886 1965) during the first years of his exile at several universities. The lectures are on the Philosophy of Religion (1934), Introduction into Existential Philosophy (1934) andthe Doctrine of Man (1934 35). They document the difficult attempt of a German scholar to explain his thought, which was rooted in the philosophy of German idealism, to an American academic audience."