Commentary. Tillich's Theological History

Paul Tillich is one of the most representative religious philosophers andtheologians in contemporary western ideological trend of philosophy of religion, and histhoughts of systematic theology has achieved important academic value in20thcentury's Christian Theology. Domestic and International scholars have been doingdeep research into some important aspects of Tillich's systematic theology, comparedwith others, the research into the theological concept of history in his systematictheology is relatively less conducted. The theological concept of history is an importantconstituent part of Tillich's systematic theology, thus carding and interpretation of it ismeaningful and valuable, and it will also contribute to deeper comprehension andseizing of Tillich's whole theological thoughts. This paper discusses the influence ofevery period of Tillich's life and times background to the formation of his theologicalconcept of history; combs the main thoughts of his theological concepts of history,explores and analyses his theological concept of history, which has history and thekingdom of God as its core. Tillich's view of history based on theology is carried outalong a logical main line——the influence that historical consciousness has on history:historical consciousness determines historical events under the condition that it chooses,record and narrate historical events; historical consciousness is determined by historicalsubject which is not a single person, but a group. And historical group is determined bythe historical mission which has already existed since the first Man. God determines themission of history, thus it is God who determines the mission of historical group. So, theultimate aim of human is the kingdom of God.