Ontological courage versus dualism: The relationship of philosophy and theology in the thought of Paul Tillich

• Main Author: Ayubo, Anthony Ben
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2009
• Subjects: Philosophy and religion; Dualism; God—Proof, Ontological; Philosophy; Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_doctoral/283; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/etd_doctoral/article/1282/filename/0/type/additional/viewcontent/CDTG004744_F.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

In reality, philosophy and theology are related but a dualistic thinking sees the two as separated. Their relationship is manifested in all human constructs and activities and there are certain phenomena wherein it is highlighted such as atheism, theism and atheistic theology. These three, however, function in the dualistic mould. Atheism uses the conflicting process and comes up with the antagonistic kind of relationship. Theism and atheistic theology use synthesizing process and come up with the subservient and compromised relationships, respectively. Such relationships are inappropriate for philosophy and theology and bring with them many difficulties. Ontological courage is an alternative to dualism in that it considers the divergences and convergences of philosophy and theology but does not translate these into conflict or synthesis as in the polarity of magnetic poles. Philosophy and theology remains to be independent while being interdependent in a relationship. There is the triad of (a) philosophy, (b) theology, and (c) the relationship between philosophy and theology where the third (c) does not get synthesized into labels such as philotheology or theo-philosophy. Instead of definite labels or clear designations, the relationship is better described in a constellation of terms to avoid any dualistic translation. These descriptions are derived from ontological courage while continually listening to, and avoiding the difficulties, of inappropriate relationships.