The Irrelevance and Relevance of the Christian Message:

"God is greater than the religion in which God is manifest." With this sentence, Paul Tillich summarizes his position that much of Christianity in its present form is irrelevant to the essence of Christianity and its worth to modern Christians. In intelligent, thoughtful arguments, Tillich acknowledges the existential emptiness of modernism and proposes that preachers and ministers employ the ideals of Christian agape (unconditional love) and grace to fill the gap--but in novel and daring ways instead of dull, traditionalist methods. Tillich was one of the great theologians of his time, and it is interesting to read his words in this publication, decades after they were written as a lecture series, and judge how successfully Christianity has responded to his admonishments.