Book Review
Paul Tillich First-Hand: A Memoir of the Harvard
Years. By Grace Cali. Chicago: Exploration Press, 1996. 123
pages.
Published thirty years after
Tillich’s death, Paul Tillich First Hand is Grace Calí’s attempt to
offer a personal portrait of the famous theologian to stand in contrast with
his controversial portrayal by Hannah Tillich. It also serves to complete
the effort of Wilhelm and Marion Pauck to relate Tillich’s theology with his
life. Calí accomplishes this through carefully chosen and beautifully
written personal encounters which draw out important theological themes and
demonstrate the complex character of this great theologian.
Grace Calí served as Tillich’s
secretary throughout his seven year appointment as University Professor at
Harvard University. While their relationship began as one of
employer-employee, Tillich and Calí eventually enjoyed a close relationship
as mentor-mentee, colleagues, and friends. Though limited in its
biographical scope, this memoir focusing on Tillich’s years at Harvard is
able to provide a robust picture of the theologian. Calí’s first-hand
knowledge of Tillich as a person, combined with her deep familiarity with
his thought, gives the reader a welcome insight into some of the
biographical grounding of this theological system.<>
Tillich embodied his method of
correlation, constantly engaging current events and new streams of thought.
He encouraged his students to engage reality, himself diving into
existentialist art and psychoanalysis in order to determine the questions
being asked about life which would need theological answers. The result is
that his theology is historically rooted, responsive to the times in which
he found himself. Calí also recounts his involvement in social issues like
the movement opposed to nuclear testing as stemming from the existential
nature of his theology.
Calí witnessed Tillich’s
struggle to be accepted by the philosophical faculty of Harvard University
and his frustration and disappointment at being misunderstood by both
theological and philosophical students. She recounts his weariness and
depression after a harsh review of his book Dynamics of Faith by a
Harvard philosophy student, commenting that “these are the students I really
want to reach” (9). Later on in the same day he remarked that he was tired
of theology and desired to do something else. Such angst over being
properly understood and accepted seemed to continue throughout the time Calí
knew him.
Tillich is portrayed by Calí as
a bit naïve, bemused, and flattered by the fame he found himself enjoying
during his Harvard years. Demonstrating Tillich’s lack of understanding of
the demands and honor of fame, Calí describes his reaction to receiving an
invitation to the inauguration of President Kennedy. Tillich first remarked
that he could not attend due to his teaching schedule, but was prevailed
upon by Calí and Dean Jerry Brauer to change his mind. In a later story,
Calí shares her conversation with Tillich on his feelings about his
celebrity status. He confided that the celebrity Paul Tillich was a
stranger, saying, “it’s not really me. I am two persons. And the one has
nothing to do with the other” (59). This famous Paul Tillich was a
curiosity, but to identify with him would be to lose his true self.
Mentioned throughout the book,
but explored closely in one chapter is Tillich’s growing engagement with and
appreciation of world religions in the later years of his life. Calí marks
his willingness to adjust his description of his theological work from
engaging the symbols of Christianity to the symbols of religion more
generally, a sign of the importance he felt engagement with the world
religions held. She also records his frustration at not being able to
devote the time needed to truly understand other religions as well as his
delight in meeting with Japanese Zen Master Shinichi Hisamatsu and learning
more about Zen Buddhism. Reflecting on a panel which both participated in,
she notes that the two “seemed to be speaking the same language” even while
embodying contrasting elements of Eastern serenity and Western controlled
tension (73).
Calí does not shy away from
examining Tillich’s personal life, including his marriage to Hannah and
views on marriage and the relationship between men and women. These topics
are treated with great care and honesty. Without delving into what could be
hurtful personal details, she discusses the tension evident in Tillich’s
marriage and his struggle with the romantic and erotic sides of his nature.
Calí remarks that “Hannah’s open and persistently proclaimed atheism” as
well as the extramarital relationships of each seemed to create a marriage
consisting of “a series of shaky peace treaties” (14). This open approach
to the marriage relationship stemmed from Tillich’s abhorrence of the
possessive and legalistic character of American matrimony as well as
Tillich’s own belief that romance cannot survive in a marriage. Instead,
“limited romantic attachments” outside of marriage should be allowed in
order to nurture men and women’s creativity (13). The rigid separation
married men and women from the men and women outside of their marriage in
American culture frustrated Tillich and contributed to a feeling that one
partner in the marriage must wholly submit to the other.
There are moments when Calí
seems to descend into name dropping: highlighting the many famous people
Tillich was connected with and influenced. While it is undisputed that
Tillich’s friends and acquaintances were many and varied, including Eleanor
Roosevelt and Thomas Merton, Calí’s account of Tillich’s single encounter
with the folk singer Joan Baez leans toward exaggeration. After describing
an evening where the Boston University student had been invited to play
informally for Tillich and his friends, Calí records a conversation between
Baez and Tillich on the musician’s future plans. Hearing that she was torn
between finishing school or beginning her music career immediately, Tillich
advised her to “do only what in your deepest being you feel you must do”
(83). Calí then goes on to report that soon after this conversation Baez
left school to start singing professionally; implying that Tillich’s words
of wisdom provided the needed impetus for Baez’s career as musician and
activist.
As Tillich’s theology is
grounded in his personal experiences, this memoir, while limited in scope,
is very helpful in understanding Tillich as a person and in turn
understanding Tillich’s theology. Those looking for a detailed timeline of
his life will have to look elsewhere, but the portrait offered of Tillich is
a balanced one. His great openness and kind manner are recounted as are his
struggles with fame and marriage. Through this memoir, Calí does an
excellent job of showing that this theological genius was also as a true
human being marked both by common human failings and the extraordinary
capacity of humanity to embody grace.
Anne Hillman
Boston University
Fall 2010
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