Abstract

This edition contains the correspondence between Paul Tillich and his friend Fedor Stepun, a sociologist and philosopher of religion. Tillich and Stepun had been colleagues at Technische Universität Dresden in the mid 1920s. The correspondence covers the period between 1934 and 1964. The early letters address the situation in Germany during the onset of National Socialism: the so-called Röhm-Putsch, the Kirchenkampf, the institutional changes in the university system and, later, the dismissal of Stepun as professor in Dresden in 1937. After a hiatus of several years, the correspondence continues in 1946. The correspondence shows the search for a new positioning in the postwar years, from the perspective of the émigré Paul Tillich and Stepun, the expert on Russia, who from Munich observed the political developments of the Cold War with great concern. Stepun consistently proves an acute critic of the political theologian Paul Tillich. In particular, Tillich's Christology and his program of religious socialism met with his friend's fierce criticism.