Abstract

Broadly speaking, this dissertation demonstrates that the concept of nonbeing plays a role of fundamental importance in Tillich's thought. Specifically, we make the argument that one cannot fully understand Tillich's onto-logy , unless one first understands the concept and role of nonbeing. ;Employing an analytic-historical method in Chapters I-III, we ask: "Conceptually, what kind of being must we attribute to nonbeing?" In Chapter I, we observe nonbeing as a root metaphor for our late 20th century. In Chapter II, we describe and unpack Tillich's meaning of nonbeing as an existential concept, manifest in the immediate awareness of negativity, only to be understood in dialectical relationship with being. And in Chapter III, we analyze how nonbeing takes a subtle shift--from playing a rather pejorative role in Tillich's early works , to later playing a more positive role . The basic expression of this shift--though never final--can be located in the mid-1920s, as Tillich comes to a "deeper" understanding of kairos--placing nonbeing within the dynamic, ontological framework of God as Being-Itself. ;Employing a constructive-conjectural method in Chapters IV-VI, we further illuminate the concept of nonbeing by demonstrating how it functions--that is, what its role is in Tillich's thought--by constructively relating nonbeing to three theological loci: Nonbeing and the Human Being; Nonbeing and the New Being; and Nonbeing and Being-Itself. Conjectural considerations come into play as we seek to understand why Tillich continues, throughout his entire corpus, to shift between nonbeing as Nichts and Nichtsein--key to his fundamental theological problem: the relation of the grounding absolute, which is assumed in the idea of God, and of relative change, which belongs to modern experience. ;In conclusion, we argue that being and nonbeing are relative absolutes, relative to or "within" the absolute Spirit of Life or Being-Itself. And although nonbeing is to be seen as subordinate to Being-Itself, it serves as its continual driving force in dialectical relation to being-- "both" in the world and in the womb of God. And thus: "Nothing lasts forever."