SOURCE: “The Decline and the Validity of the Idea of Progress,” in Ohio University Review, Vol. 8, 1966, pp. 5-22.

In the following essay, Tillich discusses the notion of progress as concept, symbol, and idea, linking it to his conception of kairoi or “great moments.”

This lecture was delivered as one in the series of Edwin and Ruth Kennedy Lectures at Ohio University on May 19th, 1964. At the time, Professor Tillich granted The Ohio University Review the right to print the lecture after revision. A tape was made of the lecture and the transcript of it was edited by Professor Stanley Grean of the Philosophy Department of Ohio University. Tillich made some revisions of this but had not completed them at the time of his death. The lecture as it appears here is based on this text as found among his papers and first printed earlier this year in Paul...