SOURCE: “An Assesment Reassessed: Paul Tillich on the Reformation,” in Journal of Religion, Vol. 63, No. 4, October, 1983, pp. 376-393.

In the essay below, Lindbeck discusses Tillich's conception of the Reformation and how it applies to modern theories of thought such as existentialism and psychology.

Forty-six years ago Paul Tillich wrote an article for the American Journal of Sociology on the question of whether the Reformation has a future.¹ It was later republished in The Protestant Era,² where generations of theology students have since encountered it. Together with various other of Tillich's writings, it will serve well as a starting point for reflections on the Reformation in this celebratory decade of the 1980s which began with the 450th anniversary of the Augsburg Confession and now continues with the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther's birth.

One reason for using Tillich as a stimulus for thinking about the future of the Reformation...