Structure

The book is structured in a successive order that correlated to the logical progression of the overall argument Tillich’s wants to build with regard to courage, existence, and anxiety. The first three chapters of the book outline a problem, i.e., the possibility of courage and the threat of nonbeing and anxiety. The final three chapters offer a piecemeal approach to addressing this problem, and the last chapter in particular offers a creative and original solution that is representative of Tillich’s own brand of melding philosophy and religious thought.

Each chapter within the book is itself structured like an argument, building to support the points and sub-points necessary to support Tillich’s larger claims. The chapter on being and courage, for example, considers courage in relation to other primary virtues to which it is correlated, while the chapter on anxiety outlines the several primary forms...