Paulus: Reminiscences of a Friendship

This recent reading of the book was a second reading for me. I originally read it about 1984 or 1985 and was impressed with Tillich's capacity to juggle eros,philia, and agape. On the next to the last page of the book May has something attributed to Oedipus upon his death as what Tillich was an example of: "and yet one word frees us all of the weight and pain of life, that word is love." At the memorial service for Tillich on Pentecost, May read from a letter of Tillich: "we are given existence in time. The meaning of it is that we shall give meaning to these transitory hours in creation, joy, love, power. All this has an eternal dimension and a transitory, but it is not only transitory, and therefore it is worthy to be lived--in spite of [its transitoriness]." This is an excellent introduction to Tillich and his place in history.