Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T17:04:14.425Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Two Ontologies of Power: A Comparison of Santayana and Tillich

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2011

W. Richard Comstock
W. Richard Comstock
Affiliation:
University of California at Santa Barbara
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The positions of George Santayana and Paul Tillich disclose remarkable strands of congruent concern and approach. In spite of obvious differences in temperament and philosophical heritage, both thinkers see their philosophies as the culmination of traditional perspectives in Western thought and also as modern criticisms of them. Neither thinker is interested in a radical originality of thought severed from its roots in the past. Both rather want to formulate a general philosophy of culture that is eclectic in the best sense of that abused word.

Working independently of each other, both finally focus theirattention on a similar concern that they see operating in the tradition and which is considered by them to have a continuing importance in the present. This is the problem of power and the appropriate human response to its manifestations. The intriguing features of agreement and disagreement in this common exploration are examined in the present essay.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 60 , Issue 1 , January 1967 , pp. 39 - 67
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1967

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Santayana, George, Realms of Being (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1942), 833Google Scholar, hereinafter Realms; Reason in Religion (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1905), 134, hereinafter Religion.

2 Tillich, Paul, Biblical Faith and the Search for Ultimate Reality (London, James Nisbet and Co., 1955), 6f.Google Scholar

3 Tillich, , Systematic Theology, 3 vols. (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1951, 1957, 1963), I, 238–41Google Scholar; hereinafter S.T.

4 Realms, 853. Cf. Santayana, , Scepticism and Animal Faith (New York, Dover Publications, 1955), viGoogle Scholar; hereinafter Scepticism.

5 Santayana, , The Letters of George Santayana, ed. Cory, Daniel (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1955), 27Google Scholar; hereinafter Letters.

6 Tillich, , Love, Power, and Justice (New York, Oxford University Press, 1954), 23f.Google Scholar; hereinafter Love.

7 Realms, xxviii; Love, 35.

8 Realms, 834.

9 Santayana, , Reason in Common Sense (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1905), 77Google Scholar; hereinafter Common Sense. Santayana, , A General Confession, The Philosophy of George Santayana, ed. Schilpp, Paul Arthur (Chicago, Northwestern University, 1940), 8Google Scholar; hereinafter Confession.

10 Love, 37f.

11 S.T., I, 163–68.

12 Ibid., 163.

13 Smart, J. C. C., The Existence of God, New Essays in Philosophical Theology, ed. Flew, Anthony and Macintyre, Alastair (London, S. C. M. Press, 1955), 46.Google Scholar

14 Tillich, , Courage to Be (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1952), 40–54Google Scholar; hereinafter Courage.

15 Love, 37.

16 Scepticism, 37, 48.

17 Santayana, , Ultimate Religion, Obiter Scripta, ed. Buchler, Justus and Schwarz, Benjamin (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1936), 284fGoogle Scholar. Volume is hereinafter Scripta.

18 Santayana, Apologia Pro Mente Sua, The Philosophy of George Santayana, ed. Paul Arthur Schilpp, 509, hereinafter Apologia; Dominations and Powers (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1951), 8; Realms, 206.

19 Realms, 838.

20 Confession, 24.

21 Santayana, , Review of Jules Martin, Saint Augustin, Philosophical Review 10 (1901), 515–26CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Reprinted with modifications in Reason in Religion, Chap. IX.

22 Religion, 156.

23 Ibid., 156–61.

24 Ibid., 166; cf. 163f.

25 Santayana, A Long Way Round to Nirvana, Some Turns of Thought in Modern Philosophy (Cambridge, At the University Press, 1933), 92; hereinafter Some Turns.

26 Religion, 137, 176.

27 Apologia, 588.

28 Some Turns, 92.

29 Religion, 162.

30 Santayana, The Life of Reason, one-volume edition, revised by the author in collaboration with Daniel Cory (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1954), 194; Interpretations of Poetry and Religion (New York, Harper Torchbooks, n.d.), 54, hereinafter Interpretations.

31 Religion, Ch. X.

32 Ultimate Religion, in Scripta, 290, 291.

33 Realms, 814.

34 Ibid., 191.

35 Ibid., 759.

36 Interpretations, 72; Realms, 840.

37 Realms, 578.

38 Ibid.

39 Realms, 845; S.T., I, 79.

40 Realms, 848; Scepticism, 192.

41 Realms, 847.

42 Ibid., 850.

43 Ibid., 846.

44 Ibid., 839.

45 Tillich, , The Two Types of Philosophy of Religion, Theology of Culture, ed. Kimball, Robert (New York, Oxford University Press, 1959), 11.Google Scholar

46 Ibid.

47 Scepticism, 201f.

48 Santayana, The Unknowable, Scripta, 170; My Host the World (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1953), 40.

49 Realms, 191.

50 Apologia, 508.

51 Two Types, 12–16.

52 S.T., II, 6.

53 Ibid., 7.

54 Otto, Rudolf, The Idea of the Holy, trans. Harvey, John W. (New York, Oxford University Press, 1950), Chaps. IV–VI.Google Scholar

55 Love, 110f.

56 Santayana, Dewey's Naturalistic Metaphysics, The Journal of Philosophy 22(1925), 688.

57 Dewey, John, “Half-Hearted Naturalism,” The Journal of Philosophy 24 (1927), 57–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

58 The Unknowable, in Scripta, 170; Santayana, Spirit in the Sanctuary, The American Scholar 33(1963–64), 22.

59 S.T., I, 178–82.

60 Courage, 20.

61 ST., I, 165.

62 ST., I, 204.

63 New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1946.

64 Tillich, Christianity without Paul, The Nation 18(1946), 163.

65 Realms, 759.

66 Ibid., 757–67.

67 Common Sense, 250. M5.

68 S.T., II, 118f.

69 Realms, 824.

70 Realms, xviii.

71 Courage, 9.

72 Ibid., 12f.

73 Ibid., 16.

74 Ibid.

75 Santayana, , Three Philosophical Poets (New York, Doubleday Anchor Books, 1953), 36f.Google Scholar

76 Santayana, , The Middle Span (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1945), 177Google Scholar; Letters, 305.

77 Courage, i.

78 S.T., I, 241–89; III, passim.

79 Scharleman, Robert P., Tillich's Method of Correlation: Two Proposed Revisions, Journal of Religion 46(1966), no. I, part II, 92–103CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Tillich's Rejoinder on p. 186 of the same Journal.

80 Love, Ch. II.

81 Ibid., 48.

82 S.T., I, 174–86.

83 S.T., III, 30.

84 Ibid., 30–110.

85 S.T., I, 242.

86 Ibid., 256.

87 Ibid., 251.

88 Ibid., 250.

89 Augustine: Early Writings, selected and trans. John H. S. Burleigh (Philadelphia, The Westminster Press, 1953), 183.

90 Tillich, Theology of Culture, 118.

91 Confession, 7.

92 Scepticism, 171.

93 Santayana, , Persons and Places (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1944), 172.Google Scholar

94 Apologia, 605.

95 James, William, The Will to Believe (New York, Dover, 1956), 44.Google Scholar

96 Realms, 838.

97 Love, 23.

98 Two Types, 26.

99 S.T., I, 269.

100 Ibid., 270.

101 Ibid.

102 S.T., III, 50–57.

103 Love, 113.

104 Dewey, , A Common Faith (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1934).Google Scholar

105 Love, 113; Santayana, , Reason in Science (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1906), 217.Google Scholar