The Inward Moment - Paul Tillich, Psychoanalysis, and Liberal Christianity in American Thought, 1945-1965

Aug 21, 2026

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Standing at the intersection of intellectual history, religious history, and the history of psychology, this dissertation examines the German-American Protestant theologian Paul Tillich (1886-1965) and the encounter between religion and psychoanalysis in American thought after the Second World War. Tillich appears as a public intellectual and mediator between liberal Protestant ministry and therapeutic professions, especially psychoanalysis. The study traces his Freudian and existentialist theological adaptations, his critiques of secular depth psychology, and the development of his psychoanalytic criticism of religious moralism. It also analyzes dialogues with secular psychotherapists, the complexity of his inner life, and his impact on pluralist and post-Protestant religious trends, within an “inward moment” shaped by postwar America.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages352

Reading Time14 h 47 min

AccessFree to download

Prologue, 1920: Sigmund Freud and Paul Tillich in the Aftermath of War

Introduction: The Inward Moment

Chapter One: Protestantism, Psychotherapy, and the Cure of Souls

Chapter Two: The Meaning of Anxiety

Chapter Three: Love’s Strange Work

Chapter Four: AnAggiornamento for Protestants

Coda: The End of the Inward Moment

Bibliography

© 2019 Charles Emerson Riggs ALL RIGHTS RESERVED THE INWARD MOMENT: PAUL TILLICH, PSYCHOANALYSIS, AND LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY IN AMERICAN THOUGHT, 1945-1965 By CHARLES EMERSON RIGGS A dissertation submitted to the School of Graduate Studies Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in History Written under the direction of T.J. Jackson Lears And approved by | | | --- | | | | | New Brunswick, New Jersey October 2019 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION The Inward Moment: Paul Tillich, Psychoanalysis, and Liberal Christianity in American Thought, 1945-1965 Dissertation Director: T.J. Jackson Lears Standing at the intersection of intellectual history, religious history, and the history of psychology, this dissertation examines the German-American Protestant theologian Paul Tillich (1886-1965) and, through him, the encounter between religion and psychoanalysis in American thought after the Second World War. Tillich was a public intellectual, a minor academic celebrity, and a broker in the midtwentieth-century rapprochement between the liberal Protestant ministry and the therapeutic helping professions, especially psychoanalysis. Tillich incorporated Freudian and existentialist insights about human nature into his theological outlook while also offering sharp critiques of depth psychology in its purely secular forms. In successive chapters, this dissertation details Tillich’s psychoanalytic critique of religious moralism, his dialogues with secular psychotherapists, his complex and tumultuous inner life, and his influence on pluralist and post-Protestant religious trends that emerged during his later years. Throughout, I aim to portray Tillich’s biography as well as his theological and psychological thought against the backdrop of his intellectual milieu in post-World War II America, an environment that I label the “inward moment.” Dedication To my mother, sister, and ex-wife TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract of Dissertation ii Dedication iii Table of Contents iv Prologue, 1920: Sigmund Freud and Paul Tillich in the Aftermath of War 1 Introduction: The Inward Moment 15 Chapter One: Protestantism, Psychotherapy, and the Cure of Souls 32 Chapter Two: The Meaning of Anxiety 99 Chapter Three: Love’s Strange Work 167 Chapter Four: AnAggiornamento for Protestants 260 Coda: The End of the Inward Moment 323 Bibliography 336 PROLOGUE, 1920: SIGMUND FREUD AND PAUL TILLICH IN THE AFTERMATH OF WAR Psychoanalysis and theology represent two distinct modes – sometimes rivalrous, potentially complimentary – of reckoning with the inevitable disasters of human existence, the conflicts of the inner life, and the anxiety of having to die. It isnot surprising that the experience of war should have shaped their separate development or played a role in fostering the significant and underappreciated dialogue that has gone on between them. The First World War marked a turning point in the thought of the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, as well as in that of the twentieth century’s most creative Protestant theologian, Paul Tillich. The two men, to be sure, belonged to different generations and experienced the Great War from radically different vantages. Freud, a fifty-eight-year-old Viennese Jewish neurologist, had already founded the psychoanalytic movement and become an international celebrity when hostilities between the European powers broke out in 1914. Tillich, the twenty-eight-year-old son of a Lutheran clergyman from Eastern Prussia, was an unknown in public life who had recently received doctorates in theology and philosophy, presided ineffectually over a working-class parish in Berlin, and married the daughter of a family friend. Freud remained in Vienna during the war, tending to his patients, managing his family affairs through wartime scarcity, and worrying over the fate of his two so

FAQs

What central topic does the dissertation investigate?

It investigates Paul Tillich’s encounter with psychoanalysis and how, after World War II, religion and psychoanalysis intersected in American thought through Tillich’s work.

How does the dissertation describe Tillich’s relationship to psychoanalysis?

It portrays Tillich as incorporating Freudian and existentialist insights into his theology while also offering critiques of purely secular depth psychology.

What does the dissertation mean by the “inward moment”?

It uses “inward moment” to label the post-World War II American intellectual environment in which Tillich’s biography and theological-psychological ideas are analyzed.

Aug 21, 2026

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