Philosophy
The Courage to Be
CevvelaPhilosophy
The Courage to Be
Paul Tillich · Say Yayınları · 1952
8
Cevvela Score
7.2 (867 oy)
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Summary
A theological and existentialist work that analyzes the three fundamental anxieties of modern man (anxiety about fate/death, anxiety about guilt/condemnation, and anxiety about meaninglessness/nothingness) and explains how man affirms his own existence despite all these anxieties—that is, despite nothingness.
Quotes from Cevvela
“Courage is affirming one’s own being in spite of nothingness.”
“Anxiety is a person’s confrontation with their own finitude; it is unavoidable.”
“The anxiety of meaninglessness is the deepest spiritual wound of the modern age.”
“A person must find the courage to exist not only as part of something, but also alone.”
“Doubt is not the enemy of faith but its most essential element.”
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Reader Score: 7.2 / 10(867 votes)
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Tillich digs into the dark depths of our fears and reveals the existential horror lying beneath. He argues that anxiety is not a psychological illness, but an ontological—that is, existential—reality. Courage is not the absence of fear; it is the ability to say “I Am” even when that nothingness, that meaninglessness, and that fear of death are still there. You come to realize that your everyday stresses or career worries are actually just noise invented to suppress that great fear of “nothingness.” To build oneself despite the meaninglessness is the most honorable cry a human being can hurl into the universe.