Week 4 – Cobb Chapter 4

Tillich’s conception of “the two poles of the holy” and the related analysis of ontological and moral faith makes one wonder how those elements relate to the Christian understanding of “law” and “grace.” In particular, it seems noteworthy to reflect upon how Cobb describes culture’s criticism of institutionalized religion: an appeal to moral faith is used to reject religious hypocrisy, and an appeal to ontological faith is used to reject the overemphasis on sin and underemphasis on “abundant living.” It seems that the poles of “grace” and “law” could be used in similar veins. And in both cases each element “is in need of the counterbalancing effect of the other.”