Overcoming Despair (Lichtenrade 1909)

Abstract This chapter considers Tillich’s first series of sermons in Lichtenrade (1909) when he was covering for a minister on secondment. It is a first glimpse of Tillich’s preaching immediately after graduation. Exhibiting none of the philosophical interest of his university work, Tillich produces intense and dark pietist sermons. Indeed, Tillich’s self-examining piety drove him to despair as he wrestled for assurance in preparation of his sermon for Sunday 31 May 1909. Abandoning a first draft, Tillich rewrites the sermon and speaks for the first time about Christ meeting the doubting sinner in the darkness of despair with a message of double grace: You need do nothing, you need not hold anything to be true. This crisis is characterized as a breakthrough, and first evidence of the justification of the doubter.