ABSTRACT
It is one of Tillich's deepest convictions as a theologian that philosophy has an indispensable role to play in 'systematic theology'. The method Tillich advocates and professes to adopt in his work as a 'systematic theologian' is the method of 'correlation'. Tillich's central doctrines of human finitude and estrangement are thus the products of a certain sort of analysis of experiences which human beings as such are alleged to have. No clear distinction can be drawn, in short, between philosophical anthropology and ontology: the 'analysis of the human situation' undertaken by the philosopher in the interest of the adequate formulation of 'existential questions' yields the sort of doctrine of man which is also a doctrine of being or existence as such. To sum up. Tillich's programme for a philosophical theology which will provide an alternative both to traditional 'theologies of revelation' and to traditional 'natural theologies' involves use of the 'method of correlation'.
