Why the God of traditional religion might be the root of modern atheism.

Ideas & Philosophy · Published 29 September 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Paul Tillich, a titan of 20th-century theology, argued that defining God as a supreme being actually fuels modern despair. By treating the divine as an object to be known or controlled, traditional theism inadvertently turns God into a tyrant, prompting the very existential revolt that defines our age.

Born in 1886, Paul Tillich was a German-American philosopher and theologian who survived the trenches of World War I, an experience that left him shattered and deeply attuned to the anxieties of human existence. After being dismissed from his post at the University of Frankfurt in 1933 for his opposition to the Nazi movement, he moved to the United States, where he taught at institutions including Union Theological Seminary and Harvard. His magnum opus, the three-volume Systematic Theology (1951–1963), sought to reconcile Christian faith with the existentialist critique of the modern world.

Tillich’s central critique targeted what he called 'theological theism'—the tendency to view God as a 'highest being' among other beings. He argued that this approach is fundamentally flawed because it forces God into the subject-object dichotomy, turning the divine into an object of knowledge. When God is treated as a being who knows and controls everything, the human subject feels reified, or reduced to a mere thing. Tillich posited that this model of an 'invincible tyrant' is precisely what Nietzsche meant when he declared that God must be killed; it is the deepest root of modern atheism and existential rebellion.

Instead, Tillich proposed that God should be understood as 'being-itself' or the 'ground of being.' This is not a supernatural entity, but the inexhaustible power that empowers all existence. In moments of radical doubt, when the traditional God of theism seems to disappear, Tillich argued that the 'God above God' remains. This is the power of being that allows for the affirmation of meaning even within meaninglessness. By moving beyond literalistic definitions, Tillich believed that religious symbols could once again point toward the ultimate mystery, offering a way to confront the anxiety of finitude that defines the human condition.

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