Courage to Be 2

The next paragraph after my previous quote from Tillich goes as follows,

There should be no question of what Christian theology has to do in this situation. It should decide for truth against safety, even if the safety is consecrated and supported by the churches. Certainly there is a Christian conformism, from the beginning of the churches. Certainly there is a Christian collectivism - or at least semi-collectivism, in several periods of Church history.

But this should not induce Christian theologians to identify Christian courage with the courage to be as a part. They should realize that the courage to be as oneself is the necessary corrective to the courage to be as a part - even if they rightly assume that neither forms of the courage to be give the final solution.

I know how hard it is to give up the "courage to be as a part." However, one must never assume that this courage - to be as a part - brings one closer to God, and that the the courage to be as oneself, takes one away from God.

More later from this text.