The Courage to Be book club questions

1. 1.

   Tillich distinguishes existential anxiety from neurotic fear. Can you identify an anxiety in your own life that has the structural quality he describes — not fear of a specific thing but awareness of non-being?

2. 2.

   He says the 20th century is the age of meaninglessness. Is that still true in the 21st? What has changed, and what has not?

3. 3.

   The courage to be is not the denial of anxiety but its integration into self-affirmation. What would it mean to take your anxiety into yourself rather than fleeing it?

4. 4.

   Tillich argues that the 'God above the God of theism' is available even when conventional religious concepts have collapsed. Is that a genuine religious idea or a philosophical rescue operation?

5. 5.

   Absolute faith — the bare affirmation that one is accepted despite being unacceptable — is described as the deepest response to meaninglessness. What would that feel like?

6. 6.

   Neurotic anxiety is the refusal to face non-being, the shrinking of the self. Where in your life do you recognize that kind of shrinking?

7. 7.

   Tillich connects the book to his experience of Nazism — the collapse of the entire cultural and moral framework of a civilization. Does that historical context sharpen the argument?

8. 8.

   The courage to be as part and as oneself are presented as both necessary. How do you balance participation in community with the affirmation of your own individual being?

9. 9.

   The book argues that much of modern culture — conformism, totalitarianism, neurosis — is a flight from existential anxiety. Is that a useful diagnosis of contemporary culture?

10. 10.

    Tillich was a Protestant theologian who wrote in the language of existentialist philosophy. Is the religious content essential to the argument, or can it be stripped out?

11. 11.

    What would the courage to be look like as a daily practice in your own life?

How to run the discussion

• Pick six to eight, not all of them. An hour of real discussion covers fewer questions than anyone expects, and racing the list is what makes a book club feel like homework.
• Open with what people noticed, not what they concluded. Asking for a verdict first hardens opinions before anyone has heard each other.
• Let the disagreement run. The questions below that split a room are the ones worth the time; the ones everyone answers the same way can be skipped.
• Ask the quiet person a specific question. A direct, narrow question is far easier to answer than an open invitation to contribute.