In my own case, it was not only Tillich plus Troeltsch with his sometime roommate Max Weber and Adams with his colleague George H. Williams who were influential, but also Walter Rauschenbusch's use
of the social analysis
of his day to restate
biblical themes; Reinhold Niebuhr's refutation in The Nature and Destiny
of Man
of Marx's, Kant's, Nietzsche's and Freud's understanding
of human nature; Talcott Parsons's systematic study
of the role
of religious values in The Structure
of Social Action; George Ernest Wright's exposition
of the Prophets; and Masatoshi Nagatomi's gentle introduction to Asian
modes of thought.
I shall try to show that this
mode of thinking illuminates our experience
of all love, and leads to a relevant interpretation
of the
biblical assertions about God and his revelation in Jesus Christ.