of his writings to date. This philosophical series--now numbering
eight volumes--has met with universal acclaim. The editors of the
present series gladly acknowledge their debt to Professor Schilpp,
not only for the general plan of the volumes, but also for valuable
criticism and friendly advice in planning this series. Our aim, quite
simply, is to do for present-day theology what he has done and is
continuing to do so well for philosophy.

A note on the use of the word "theology" is in order. In the Chris-
tian tradition "theology" has usually meant dogmatic theology, that
is, a systematic account of God, man, immortality, and the like,
based either on the Bible (Biblical theology) or on the creedal
standards of a given church (Confessional theology). Within the
last fifty or seventy-five years, however, the term has been extended
to include the rather different theologies constructed by the
liberal theologians in the tradition of Schleiermacher and Ritschl--
theologies based not on authoritative revelations or Church coun-
cils, and thus "once for all delivered," but on changing human ex-
perience and even on empirical, scientific knowledge. In America
the leading representative of this empirical theology was probably
the late Douglas Clyde Macintosh; today it is being carried on in
a somewhat different way by Henry Nelson Wieman. For this liberal
"theology of religious experience," the term "theology" is not clearly
distinguishable from "philosophy of religion."

The Library of Living Theology will remain neutral on this issue
of terminology. For us "theology" will include theologies of both
types: subject and essayists will be selected from representatives
of both schools of thought, as well as from points of view which
cannot properly be ranged under one banner or the other. Paul Til-
lich, the subject of our first volume, is probably a good example
of the last-mentioned type of "subject." ¹

At this point the question may be asked, whether we intend to
confine ourselves to Christian theology, or perhaps to theology
within the Western Judaeo-Christian tradition. The answer to this
question is No. We begin with writers who stand firmly within this
tradition simply because they represent the most vigorous theological
thinking that is being done today. Quite apart from any natural
prejudices we Westerners may have, it is simply the case that out-
side the Western framework theology is almost dormant today, or at

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