| Columbia University
in the City of New York (Details anzeigen)^a
[NEW YORK (Details anzeigen)^b 27, N. Y. (Details anzeigen)^c]
EXECUTIVE SECRETARY OF EARL HALL

Dear Professor Tillich (Details anzeigen)^d,

My congratulations and sincerest best wishes are extended to you on the occasion of your sixtieth birthday. I realize how much you think of this as an event of special importance. It is my earnest wish that it may carry with it a richness of blessing.

I believe this occasion can be used to express my deepest gratitude to you for your contributions to my life. Your lectures and theological formulations, your interpretation of the history of Philosophy of Religion, and your profound sermons – – all these and many other specific instances have revealed your depth of penetrating insight and the incomparable background of understanding and wisdom which you signify for me. I am, of course, humbled by my gross inability in using your constant guidance in a manner comparable to its worth. I often fear that in my desire to use your methodology I do it real injustice. I am, nevertheless, deeply grateful for its having so clearly set forth to me.

Your contribution to theological thought in America (Details anzeigen)^e is beyond measuring. I am convinced that it is a very real and far-reaching contribution. The recent war, and what it signified, brought you to us; we are grateful for that, and your coming represents a „good“ which has come about because of the struggle in recent years, which may be the one and only „good.“

May your sixtieth birthday be a happy one, and I trust that it will indicate anew your continuing role in our community, as one of our greatest teachers, and as a scholar whom we are grateful to in America (Details anzeigen)^f.

Professor Paul Tillich (Details anzeigen)^h,
Box 1419
Easthampton (Details anzeigen)ⁱ, New York (Details anzeigen)^j