[52] has both an ultimate concern [and as ultimate as possible] under the powerful message of the Prophets, but at the same time, he has a concrete image for what concerns him ultimately: the living, very personal, very dynamic, very individualized God of the Old Testament. Now I hope you understand this seemingly cryptic statement that God^a is the SYMBOL of God. In this qualified sense, God is the fundamental and universal content of every religious act. Now let me give here a footnote, which belongs more to the philosophy of religion^b than to our immediate discussion about religious language. It is obvious that such an understanding of the meaning of "God^c" makes the discussion about the existence or non-existence of God meaningless, and I would say even blasphemous^d. It is meaningless to question the ultimacy^e of one's ultimate concern. This element in the idea of God is in itself certain. The symbolic EXPRESSION of this element varies endlessly through the whole history of mankind. Here again it would be meaning- less to ask whether one or another of the figures in which an ultimate concern is symbolized, does exist. If "EXISTENCE"--as the word indicates, and should indicate-- refers to something which can be found within the whole of reality, then no divine being does exist. In this sense I understand my friends and critics, the logical positivists^f, namely that they distinguish meaningless questions from meaningful ones. And I would say that the question "Does God exist, or does He not exist?" is a meaningless question and should be rejected as such. The question is: is a special symbol of our ultimate concern adequate?--to which degree, and perhaps FINALLY, adequate? The question is: which of the innumerable symbols^g of faith is most adequate to the MEANING of faith^h? In other words, which symbol of ultimacy expresses the ultimate without idolatrousⁱ distortion? THAT's the question. Which symbol of ultimate concern EXPRESSES the ultimate without idolatrous distortion? So we have changed from the one question (which has to be rejected as meaningless): "Does God exist, or does He not exist?"--to a meaningful and extremely serious question which determines the life of all mankind in all periods of history, and which determines every individual life. Which symbol of one's ultimate concern is most adequate