[100] LECTURE XI--Nov. 3, 1955 [Prof. Leibrecht announcing a 3-hour exam after Reading Period. Bibliography: H. Richard Niebuhr, CHRIST & CULTURE; Schleiermacher, SPEECHES ON RELIGION...; W. M. Urban, LANGUAGE & REALITY; J.H. Randall, THE MAKING OF THE MODERN MIND; Reinhold Niebuhr, FAITH & HISTORY.] PT: Now these five books I gave you as something you should read under all circumstances during the course. The others will be important for examination and things like that, so don’t think that this is ALL. But I have been asked by many of you to indicate which books you should read in the meantime, and that is what I gave now. QN: Prof. Tillich, please comment about the influence of technological, industrial society upon our religious sensitivity. For example: our verbal symbols of religion, like "God," "Jesus," "Christ," are used very casually, in swearing or other unconscious practice. What kind of harm is there in this? What can one do when some friend or stranger uses these names without reverence? Is this blasphemy? PT: This question asks about the irreverent use of words like God, Jesus, Christ, etc., in the technological society. I don’t believe that this irreverence with respect to these words has anything to do with technical society. The blasphemous^a use of sacred words was perhaps much more ordinary in periods in which faith was not shaken at all because it was nearer the mouth to the tongue of everybody at that time, and we find a lot of indications that the ministers of that time had to fight, in sermons, against this kind of abuse. The only thing one perhaps could say is that if they are used today, they are not even used in the swearing sense at all, but simply as words without meaning. I wouldn't call that blasphemy, but I would call it one of the innumerable symptoms of the sickness of our language. LECTURE: Now I come today to a new chapter. After discussing last time Religion and the Technical Realm, we must now discuss Religion and Science, or let us call it: Religion and the Cognitive Realm, generally. Then, at the end, we come to Religion and the Artistic Realm. Religion and the cognitive realm, the realm of knowledge, can be discussed in three steps: