The irrelevance and relevance of the Christian message

the long version

Why, Tillich asks, has the Christian message become seemingly irrelevant to contemporary society? Is the Gospel able to give answers to the questions raised by the existentialist analysis of the human predicament? Yes, he answers - but in order to do so Christian teaching and preaching need to undergo dramatic renewal, the root of which requires an affirmation of love as central to Christian identity. Further, we need to recognize that this task is not limited to preachers and theologians; all of us together are responsible for the irrelevance or the relevance of the Gospel in our time.