The Courage to Create as a Necessary Means to Being

This study sets out to examine the relationship between Paul Tillich's courage to be and Rollo May's courage to create. It examines the concerns of the existentialists whose predicament will foreshadow the overarching problems in May's and Tillich's time. The study examines being, the negation of being, and anxiety as a connection in Tillich's and May's thought. It seeks to understand the human being at a point where theological, philosophical, and psychological realms converge. Based on May's description of the creative encounter, this thesis proposes that May's courage to create exemplifies Tillich's courage to be. Where a split has occurred between humankind's perception of itself and its world, this thesis offers that the courage to create expresses a reconciliation between the two which can help to quell the threats of nonbeing (anxiety) against one's self-affirmation. What this analysis finds is that during creative process, one affirms himself in such a way as to promote his fuller being both as an individual and as a part of a greater whole. This thesis examines self-affirmation by creative encounter and finds that this engagement shows a unitive relationship between one's self and one's world, as is represented by the philosophical notion being-in-the-world. The thesis also examines the characteristics of the creative person which should provide other persons who replicate those tendencies to experience more meaningfully their world. The thesis offers that if one harnesses a creative attitude, he will find himself more engaged, more unified, more whole, more his true self, more human, and more capable of perceiving the meaningful.