The Shaking of the Foundations was published by Charles Scribner’s Sons in 1948. It collects sermons Tillich delivered during and immediately after World War II — primarily at Union Theological Seminary in New York and at various university chapels — to congregations of educated people confronting the apparent collapse of Western civilization.
The sermons are remarkable: Tillich writes not as a pastor offering comfort but as a philosopher offering honesty. He refuses to pretend that faith makes suffering bearable, that God protects the faithful, or that the war’s horror has a redemptive purpose. Instead, he argues that God is present within the destruction — that the “shaking of the foundations” (Hebrews 12:27, from which the title comes) is itself a form of revelation: the exposure of what was always true beneath the illusion of security.
The most famous sermon in the collection — “You Are Accepted” — contains Tillich’s most quoted passage: “Simply accept the fact that you are accepted… Do not try to do anything now; perhaps later you will do much. Do not seek for anything; do not perform anything; do not intend anything. Simply accept the fact that you are accepted.” The message — that grace precedes effort, that divine acceptance does not require human worthiness — spoke directly to a generation crushed by guilt (the guilt of survivors, of bystanders, of those who failed to prevent catastrophe).
Other sermons address the depth of existence (“The Depth of Existence”), the meaning of providence within historical catastrophe (“Providence and Historical Responsibility”), and the presence of the eternal within time (“Waiting”). Each combines existentialist philosophy with biblical interpretation in language that is simultaneously intellectually rigorous and emotionally powerful.
Collecting The Shaking of the Foundations
First edition (Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1948): Cloth binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition in dust jacket: $30–$75
- Without jacket: $8–$15
- Signed copies: $75–$200
Tillich’s most popular single work (alongside The Courage to Be). The sermons are still widely anthologized and assigned in theology courses seventy-five years after publication.