Tillich on Counseling Relationship

The "counselor," as the agent of the function of "taking care of souls" (Seelsorge) is in present terminology called, should never be subject only; he should never make of his counselee an object to be handled correctly and perhaps helped by an adequate treatment. If this happens, as it very often does in pastoral as well as in medical counseling, an ambiguity of religion has invaded the Spiritual function of mediation. But if the mediation is determined by the Spiritual Presence, the counselor subjects himself to the judgments and demands that he tries to communicate. He recognizes the truth that he is basically in the same predicament as the counselee. And this may give him the possibility of finding the word of healing for him. He who is grasped by the Spirit can speak to one who needs his help in such a way that the Spirit can get hold of the other one through him, and thus help becomes possible. For Spirit can heal only what is open to Spirit (Tillich, Systematic Theology, vol. 3, pg. 189, 90).

Metaphysical Certainty...or Faith?

Christianity has replaced faith with metaphysical certainty. God does
not leave us alone, but comes to us, and talks with us. But, to take
comfort in this is an act of faith, not of philosophical conclusions.
God comes periodically and intervenes, so as to "freshen up" the the
experience and opportunity of faith. For faith to be fresh in this
way, it requires that the object of faith be ridiculed by some--
perhaps by nearly all. Moreover, it ought to be ridiculed, and stand
or fall, purely on the basis of whether such a God exists who could
be capable of revealing Himself in such a way. In other words, when
the revelation stands or falls under the assessment of whether or not
it represents some outdated cosmology, it is a sign that it has
already grown "stale," as far as its revelatory capacity is
concerned. Christianity cannot ever be perfectly systematized. At the
point that it is, it is as lacking in faith as paganism or
positivism. It is appropriate that we be, to some extent, stumbling
along in the dark, with a sign here and a sign there, but not with a
whole illuminated field.
For us, too often, faith is attributed almost to an intellectual
deficiency, or at least an error in reasoning, as though what the
unbeliever lacks is a persuasive argument. What the unbeliever lacks
is faith, which can only come by the experience of God's faithfulness.