Revealing Hearts: Paul Tillich’s Concept of Revelation: an Application to Business Innovation

Some small business owners want to balance personal values as well as economic values. “I have to follow my heart” or “it must be meaningful” some of them say. But how might they be able to know what gives meaning to the heart? The philosophical theologian Paul Tillich finds that the problem is that ‘controlling knowledge’ (e.g., technical testing) might be safe but unimportant, while ‘receiving knowledge’, that can only be verified by direct participation (e.g., intuition), might be important but uncertain. This paper shows how this tension can be made fruitful in relation to business innovation with reference to Tillich’s account of the meaning of revelation through culture and art, summed up in the statement that “(...) revelation is the manifestation of the ground of being for human knowledge” (Tillich, 1951, p.94), which, we argue, can be extended to
everyday experiences, for example, in business life. In Tillich’s own terms, even preliminary concerns may point at an ultimate concern (Tillich, 1964), which can also be understood as ‘knowledge of the heart’. Our account is also connected to wider discussions concerning the nature of intuition.