Located in Paul Tillich Park is a bronze bust of Paul Tillich commissioned by Jane Blaffer Owen and created by James Rosati to honor the great German theologian. Tillich did numerous sittings for Rosati, the last sitting only one month before he died. Rosati worked from photographs to complete the project in 1967. Rosati accepted the commission out of great respect for Paul Tillich and Jane Blaffer Owen. Rosati worked to capture the likeness as well as the spirit of Tillich. Rosati was born in 1911 in Washington, Pennsylvania. Throughout the late 1930s and into the ‘40s he was associated with the Works Progress Administration Project. He relocated to New York in 1944. He taught for over a decade at Yale University. Rosati was a part of the New York School of abstract expressionists, and the Bust of Tillich is quite unlike the abstraction evident in other work. Towering Norwegian spruce surround the Bust of Tillich and mark the area dedicated to him. Tillich attended the dedication of the park in 1963. Upon his death in 1966, Tillich’s ashes were buried in the park, among granite stones which feature quotes by the well-known theologian. Tillich’s work explores the existential questions of human existence in correlation with Christian revelation.

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