I have written a good deal, over the past years, on the subject of "fear as a sin". Some commenters have reacted immediately against this idea, pouring scorn on the idea; yet without (it seems to me) properly trying to understand the argument.
That fear is a sin was not immediately obvious to me - I needed to think the matter through before becoming convinced.
Francis Berger has added to the spiritual discussion of fear in a post today, taking a new angle and making several important points that had not occurred to me.
Considering that fear is a besetting sin of the modern West -- such that public expressions of existential terror in relation to a variety of socially-approved subjects, are not just acceptable, but attract positive moral approbation -- I strongly recommend reading the whole thing.
And thinking about it.
7 comments:
I think fear has been with us, more or less depending on the individual, from the chaos before creation.
For me, the most gripping fear often occurs just as I'm going to sleep, which makes me think it results from stopping thinking, etc.
I've been thinking lately that instincts are in creation to mimic aspects of pre-spirit-life, optimized for spiritual growth. Many seem to think that fear and thinking are essentially compatible activities. This is not my experience, which is why I think of fear as a sin of omission, whereas I would consider hate to be the opposite of love, since they are both active. Opposite of fear... Must be desire/attraction. These are both essentially passive.
Both hate and fear are incompatible with thinking and both love and desire require thinking.
@Lucinda - I don't really think of sins and virtues as a number of virtues and sins, in opposites or pairs; because that isn't the way that reality is structured - because we are individual, living, conscious Beings, and Beings are Not structured like machines.
I'd say that way of talking is just a sometimes helpful/ sometimes harmful "model" of reality. It can't be pushed too far.
The reason that I focus on "fear" is because it is one of those sins that often masquerades as virtuous - as in expressions of "concern".
I agree that fear is baked into us with so many possible triggers; therefore, fear is one of those sins that cannot be eliminated from our lives (except, maybe, by abolishing consciousness altogether, a state of semi-life - eg deep anaesthesia, perhaps?).
Yet I would say that it certainly makes a difference when fear is identified as a sin; this helps in reducing fear. If fear is recognized as a sin, then we do not make it worse by amplifying and entrenching fear by regarding it as a good thing.
SO, fear ought to be repented, but again "repentance" should not mean "feeling guilty about" - it simply means that we inwardly regard fear as a bad thing, something we would rather be without - ultimately something we are willing to leave-behind at resurrection.
"If fear is recognized as a sin, then we do not make it worse by amplifying and entrenching fear by regarding it as a good thing." Well said.
I think people struggle with the idea of fear being a bad thing because they have experienced many times when they did something good because they were afraid. In my own case, I married and had a ton of kids initially for what I now regard as the wrong reasons (some of them based in fear). But it has become the biggest blessing of my life. I think there is a temptation to explain-away the miracles of life, and maybe saying that fear can be a good thing is a manifestation of that. I brought up how fear is "baked-in" to say that fear is unavoidable, and so should not be given credit for any consequent good. The credit should go to the miracle of Creation and Jesus that, in spite of initially unavoidable fear, offers hope of good things, even good things that can last.
@Lucinda - yes, that's exactly how I see it, too. I became a Christian for mostly the wrong reasons, as I've often said.
God works creation with the world as it is, making the best of the universal presence of sin, degeneration and death. So it probably shouldn't be surprising that many good things have their origins in sin.
That's why we should not despair about sin (Jesus didn't, so why should we!). On the other hand, the good work is done with that which is good in us; so we can't be indifferent to the need to recognize and repent sin.
While I think I’m more orthodox than either yourself or Francis (I mean no offense), I think it’s dead clear Fear is a sin (or more properly can be) both biblically and traditionally. Fear itself is a complex thing, it’s the thing that keeps you from walking into traffic or it can make you neurotic. The list of the damned in Revelations includes the fearful interestingly enough. I think it’s become one of those things like the heart where people know one verse (“the heart is deceitful above all things”) and then they stop thinking about it, despite the fact the Bible has way more to say about it. Fear not is a continuous injunction in the Bible, the traditional view is the list of things a man ought to fear is really quite limited. Unholy fear is truly dangerous though because of its impact on the mind. A legitimate fear that helps me avoid being hit by a car running up on a curb shuts down any part of my mind that won’t help me get away. The pervasive neurotic fears corrupt this by applying it as a constant, eking away your vitality and mental acuity.
@Michael "Fear not is a continuous injunction in the Bible, the traditional view is the list of things a man ought to fear is really quite limited."
Indeed. I think this kind of thing becomes a permanent state of confusion due to the usual assumptions of how the Bible ought to be read.
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