Saving Fear in Christian Spirituality

Description

Hailed in Sacred Scripture as the “beginning of wisdom” (Ps 111:10), the “fear of the Lord” is seldom mentioned and little understood today. A gift of the Spirit and a moral virtue or disposition, the “fear of the Lord” also frequently entails emotional experiences of differing kinds: compunction, dread, reverence, wonderment, and awe. Starting with the Bible itself, this collection of seventeen essays explores the place of holy fear in Christian spirituality from the early church to the present and argues that this fear is paradoxically linked in various ways to fear’s seeming opposite, love. Indeed, the charged dynamic of love and fear accounts for different experiences and expressions of Christian life in response to changing historical circumstances and events.

The writings of the theologians, mystics, philosophers, saints, and artists studied here reveal the relationship between the fear and the love of God to be profoundly challenging and mysterious, its elements paradoxically conjoined in a creative tension with each other, but also tending to oscillate back-and-forth in the history of Christian spirituality as first one, then the other, comes to the fore, sometimes to correct a perceived imbalance, sometimes at the risk of losing its companion altogether. Given this historical pattern, clearly evident in these chronologically arranged essays, the palpable absence of a discourse of holy fear from the mainstream theological landscape should give us pause and invite us to consider if and how—under what aspect, in which contexts—a holy fear, inseparable from love, might be regained or discovered anew within Christian spirituality as a remedy both for a crippling anxiety and for a presumptive recklessness. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of Christian spirituality, theology, biblical studies, religious studies, and religion and literature.

Contributors: Ann W. Astell, Pieter G. R. de Villiers, Donna R. Hawk-Reinhard, John Sehorn, Catherine Rose Cavadini, Joseph Wawrykow, Robert Boenig, Ralph Keen, Wendy M. Wright, Ephraim Radner, Julia A. Lamm, Cyril O’Regan, Brenna Moore, Maj-Britt Frenze, and Todd Walatka

Acknowledgments

The Saving of Fear: An Introduction by Anne W. Astell

Fear at the Foundations: Biblical and Patristic

1. “In Awe of the Mighty Deeds of God”: The Fear of God in Early Christianity from the Perspective of Biblical Spirituality by Pieter G. R. de Villiers

2. Cyril of Jerusalem on Learning the Proper Type of Fear of God by Donna R. Hawk-Reinhard

3. Threading the Needle: Fear of the Lord and the Incarnation in St. Augustine by John Sehorn

Fear in Medieval Meditation

4. Lips of Fear Kissed by Mercy: Expositions of Timor Dei in Cistercian Commentary on the Song of Songs by Catherine Rose Cavadini

5. Aquinas on Christ’s Fear by Joseph Wawrykow

6. Contemplations of the Dread and Love of God and the Nuancing of the Fear of the Lord by Robert Boenig

Fear amongst the Reformers

7. The Reformation Recovery of the Wrath of God by Ralph Keen

8. The Doctor of Divine Love and Fear of the Lord by Wendy M. Wright

9. Fear of God in Pascal and His Jansenist Friends by Ephraim Radner

Fear in the Modern Debate

10. Casting out Fear: The Logic of “God is Love” in Julian of Norwich and Friedrich Schleiermacher by Julia A. Lamm

11. Fear of God in John Henry Newman and Søren Kierkegaard by Cyril O’Regan

Fear on the Eve of the New Millennium

12. “Gold Fillings into Crocodiles’ Teeth”: Christian Fear, Politics, and Imagination in Léon Bloy by Brenna Moore

13. Faith, Hope, Charity, and the Fears of Fatima by Ann W. Astell

14. Shocked to Awe: The Rapture Hermeneutic and Holy Fear by Maj-Britt Frenze

15. Fear of God in Liberation Theology by Todd Walatka

16. A Concluding Case Study in Spiritual Direction: Father Joseph Kentenich and

Emilie Engel by Ann W. Astell

List of Contributors

Index

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Christian Theology
• Philosophie et théologie
• Theology
• Spirituality
• Systematics
• Christianity
• History

Informations

• Publié par: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date de parution: 30 novembre 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780268106232
• Langue: English

Extrait

SAVING FEAR IN CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY
SAVING FEAR
IN CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY
EDITED BY A NN W. A STELL
University of Notre Dame Press Notre Dame, Indiana
Copyright © 2020 by University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
undpress.nd.edu
All Rights Reserved
Published in the United States of America
Library of Congress Control Number:2019952814
ISBN: 978-0-268-10621-8 (Hardback)
ISBN: 978-0-268-10624-9 (WebPDF)
ISBN: 978-0-268-10623-2 (Epub)
This book is made possible in part by support from the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts, College of Arts and Letters, University of Notre Dame
This e-Book was converted from the original source file by a third-party vendor. Readers who notice any formatting, textual, or readability issues are encouraged to contact the publisher at [e-mail] .
For Roska Tamás (1940−2014) and Esztó-Roska Zsuzsa Bénédiction de Dieu dans la Solitude
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
The Saving of Fear: An Introduction Ann W. Astell
F EAR AT THE F OUNDATIONS : B IBLICAL AND P ATRISTIC
CHAPTER 1 “In Awe of the Mighty Deeds of God”: The Fear of God in Early Christianity from the Perspective of Biblical Spirituality
Pieter G. R. de Villiers
CHAPTER 2 Cyril of Jerusalem on Learning the Proper Type of Fear of God
Donna R. Hawk-Reinhard
CHAPTER 3 Threading the Needle: Fear of the Lord and the Incarnation in St. Augustine
John Sehorn
F EAR IN M EDIEVAL M EDITATION
CHAPTER 4 Lips of Fear Kissed by Mercy: Expositions of Timor Dei in Cistercian Commentary on the Song of Songs
Catherine Rose Cavadini

CHAPTER 5 Aquinas on Christ’s Fear
Joseph Wawrykow
CHAPTER 6 Contemplations of the Dread and Love of God and the Nuancing of the Fear of the Lord
Robert Boenig
F EAR AMONGST THE R EFORMERS
CHAPTER 7 The Reformation Recovery of the Wrath of God
Ralph Keen
CHAPTER 8 The Doctor of Divine Love and Fear of the Lord
Wendy M. Wright
CHAPTER 9 Fear of God in Pascal and His Jansenist Friends
Ephraim Radner
F EAR IN THE M ODERN D EBATE
CHAPTER 10 Casting out Fear: The Logic of “God is Love” in Julian of Norwich and Friedrich Schleiermacher
Julia A. Lamm
CHAPTER 11 Fear of God in John Henry Newman and Søren 258 Kierkegaard
Cyril O’Regan
F EAR ON THE E VE OF THE N EW M ILLENNIUM
CHAPTER 12 “Gold Fillings into Crocodiles’ Teeth”: Christian Fear, Politics, and Imagination in Léon Bloy (1846–1917)
Brenna Moore

CHAPTER 13 Faith, Hope, Charity, and the Fears of Fatima
Ann W. Astell
CHAPTER 14 Shocked to Awe: The Rapture Hermeneutic and Holy Fear
Maj-Britt Frenze
CHAPTER 15 Fear of God in Liberation Theology
Todd Walatka
CHAPTER 16 A Concluding Case Study in Spiritual Direction: Father Joseph Kentenich (1885−1968) and Emilie Engel (1893−1955)
Ann W. Astell
List of Contributors
Index
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Writing acknowledgments occasions grateful remembrance of the whole history of a book. To mark the twentieth anniversary of the founding of the Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality (a scholarly society officially related to the American Academy of Religion), I organized the first standalone SSCS conference, held at the University of Notre Dame from June 29 to July 2, 2013. SSCS board members and officers, past and present, approved and generously supported the endeavor. Douglas E. Christie (Loyola Marymount University), the founding editor of Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality , helped me in composing the call for papers. The conference, “Wondrous Fear and Holy Awe,” was sponsored at Notre Dame by the Center for Liturgy, the College of Engineering, the Department of Theology, the McGrath Institute for Church Life, the Jacques Maritain Center, and the Mendoza College of Business, as well as by the Center for Spirituality at Saint Mary’s College. The Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts, Henkels Lectures, at Notre Dame provided grant support. Lauri Roberts and Harriet Baldwin at the Academic Conferences Office worked with me to make the conference happen.
Six of the essays included in this volume—those by Pieter G. R. de Villiers, Ralph Keen, Julia A. Lamm, Ephraim Radner, Cyril O’Regan, and Wendy M. Wright—were originally given as keynote lectures at the 2013 conference and subsequently revised for publication. Ann W. Astell, Donna R. Hawk-Reinhard, and Catherine Rose Cavadini also gave preliminary versions of their essays as papers at the conference. Six essays—those by Robert Boenig, Maj-Britt Frenze, Brenna Moore, John Sehorn, Todd Walatka, and Joseph Wawrykow—were written subsequent to the conference at the invitation of the editor. To each of the contributors, for their work and patience, I owe warm gratitude.

At the University of Notre Dame Press, Stephen Little as acquisitions editor welcomed the submission of the manuscript and guided it faithfully through the review process. The two readers of the manuscript for the press, Arthur Holder (Graduate Theological Union) and David Perrin (University of Waterloo), provided valuable criticism that served to improve the individual essays and the collection as a whole. Gregory Cruess spent many hours in the summer of 2018 working with me to bring the revised manuscript into conformity with the style sheet of the University of Notre Dame Press. His attentiveness to detail was truly a godsend. (Thank you, Greg!) Once the manuscript was “in press,” Wendy McMillen devoted her splendid talents to the cover design. As copyeditor and close reader par excellence, Elizabeth Sain has done simply outstanding work, sentence by sentence, endnote by endnote. To Elizabeth, Wendy, and Stephen, to all the staff at UND Press, and to its director, Stephen Wrinn, a heartfelt “thank you”!
The index was prepared by Nick Koenig, with the much appreciated support of a grant from the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts, College of Arts and Letters, University of Notre Dame. Thank you Nick and ISLA!
One fruit of prolonged meditation, personal and communal, on the mystery of the fear of the Lord is the enhanced recognition of God’s marvelous gifts. This book is dedicated to the memory of Roska Tamás (1940–2014), who attended the 2013 SSCS conference at the University of Notre Dame, and to his wife, concert pianist Esztó-Roska Zsuzsa (Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, Budapest). To the great delight of all in attendance that night in McKenna Hall, Zsuzsa gave a lecture-concert, “The Spiritual Compositions of Franz Liszt.” An acknowledged masterpiece among these compositions, Bénédiction de Dieu dans la Solitude (The Blessing of God in Solitude), left Zsuzsa’s listeners enthralled by its beauty. For that gift and all it symbolizes, this book is a thank-offering.
THE SAVING OF FEAR
An Introduction
ANN W. ASTELL
“Have you no fear of God?”
—Lk 23:40
There are so many . . . who are absolutely terrified of God. This is not a childlike and reverent fear.
—Father Joseph Kentenich
“Saving Fear.” Grammatically ambiguous and deliberately so, the title of this collection of essays conveys two related meanings. Taken as an adjective, “saving” modifies a holy “fear,” a transforming grace and powerful virtue that (somewhat paradoxically) heals and rescues those who are spiritually (and perhaps also physically) endangered, holy fear casting out both worldly fear and paralyzing scruples and thus preparing the way for a more perfect love. Interpreted thus, the title personifies fear as a salvific agent, the sacred fear that saves the God-fearing. One might recall in this regard the famous case of the slave trader John Newton (1725–1807) who, caught in a violent storm at sea in 1748 and in danger of death by shipwreck, cried out in his terror to God for mercy. In Newton’s case, the fear of death seems to have awakened the fear of divine judgment, of damnation. He later recalled his conversion as an “amazing grace”: “Twas grace that taught my heart to fear / And grace my fears relieved.” 1
But another interpretation of the phrase “saving fear” also obtains. The “fear” in “saving fear” may be the grammatical object, that which is being saved. The fifteen contributors to this collection of essays endeavor to save the topic of the “fear of the Lord” or “fear of God” (in Latin, timor Dei ) from its recent neglect by scholars and pastors alike and to recall its biblical importance and historical influence upon Christian life and thought over the course of two millennia. The long history charted in these essays displays a perennial unease about the fear of God (How is it to be defined theologically? What is its relation to other feelings of fear? Can the fear of God truly be reconciled with the love of God and, if so, how?) as well as an abiding fascination with, and attraction to, salutary fear as something appropriate to God’s greatness and surpassing beauty, God’s justice and holiness, and—yes—God’s miraculous, merciful compassion.
The writings of the theologians, mystics, philosophers, saints, and artists studied here reveal the relationship between the fear and the love of God to be profoundly challenging and mysterious, its elements paradoxically conjoined in a creative tension with each other, but also tending to oscillate back and forth in the history of Christian spirituality as first one, then the other, comes to the fore, sometimes to correct a perceived imbalance, sometimes at the risk of losing its companion altogether. Given this historical pattern, clearly evident in these chronologically arranged essays, the palpable absence of a discourse of holy fear from the mainstream theological landscape should give us pause and invite us to consider if and how (under what aspect, in which contexts) a holy fear, inseparable from love, might be regained or discovered anew within Christian spirituality as a remedy both for a crippling anxiety and for a presumptive recklessness.
Fear and terror, military “shock and awe,” and media reports of violence predominate in contemporary culture, but