Reverent fear
Fear mixed with awe before something sacred or vast.
Reverent fear is fear mixed with awe before something sacred or vast. The chest holds trembling and lifting together, and the body feels small. You stand before something genuinely greater. The fear is proper to what warrants it.
Some fears are trying to teach you respect
Not all fear is to be overcome. Some fear is the right response to something genuinely awesome. The fear of an ocean in storm. The fear of a great spiritual teacher. The fear before a vow. This kind of fear is closer to reverence than to panic. It says, what is in front of me is larger than I am, and I should behave accordingly. Do not try to talk yourself out of this kind of fear. It is calibrating your behaviour correctly. The person who walks up to a glacier without any fear is not brave. They are missing information. The fear is part of accurate perception. Let it guide you. Approach carefully. Do not diminish what deserves respect.
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."
— Book of Proverbs
Reverent fear has a distinctive body signature of trembling lifted awe. The chest is full with mixed trembling and lifting. The breath becomes deep or may catch. The body is small before what is large, often with particular posture of being lowered or bowed. The face shows particular awed trembling quality. The voice when present often becomes hushed. The body holds itself in a way that suggests appropriate response to something sacred and vast: posture appropriate to the encounter, attention sustained on what produces the reverent fear, gestures often follow particular ritual or natural forms. The state can be brief response to specific encounters or sustained orientation in religious life.
Reverent fear has been engaged with extensively across religious traditions, with concepts including the Hebrew yirat HaShem (fear of God), the Greek phobos in religious contexts, and various other traditions engaging with related concepts. The combination of fear with reverence is found across many religious traditions as appropriate response to the sacred. Contemporary research on awe has examined related dimensions of overwhelming response to what is large or significant. The capacity for reverent fear appears widely shared across cultures though substantial variation exists in what produces it.
Reverent fear arises through specific conditions involving encounter with sacred or vast. Common patterns include:
Reverent fear is one of the more substantial existential capacities when authentic. The following help.
Engage with traditions that cultivate it
Various religious and contemplative traditions have substantial wisdom about reverent fear including specific practices and contexts. Engagement with these traditions when they speak to you provides resources for cultivating capacity for reverent fear and engaging with it appropriately.
Allow the integration of fear with awe
Reverent fear specifically involves integration of fear with awe. Allowing both dimensions to be present, rather than trying to eliminate the fear or treat it as separate from the awe, supports the integrated experience that reverent fear involves. The integration is part of what makes reverent fear what it is.
Engage with vast natural phenomena when possible
Various vast natural phenomena specifically support reverent fear. Engaging with these when possible including significant mountains, vast oceans, dramatic landscapes provides contexts that support the specific integration of fear with awe.
Distinguish from anxious religiosity
Examining whether your reverent fear involves integrated awe and appropriate respect, or has crossed into anxious religiosity that involves problematic fear without genuine reverent quality, supports better engagement. Anxious religiosity often produces difficulty while genuine reverent fear can be substantive experience.
Recognise as significant religious or existential experience
Reverent fear is significant religious or existential experience that has been engaged with across many traditions throughout history. Recognising it as substantial experience rather than treating it as problematic supports engagement with what it may offer. The fear dimension does not make reverent fear problematic; it is part of what makes reverent fear the specific experience that it is.
"Various religious traditions across cultures have engaged with reverent fear including Hebrew yirat HaShem and Greek phobos in religious contexts as appropriate response to the sacred."
— A summary of religious engagement with reverent fear
What is reverent fear?
Reverent fear is fear mixed with awe before something sacred or vast. The body has been struck by encounter with what combines fear-producing magnitude with sense of sacredness, with quality that includes both the trembling of fear and the lifted respect of reverence. The chest is full with mixed trembling and lifting. The body is small before what is large. There is a quality of being properly afraid before what warrants fear, of operating from sense that you stand before something genuinely greater, of combining the trembling with the recognition of sacredness that ordinary fear does not include. Reverent fear specifically refers to fear mixed with awe before something sacred or vast.
Where do people feel reverent fear in the body?
Reverent fear has a distinctive signature of trembling lifted awe. The chest is full with mixed trembling and lifting. The breath becomes deep or may catch. The body is small before what is large, often with particular posture of being lowered or bowed. The face shows particular awed trembling quality. The voice when present often becomes hushed. The body holds itself in a way that suggests appropriate response to something sacred and vast: posture appropriate to the encounter, attention sustained on what produces the reverent fear, gestures often follow particular ritual or natural forms. The state can be brief response to specific encounters or sustained orientation in religious life.
How is reverent fear different from regular fear?
Fear is the broader category of response to threat. Reverent fear is the specific form that combines fear with awe before the sacred or vast. A person can be afraid without reverent fear (response to threat without specific reverent dimension). Reverent fear involves the additional reverent dimensions that ordinary fear does not require. Ordinary fear typically produces avoidance or defensive response; reverent fear typically involves sustained engagement with what produces the fear because of the reverent dimension. The two integrate rather than being separate experiences: the fear is appropriate response to the magnitude or sacredness; the reverence integrates with the fear rather than displacing it. Various religious traditions have engaged with this integration as appropriate response to encounter with the sacred or vast; the fear is not problematic but is part of the appropriate response when integrated with reverence.
Why do religions talk about fear of God?
Various religious traditions across cultures have engaged with reverent fear including Hebrew yirat HaShem and Greek phobos in religious contexts as appropriate response to the sacred. The fear dimension reflects recognition that what is engaged with is genuinely greater and beyond ordinary control; this recognition produces appropriate trembling response. The reverent dimension reflects recognition that what is engaged with warrants respect and proper bearing rather than just avoidance. The integration of fear with reverence produces specific response that differs from either ordinary fear or ordinary respect. Different religious traditions engage with this differently; some emphasise the fear dimension more, some the reverence dimension, some specifically the integration. The phrase 'fear of God' in various religious contexts typically refers to this integrated reverent fear rather than to anxious fear or to pure terror; the cultivation of appropriate reverent fear is feature of various religious traditions as part of broader religious engagement. The English translation of various religious concepts may not capture the specific quality the original terminology names.
How do you experience reverent fear?
Several approaches support engagement. Engaging with traditions that cultivate reverent fear provides substantial resources; various religious and contemplative traditions have specific practices and contexts that support the experience. Allowing the integration of fear with awe rather than trying to eliminate the fear or treat it as separate from the awe supports the integrated experience that reverent fear involves. Engaging with vast natural phenomena when possible including significant mountains, vast oceans, or dramatic landscapes provides contexts that support the specific integration. Distinguishing from anxious religiosity supports better engagement; examining whether your reverent fear involves integrated awe and appropriate respect, or has crossed into problematic fear without genuine reverent quality, matters. Recognising reverent fear as significant religious or existential experience that has been engaged with across many traditions throughout history supports engagement with what it may offer.
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Reverent fear sits in the existential family as one of its more integrated forms. It overlaps with fear when threat dimension is involved, with awe when overwhelming response is central, with veneration when formal ceremonial dimension is the focus, with what religious traditions across cultures have engaged with extensively as appropriate response to the sacred, and with what contemporary research on awe has examined as related dimension of overwhelming response.
See where reverent fear sits among the other 402 emotions.
Open Reverent fear on the wheel