Sarita Madrid, The Tremendum

The tremendum is a very interesting concept in religion that was addressed in the "Idea of the Holy" and it has always been something that I found intriguing. The tremendum is something I wanted to blog about because I have wondered why we are told to have no fear because God is with us and perfect love casts out fear however we are also told to fear the Lord. Obviously, these two ideas appear to be very contradicting. After thinking about the two ideas, I think that maybe we are only supposed to fear the Lord and nothing else. However, I do not really understand fully why we are supposed to fear the Lord. It seems somewhat reasonable as to why we are told to fear the Lord because through reading scripture we know his power and we have seen what he can do so we know to not challenge God. However, even with knowing this does that necessarily mean we fear Him? Also, fear usually drives a person away from something so would fear not cause us to run from God? Suppose we do not run away from God but stay because we are fearful. Are the relationships not genuine then because the only reason one does not run from God is because they are fearful? When I think about it, it seems like part of the reason we are in relationship with God is because we know we need him to be the best versions of ourselves. Does this not also take some of the genuineness of the relationship away?

We, as humans, mostly think of negative things when we hear the term fear, such as being scared. In this case, fear does not appear to have a negative meaning necessarily because God is good and I do not think he would wish negative feelings upon us. "The Idea of the Holy" talks about how there is a sort of awfulness about the fear which contributes and goes along with the tremendum. This aspect seems to add a positive twist to the fear of the Lord that is talked about in religion. I also am curious as to what fearing the Lord looks like? How does one get to this point? Because I am unsure what it looks like, I do not know if I fear the Lord. And is it wrong or disrespectful if one does not fear the Lord?


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