Question Three: On the Fear of God

S. Th. II-II, q. 19.

820. Notions. - Fear is a movement of the appetite by which it flees an impending evil which, although difficult to avoid, nevertheless can be avoided. It arises from love and hope: for man fears to lose or not attain that which he loves or hopes for. - Then fear and hope mutually help one another so that they may preserve man from presumption and despair: for fear mediates between hope and despair. Hence after we have treated of hope, and before we treat of despair, rightly there is treatment of fear.

821. What the fear of God is. - We cannot fear God insofar as he is an evil which we flee, for he is the supreme good; but we can fear some evil on account of God, insofar as from God or by comparison with God some evil can befall us: 1. from God indeed, the evil of eternal or temporal punishment, which he can inflict upon us; 2. by comparison with God, the evil of fault can befall us, by which we offend him and are separated from him.

822. How many kinds of fear of God there are. - Fear by which we are turned toward God and adhere to him is threefold: 1. if we are turned toward him and avoid sins only on account of the evil of punishment, it is servile fear, by which man fears fault (that is, offense against God) on account of punishment: for in this way servants are accustomed to fear punishments to be inflicted by a master; - 2. if we are turned and avoid sins only on account of the evil of fault, it is filial fear, by which man fears fault as fault, or insofar as it is an offense against God: for it belongs to sons to fear the offense of the father; - 3. but if we avoid sins and adhere to God on account of both, it is initial fear, intermediate between servile and filial, and as it were the beginning of filial fear.

To these there is opposed worldly or human fear, by which man withdraws from God, and on account of the evil which he fears, is prepared to offend God. This fear is always a grave or light sin, according as it induces us to sin mortally or venially.

823. Principle I. Servile fear in itself, considered according to its essence, is good: for it is nothing other than fear of punishment to be inflicted by God, which is deservedly feared. Hence Mt. X, 28: "Fear him who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna" (cf. Lk. XII, 5; Mt. III, 7-10). This can be honorable, because it does not positively exclude fear of fault (just as neither does it include it), but abstracts from comparison with fault. Cf. Council of Trent, sess. 6, c. 6, can. 8; sess. 14, c. 4; condemned props. 14 and 15 by Alexander VIII; and 60-64 of Quesnel, by Clement XI.

Nor does it stand in the way that to fear only punishment is disordered. For from its essence and proper object, servile fear only fears punishment simply, abstracting from this, whether fault also as fault must be feared or not, for it does not exclude another fear: so that it is not affirmed that only punishment is feared, nor is it affirmed that fault also is feared. - But that someone fears punishment only and does not fear fault on account of itself does not come from the essence or object of this fear, but because in fact it is found in a sinner who does not fear God's fault: therefore it becomes servile by reason of something extrinsic, namely, the state of the one fearing, from the absence alone of charity and filial fear. Hence:

1. the absence of charity is evil, whence it is said by St. Thomas that the servility of fear is evil;

2. since the absence of charity is extrinsic to fear, servility is extrinsic to it;

3. whence, when charity and fear of fault arrive, fear of punishment remains according to its essence but is no longer servile.

824. Corollary. - Several modern theologians distinguish servile fear as a genus into two species, namely, into simply servile and servilely servile; yet not rightly, for servilely servile fear has nothing in common with servile fear except the name. Fear simply servile, namely, is the fear described above; but servilely servile fear is the fear by which man fears punishment more than fault, and indeed in such a way that here and now he is so disposed that he would sin if there were no punishment. It is a fear which positively excludes fear of fault, by which namely a man says: I fear nothing except punishment, so that servility is intrinsic to it and belongs to it from its proper object and is of its essence. But such fear is not true fear of God, by which we are turned toward God from reverence and avoid sins, but is a sin; hence rather than being numbered among the fears of God, it seems to be reduced to worldly fear.

825. Principle II. Servile and filial fear differ in species, since they are concerned with a diverse evil object; initial fear, by which we tend toward God, fearing primarily the evil of fault and secondarily the evil of punishment, is not a new species of fear, but is filial fear, with which it has the same primary object, though it is found in an imperfect state.

For those who do not yet have the perfection of charity, but begin to love God, do not yet adhere to God and avoid sins on account of fear of fault alone, but also on account of fear of punishment. Hence in them there is fear of fault which necessarily supposes fear of punishment, and this is initial fear. But as charity grows, fear of punishment diminishes, while filial fear grows.

Filial fear does not exclude fear of punishment, but brings it about that fear of punishment is not the reason why we adhere to God: for this, in those who have filial fear, is only the fear of offending God.

826. Whether fear of God remains after this life? - In heaven fear of punishment does not remain; but filial fear has two acts, namely: 1. to fear separation from God, and as to this act it does not remain in heaven, where no fault is to be feared; 2. to revere God, and as to this act it remains, for the blessed, considering the loftiness of God and their own littleness, venerate God with the highest submission of soul and are perfectly subject to him: this is reverential fear.

827. The fear of the Lord is called the beginning of wisdom, not according to its essence, but as to the effect whence wisdom begins to operate (Ps. CX, 10; Eccli. I, 16):

1. servile fear, insofar as it is the first thing which disposes externally to wisdom (Eccli. I, 27);

2. filial fear, because the first effect of wisdom is reverence and subjection toward God (ibid. 20-22).

828. Observation. - Servile fear, although it is from the Holy Spirit, nevertheless is not numbered among his seven special gifts, because it is found in a sinner who does not possess the gifts of the Holy Spirit. But filial fear is numbered among those gifts: for the gifts dispose us to obey promptly the motion of the Holy Spirit; but for this it is required, and indeed first, that we not be resistant to the motion; but this is brought about by filial fear, by which we revere God and subject ourselves to him. And therefore filial fear holds the first place among the gifts of the Holy Spirit, ascending from the less perfect to the more perfect.

To this gift corresponds the first beatitude: Blessed are the poor in spirit...: for filial fear makes us revere God and be subject to him; hence we seek to be magnified in God alone, and not in ourselves through pride, or in honors, or in riches.