Main Themes

1. In the life of adults of the Western culture of the present, religious fears generally carry no weight. More impressive seems an unspecified ‘fear of existence,’ or Weltangst. Ultimately, a fear of death, however unconscious, underlies this feeling, along with, doubtless, the awe before an essence that inspires reverence or dread, a numen, or mysterium tremendum (Rudolf Otto; → Holy). Furthermore, the aro…