I have recently come across a wonderful book by Emmett Coyne (2012), The Theology of Fear. Emmett is a priest who had lived a rather unconventional path and recently has taken great interest in the In Search of Fearlessness Project and the ways that I point to "Fear" as our main enemy along the journey of which, in Christ's words, we have to come to love (i.e., "love thy enemy")... no small calling. I wrote a book review of Emmett's book on Amazon.com which I suggest you check out. Here is the first paragraph from the book review I wrote there:
on December 16, 2015
I for one, not a "Christian" per se, but one who admires and aspires to be what Coyne calls "other Christs," has long been contending that until Christianity (and all the Abrahamic Tradition religions) re-evaluate seriously their privileging of fear (e.g., "fear of God," "fear of sin," and "fear of the Devil," "fear of the Earth," for a start... oh, "fear of flesh"-- i.e., sexuality and females) there will be no Kingdom of Heaven on Earth or anywhere else. But then, what do I know? I know a lot about fear and fearlessness, as my professional study for the past 26 years. And when I pick up a book like Coyne's on the theology of fear, and see his critique with two outstanding chapters (in my eyes) on "The Empire in Drag: Reinforcing the Reign of Fear" (Chpt. 3) and "The Afterlife: Living in Fear of the Future" (Chpt 4), my heart opens to what I see as a fragile and wonderful confession--and, in this case from a career-long well-traveled priest of the RCC. Frankly, I don't care who or what or where one makes this transformation to admit that we have been living in and utilizing fear as power--and, mostly not for good. Christ certainly wouldn't have supported living life by the Rule of Fear.
