The Concept оf «the Fear of God» in Theology of Simeon the New Theologian

Abstract

This article is devoted to the theme of the fear of God in the works of St. Simeon the New Theologian. The author of the article examines the differences between the concept of “the fear of God” from the usual concept of fear and comes to the conclusion that the fear of God in the writings of Simeon the New Theologian is not associated with anxiety, nor with danger, nor with fear of punishment or hellish torments. The researcher shows that “the fear of God” in the books of St. Simeon is most often associated with attentiveness in prayer, thoroughness in fulfilling the commandments, reverent attitude towards God, Holy Scripture and icons. The author of the article notes that the meaning of the word “fear” in Russian has changed over time. People stopped distinguishing between the fear of God and the fear of punishment. The author explains this phenomenon by the secularization of language and thinking. The interpretation of “the fear of God” as reverence for God and aversion to sin was forgotten, which led to a lack of discrimination between worldly fear and fear of God. In conclusion, the author of the article says that, unfortunately, such confusion has penetrated the authoritative dictionaries of the Russian language, which makes it difficult to return phraseological units to its Christian meaning, and therefore the ­author of the article calls for clarification of the initial meaning of this complex ethical category.