Quando il timore è amore?

Abstract

Fear and love appear as contradictory conditions in a relationship. Following the biblical tradition Augustine distinguishes timor servilis and timor castus and elaborates the topic of the fear of God as a way of love between man and God. This helps us to rethink the meaning of fear of God in its historical origin as a human-conceived concept. At the same time, it allows us to rediscover a different sense of fear compared to that refuted by the post-metaphysical laicism as an expression of a worthless subjection for man and God.