Is Fear a Tool?

Image from Warner Bros. Pictures

“It’s a big city. I can’t be everywhere. But they don’t know where I am. When that light hits the sky, it’s not just a call; it’s a warning…to them.” 

The recent Batman film opens up with this monologue, and continues this theme throughout; “fear is a tool” that must be utilized in order to ensure law and order reign over the possibility of insurgency. In the ‘real’ world currently inundated with fear, it seems natural to question to what extent that is true, especially from the Christian perspective. Whether rising prices for everyday commodities, or looming war between major nations, what purpose is fear truly serving today? 

This is the question that Christianity provides an answer to. Saint Thomas Aquinas says in his commentary on Matthew:

“The old law had a threat along with the promise…And Deuteronomy says the same thing, where many blessings are promised to those who serve the law, and Moses threatens many curses on the transgressors of the law (Deut 28). And this is because the old was a law of fear, but the new a law of love. (4.2.362)”

Fear does indeed serve a purpose when one does not follow a Lawgiver out of love. If fears are attached to specific commands and promises, they can impel the unvirtuous man who might otherwise stumble to live uprightly. And beyond that, that special relationship with a Lawgiver can and should lead to fear, as Augustine teaches (De diversis Quaestionibus 33), because this world contains the possibility of losing that which we love. Situations are in constant flux, both internally within ourselves due to our fickle nature and with the external world around us.

Of course there is an ordinate quantity of instinctual fear, as certain objects and situations should be shunned. A carefree response to war would be looked upon (hopefully) by most as at the very least mistaken. When there is a good that should be pursued, however, and is shunned because of fear, this is again where the focus must turn to love. If one truly loves a good, no matter the dangers, love will defeat fear.