Book review: “Fear and Faith: Hope and Wholeness in a Fractured World”
Whether you find yourself disagreeing with or nodding in agreement, readers are bound to have a strong opinion one way or the other about what Father Daniel Horan says in his newest book, “Fear and Faith: Hope and Wholeness in a Fractured World.” In it, he explores the challenge of living out Scripture’s repeated command to “Be not afraid!” in a culture which is often overwhelmed by anxiety and dread. “One of the clear takeaways from the New Testament,” he says, “is that fear is the enemy of Christian discipleship.”
He notes that, throughout history, fear has been known to arise from within the Christian community itself, particularly whenever there is a politically charged and polarized atmosphere. Because of the circumstances that we are currently living through, he found himself “drawn to the question of fear, how it functions, and its implications for Christianity.”
The book is divided into three sections: the first deals with natural and unnatural fear and rational and irrational hope. The second addresses prophetic faith in the face of fear, and the third discusses developing a theology of the Spirit in a time of crisis. He concludes the book by outlining a spirituality of Christian discipleship.
To begin with, he says, it is important to differentiate between legitimate fear, the sort that has assured the survival of the human race, and fear that arises from perceived, but not necessarily real, threats. The first is necessary; the second, unfortunately, is often a conditioned response to cultural and societal assumptions which may or may not be true, and this the one that gets in the way of authentic discipleship. Consequently, he says, “Jesus’s message of ‘Do not be afraid’ is a lesson on how to be vigilant in the face of those individuals and systems that co-opt this natural process of fear for division and selfish gain.” Christian hope, on the other hand, seeks Christ in the world as it already is “(and that) despite our own individual and collective inadequacies, doubts, and failures, the power of God will nevertheless prevail.”
In the second section of the book, Father Horan examines the virtue of Christian hope as it is seen through the lenses of three different people – Thomas Merton, Etty Hillesum (a new name, perhaps, for some readers), and Archbishop Oscar Romero. Merton, whose journey to Catholicism and ultimately the Trappists Monastery of Gethsemane in Kentucky, is outlined in his book “The Seven Storey Mountain.” But by the end of his life, he was dealing with and writing about the implications of war in the modern world, in particular the conflict in Vietnam. Ultimately, Horan notes, Merton “challenges us to recall that love and hope are a choice, that fear and violence are not inevitable.”
Etty Hillesum and Archbishop Romero asked many of the same questions that Merton did; in their case, however, their refusal to succumb to fear and cling instead to the hope that is of God eventually cost them their lives. Hillesum, a Jewish woman living in Europe during the Holocaust, found hope despite living in a time of real and present terror. Remarkably, her spiritual journey led her to a place where she refused to hate even those who would eventually take the lives of her and her family. Oscar Romero underwent a conversion experience of his own; living in El Salvador during a period of extreme violence and civil war, he responded to fear by following in the footsteps of Jesus, despite knowing that doing so could and did put his own life in danger.
Horan concludes with a turning toward the Holy Spirit. “Our hope,” he concludes, “is situated in the firm belief that God is with us amid the travails of life, not outside them, and that it is indeed God’s plan that all of us and all creation return to the divine source.”