"At the root of anger is fear. So deeply ingrained is the belief that we are small and weak, so vulnerable do we actually feel, that we have to protect ourselves with all our might.

The fear has to do with...anxiety of nonbeing. It is the feeling that we are, according to a convincing inner imprint, exposed and vulnerable persons, weak in the extreme, unable to protect ourselves by ourselves.

From the standpoint of the New Testament, the principal cause of fear is punishment. "Fear has to do with punishment" (1 John 4:18). For the Jews, to use Saint Paul's frame of reference, fear has to do with God's judgment of a person's or people's failure to live up to the standards of the Law, symbolized and summarized in the Ten Commandments. For the non-Jew, fear has, to do with terror of the fateful, nameless forces that dominate humanity and nature, of which idols must be built and to which tribute must be paid.

fear at its root is fear of God or forces conceived to be God."