Fear, Guilt, and Shame Revisited: A Tertullian-Inspired Criterion for Contemporary Spiritual Life

Abstract

This article examines whether fear, guilt, and shame, perceived today mainly as negative affects, retain genuine moral and spiritual value. Through a cultural and theological analysis of Scripture, early Christian authors, and, in particular, Tertullian—used here as an analytical instrument, rather than as a doctrinal norm—it shows that, in the Christianity of the first centuries, these affects were theologically reordered, not eliminated. From Tertullianic architecture, a discernment criterion was extracted: the affects became formative when, through faith, they took as their object the God who is revealed, and remained exposed to the risk of deviation when their object was otherwise. The criterion is then applied to contemporary phenomenology and proposed as a working hypothesis.

KEYWORDS: Fear, Guilt, Shame, Tertullian, Moral Theology, Religious Affects, Early Christianity, Theological Discernment