Have you ever felt
the nameless dread?
Terror and anguish without a cause?
This cyber-sermon gives a name and a careful description
to the nameless threat, our free-floating
anxiety,
which we have all felt but perhaps
not faced.
First we must separate
existential anxiety
from ordinary fears as clearly as possible.
Then, how do we cope with anxiety?
And is it possible to live beyond angst?
OUTLINE:
I. FEAR & ANXIETY: FIVE DIFFERENCES
1. Description.
2. Cause.
3. Duration.
4. Scope.
5. Cure.
II. HOW EXISTENTIAL ANXIETY SHOWS ITSELF
III. ATTEMPTING TO COPE WITH EXISTENTIAL ANXIETY
IV. FREEDOM FROM ANGST
We may summarize the five
basic differences
between simple fear and existential anxiety
in the following ways:
FIVE DIMENSIONS OF SIMPLE FEAR
1. Psychological response to danger.
2. Caused by specific threats;
we know why we are afraid;
approaches from a certain quarter.
3. Temporary—lasts only while
the danger is present; may pass by.
4. Limited to the values
that can be reached by the threat.
5. We know how to cope with fear:
fight or flight.
FIVE DIMENSIONS OF EXISTENTIAL ANXIETY
1. Free-floating 'terror'.
2. No intelligible cause or source;
we don't know why we are 'afraid';
'comes from' everywhere and nowhere.
3.Permanent—ever-renewed inner
state-of-being; does not pass away.
4. Pervades our whole being;
unlimited menace; touches everything.
5. Nothing we do will overcome anxiety;
psychological techniques are useless
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